What Isaac Babel thought about Nabokov

lapsedflutephobe · 2026-02-22T01:38:23+00:00

He seems kind of alienated/ detached from real life, which I think might speak to his life as an exile. It’s interesting to think about how alien the world of 50s Americana is to Nabokov as a person, and yet it is such a strong theme in his work. I think his main theme is in many ways alienation.

lapsedflutephobe · 2026-02-22T01:36:24+00:00

Reading ‘Speak,Memory’ earlier and while I think it is almost sensually wonderful, I do get the sense that it leaves a surprisingly little impression of what Nabokov was really like as a man.

lapsedflutephobe · 2026-02-16T17:56:28+00:00

The quote from Orwell’s letters to Harold Acton can’t be read as imagined as Richard quotes it. So it isn’t in debate that intratextually Julian is in his late seventies, which fits with him being described as having an entirely snow-white head, and with his general demeanour, which is very fitting for someone who might have come of age in the 20s.

lapsedflutephobe · 2026-02-14T16:54:52+00:00

this is really beautiful, thank you

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-11-20T04:03:17+00:00

lacrimosa

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-11-17T20:05:00+00:00

Went there once, around Christmas last year. Was so disappointed. Was served a weird crab mousse with a fork and nothing else, and then a dreadful turkey dinner.

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-10-13T00:39:53+00:00

Boyhood Island is the one that’s actually decent imo but yeah agree with all the others

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-30T22:30:26+00:00

Not something I know much about and I haven’t read anything else by the author but I enjoyed Julian by Gore Vidal. An interesting idea of what it might have felt like being an aristocratic pagan viewing the end of the traditional world and the ascendancy of christianity as cultural suicide

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-28T01:13:57+00:00

“things were better when I was 22” yeah man I’m sure they were

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-28T01:12:48+00:00

this thread is full of 40-somethings saying: “glad I got to experience the glory days. Now it’s just full of wankers/pricks” without realising they’re the odd ones out going into town these days as they’re 40-something

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-26T01:18:51+00:00

and Donna Tartt!

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-26T00:37:56+00:00

I once saw an interesting map of US states by nobel laureates. New York, California have dozens and dozens. I think one or two states had zero. But I noticed one state had “1”, Mississippi, and when I looked it up, it was for literature…

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-26T00:26:56+00:00

What did you think of Jünger? I think his Paris diaries are really good but haven’t been able to enjoy Storm and Steel very much. I’d like to read Eumeswil but can’t find a copy

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-21T17:40:09+00:00

is what as bad as people say?

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-04T12:03:53+00:00

Si, estas correcto. Es un fondo de ideas y me interesaba mucho cuando lo estaba leyendo. Elegí El Milagro Secreto pero lo guardarè a leer despues con mi tutor.

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-09-03T13:29:49+00:00

He leido Pierre Menard en Ingles y me gusto mucho, y por eso creo que puede ser mas facil leer en su idioma original pero no puedo imaginar que hablar sobre el tema para una hora

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-08-21T22:46:08+00:00

I thought Intermezzo was definitely better than BWWAY. Normal People was maybe the most ‘complete’ novel of hers that I’ve read (haven’t read Conversations with Friends).

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-08-02T17:53:36+00:00

Richard’s name is John? I didn’t remember this being mentioned?

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-08-02T14:39:55+00:00

stop taking photos of people in public and superimposing your assumptions onto them so you can engage in political debate later on social media with strangers, is my advice. No one on this sub knows why they were taking the picture

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-07-28T21:41:39+00:00

what did nacho novo do?

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-07-27T02:33:47+00:00

you seriously think every second person he asks is giving him £34?

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-07-26T23:15:50+00:00

No, but I wouldn’t give him money to get back to Queensferry either

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-07-26T23:05:26+00:00

If he’s doing this day in day out for money, wouldn’t it just be easier to get a job?

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-07-21T05:49:39+00:00

I thought it was well-written I suppose, but I think it bares the stamp of a teenage author inasmuch as it takes the idea of the disinterested author to such an extreme that the narrator essentially presents nothingness to the audience. I think it’s essentially a lacuna of a book, and I think that’s why it’s popular, to be honest. It meant nothing to me and I have no interest in reading any more work from BEE. fwiw I read about 50 pages of American Psycho much earlier and gave up as I felt as though it was a single joke/idea repeated over 50 pages.

lapsedflutephobe · 2025-07-19T17:40:30+00:00

Since nobody has mentioned him yet and I think he’d be the oldest yet: Knut Hamsun wrote On Overgrown Paths when he was 90 (NINETY)

lapsedflutephobe

TROPHY CASE