INTERVIEWER Do you think literary criticism is at all purposeful? Either in general, or specifically about your own books? Is it ever instructive? NABOKOV The purpose of a critique is to say something about a book the critic has or has not read. Criticism can be instructive in the sense that it gives readers, including the author of the book, some information about the critics intelligence, or honesty, or both. INTERVIEWER And the function of the editor? Has one ever had literary advice to offer? NABOKOV By “editor” I suppose you mean proofreader. Among these I have known limpid creatures of limitless tact and tenderness who would discuss with me a semicolon as if it were a point of honor—which, indeed, a point of art often is. But I have also come across a few pompous avuncular brutes who would attempt to “make suggestions” which I countered with a thunderous “stet!”
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:07:18 +0000
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