Quote:
Originally Posted by Subfallen
Some outtakes from Wiki...
I can see why you might not prefer Nabokov, but worst mainstream novel you've read...really?
I don't really want this thread to be a debate thread, or for that matter, I don't want to debate art at all, but I will respond briefly.
I've done some searching on Nabokov, and I agree he's very popular with most who have read him, including Lolita - but not universal.
My problem with Lolita is I was so respulsed by the content I frankly couldn't tell you much about his style, literary technique, etc. I have read some excerpts from some of this other works and can see he had a great deal of talent with words - very, very impressive, given Russian is his main language - though not quite as impressive as Conrad, since Nabokov was raised in a multi-lingual family(as I recall) - still, not chopped liver.
I recently read 3 novels by Waugh, generally considered his best 3 (Scoop, Handful of Dust, and Brideshead). I saw something of his talent in the first two but didn't much care for the stories, for different reasons. The only reason I went on to read Brideshead is I've seen the BBC production with Jeremy Irons and consider it in the top 5 of all TV shows ever produced (having both Olivier and Gielgud in the series didn't hurt any - smiling right now thinking of Gielgud's performance). Anyway, I did read Brideshead and loved almost all of it. Interesting note, Waugh thought it was his best when he wrote it, then 5 years later when he re-read it said he was appalled. For that matter, after Tolstoy's conversion, he basically repudiated all his novels, and there are those who think he's the all time greatest. One other fact - I saw that Nabokov disliked Dostoevsky and loved Tolstoy, but there was a copy of Karamazov by Tolstoy's death bed. The point - there is much that is subjective about art appreciation, and one's tastes change for different reasons - there's just no right or wrong on this subject - at least above a certain level.
If Rembrandt had painted a picture of a large, steaming pile of human excrement, and had used his best technique, artiste's may well praise it, but I wouldn't want it hanging on my wall, and would probably miss the artistic value.