WHAT?!

If you haven't been to Emily's blog and clicked on the interview link, you must! I'm giving it to you again, the link to Nabokov's interviews in ENGLISH! If you scroll to the bottom of the page you will find some English words in a list among all the Russian and those are the interviews!! go there and check it out!

I had wondered why Nabokov included chess problems in his writing and liked them in general. Why chess!? Abracadabra , I found my answer while looking through the interviews! Nabokov's interview. (15) Novel [1970] -"Why are you including the chess problems with the poems? Because problems are the poetry of chess. They demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worth while art: originality, invention, harmony, conciseness, complexity, and splendid insincerity." Now that's a beautiful answer. These interviews seem like a good place to discover more about the artist/author we are studying.

Also! Check out this site Dr. Sexson unearthed: The Nabokov Code, A first encounter with Laura, his last, unfinished work, by Ron Rosenbaum . Talking about an experience with the "long-locked-away Holy Grail of higher lit," The Original of Laura. You can read the book, but after signing a paper, you can't disclose anything about it! It does create an aura of "something thrillingly forbidden" surrounding the book. But it is forbidden isn't it? Nabokov wanted it destroyed, but it lives and is going to be published. When we read The Original of Laura we will all be reading a forbidden book.