“I Leave the Field of Ideas to Doctor Schweitzer and Doctor Zhivago”
"Lolita", ABC, Books, Close-up!, Lionel Trilling, Television, Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
From the history of American television:
In the 1950’s ABC television Close-up! documentary series, John Daly interviews Vladimir Nabokov and Lionel Trilling, pt. 1 — 5:41 video — pt. 2 5:51 video
Nabokov lispingly delivers dismissive apothegms in an effete and frivolous style inevitably reminding one of Anthony Blanche, while Trilling is earnest, grave, serious, and sometimes just a bit obsequious.
Great lines:
“I don’t want to touch hearts, and I don’t even want to affect minds very much. What I want to produce is really that little sob in the spine of the artist reader. I leave the field of ideas to Doctor Schweitzer and Doctor Zhivago.”
“It was fun to breed her in my laboratory,” says Vladimir Nabokov of Lolita.
Hat tip to Cynical-C via David Ross.
