The ideas expressed in paragraph 12 and 13 are rather interesting to me. The reason for this is because what he says on what kind of imagination you should use while reading is something most people would find to be almost opposite of what they believed.
He says that the imagination and the emotions you feel while reading should not be on a personal level. He says, “So what is the authentic instrument to be used by the reader? It is impersonal imagination and artistic delight.” (Nabokov par 12) He goes into describing that most people treasure a book because it reminds them of a place they once knew or something that happened to them. Or it might evoke a place they remember from their past. He says that the worst thing one person can do is identify himself with a character in the book. This is practically what everyone does when reading a book and Nabokov says this is wrong.
At first this confused me, made me think, “well…that’s not how I would say that..” but then once I thought about it, it made perfect sense. In the next paragraph he says, “What should be established, I think, is an artistic harmonious balance between the reader’s mind and the author’s mind.” (Nabokov par. 13) He means you need to try and focus not only on what you yourself are imagining the story to be, but what the author wanted you to imagine the story to be. He’s saying you need to try and see what the author wanted you to see. To appreciate what the author wanted his readers to think when reading their story. You should treasure the story because it’s a good story, not because you like the characters or the setting or the time period.
Nabokov, Vladimir. “Good Readers and Good Writers”. Lectures on Literatures. 1948. Lecture. PDF file.
No comments:
Post a Comment