One of my all-time favorites. I loved it so much that I convinced my partner to name our band after the astronomer Starover Blue.
"
The great Starover Blue reviewed the role
Planets had played as landfalls of the soul.
"
Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
91–100 of 166 posts
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#92Pale Fire is, without a doubt, my favorite thing Nabakov ever wrote. I've been through it at least 5 times but I don't feel as if I've ever fully read it cover-to-cover like other novels. It's just a rough draft of an epic poem (of specious quality) and a bunch of publisher's notes, but it's always intriguing and surprisingly funny.
It is sandwiched between Pnin and Speak, Memory
But I really love Invitation to a Beheading. he wrote in three languages!
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#93Pale Fire has been my favorite book for a long, long time, ever since I read it as part of a course in university. After all these years I haven't read a better, more intricately-constructed book. It was suggested to me to read the intro first, then skip the poem and read the endnotes start to finish, then to go back and read the poem. The index is part of the fiction and must also be read. I think the keys to really…
none of those questions have definitive answers
I will limit my criticism to saying that this is a trope adopted very often these days and it is not one to which my personality is suited. I like mysteries but I do not like treadmills, running without arriving.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#94Tried it, couldn't get into it. And this was when I was unemployed and living with my now wife. So, I had time galore.
It seems like a book you have to read cover to cover in one sitting to jam it all in your head.
Now, from what I recall I did chuckle a couple times. But other than that it was a big shrug-fest to me. Just couldn't muster a care.
I never thought I'd admit to such base and earthen attitude, nay vulgar. But there we are.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#95When people recommend Russian literature I'm always curious what they think about the other great Russian literary works. Because I find unnecessary complexity unbearable. I have no desire to read literature with 100+ named characters, unreliable narrators and Escher-like chronology. For some people narrative complexity is a draw but if I can't put a book down and come back to it two weeks later without having to sta…
You might try some of the shorter ones. e.g. from the 19th century: Gogol's short stories, Dostoevsky's "The Double", Turgenev's "Fathers and Children". They weren't all baggy monsters!
plus a billion for Turgenev. Bazarov is the original hipster
also Pushkin's Queen of Spades
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#96I was excited to read Pale Fire after reading what I consider to be one of the finest novels ever written, Lolita. The protagonist is a monster, but the writing is so eloquent - and not even in the author's original tongue! Pale Fire was simply boring to me. I am not extremely literary, so a lot of it probably went over my head, but I was rather disappointed it didn't shine like his 1955 masterpiece.
Same.
I also found myself thinking “wait he can’t be serious about this poetry it’s not good”. And upon googling found that readers are split many many people think the poetry is seriously good.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#97I have not yet read Pale Fire, but I loved Lolita and hope to read it soon. Nabokov's writing is so rich, the writing itself (aside from the story!) is worth lingering over and savoring. I've only found a few other writers with a similar quality - Proust, Milton, perhaps Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison. Does anyone know of authors with a similar property? I'm not even sure what to call it, so it's difficult to sear…
You can hang out in /r/proseporn to get samples.
I’d recommend “All the kings men” by Robert Penn Warren. It sounds like a political book but it’s not. It’s more like The Great Gatsby in that the structure is as much about the narrator. Also the writing lapses into “overly poetic” like McCarthy.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#98When people recommend Russian literature I'm always curious what they think about the other great Russian literary works. Because I find unnecessary complexity unbearable. I have no desire to read literature with 100+ named characters, unreliable narrators and Escher-like chronology. For some people narrative complexity is a draw but if I can't put a book down and come back to it two weeks later without having to sta…
> I have no desire to read literature with 100+ named characters Personal share ... I had the same hesitance about getting into Tolstoy. I read The Death Of Ivan Ilyich -- it's short and has few characters. Absolutely loved it. That sealed the deal so I'm working through Anna Karenina now. I'm reading the Rosamund Bartlett translation and it's just superb so I don't really care about the torrent of names and characte…
+1 for The Death of Ivan Ilyich, it's a marvelous example of an author depicting something you (probably) haven't experienced and nonetheless convincing you that's what it's really like.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#99[dead]
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#100Pale Fire has been my favorite book for a long, long time, ever since I read it as part of a course in university. After all these years I haven't read a better, more intricately-constructed book. It was suggested to me to read the intro first, then skip the poem and read the endnotes start to finish, then to go back and read the poem. The index is part of the fiction and must also be read. I think the keys to really…
none of those questions have definitive answers I will limit my criticism to saying that this is a trope adopted very often these days and it is not one to which my personality is suited. I like mysteries but I do not like treadmills, running without arriving.
What do you mean by “these days?” Pale Fire was written in 1962.