Doug Johnson said:
I found this comment in a review of Lesbian pulp fiction. I thought you guys might find it interesting:
"I've often thought that Nabokov must have stolen the cross-country car trip in Lolita (1958) from Highsmith's novel: Therese and Carol, budding sexual outlaws, travel across the same kitschy, motel-studded, American highway landscape later traversed by Humbert and Lolita. And as in Lolita, the sexual tension grows—almost unbearably—with each night the pair spend in cheap hostels or tourist cabins."
http://www.slate.com/id/2142254/
Doug,
Interesting but not so surprising any more. Nabokov has been accused of stealing other things, including Lolita herself and the entire Lolita plot, and one tends to be shocked the first time one hears such a thing, but then the thrill wears off. Recently there is also discussion of his borrowing ideas from Petrarch for the opening lines and scene of
Pale Fire.
I'm inclined more to believe that one is seeing the fact that there are only a certain number of set pieces to organize a story around, and one of them is a road trip. Think of
Don Quixote for example, but I don't see any suggestion that Highsmith stole her idea from Cervantes. Going further there is the idea that there is only one story at the root of all stories, the story of how a person meets the challenges of life and copes with them, if I paraphrase that correctly.
Lately I've been reading Nabokov's version of a detective story --
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Guess what! The detective goes through the story interviewing one potential witness after another until he can finally solve the mystery. Sound familiar? Name any half dozen authors!
I might have preferred that
slate had shown enough respect for Nabokov to suggest that he stole his story from Cervantes rather than from Highsmith.
He definitely knew
Don Quixote from one end to the other.
But Nabokov didn't have to go that far anyway. His own novels, echoing scenes from his own younger life, have no shortage of cross-country trips, including
Sebastian Knight.
And BTW, can anyone spell
Thelma and Louise?
Or
Canterbury Tales?
But I'm very glad you keep us in mind. We find Nabokov fascinating and all is definitely grist for the mill here. And come to think of it, it has been a long while since
SFG has injected one of his mind-bending posts into the discussion. Are you perhaps thinkiing of joining us?. I am sure we all hope so and would find that very enjoyable. Come on over.
Among other reasons, Nabokov is fun to read and talk about, and we still have a long way to go.
Sincerely,
Peder
Oh well, this spring chicken needs her beauty sleep so I'm off to slumberland - besides, I've now got a sizeable bump on the old noggin from you know what
