User talk:Meghank

Er. How to speak regarding the meaning of the novel Lolita? I am trying to speak with the user JayHenry.

Hi Meghan, if you want to create a new area on somebody's page, there is a simple way to do it! If you look at the little tabs atop the screen you will see that one of them says "New section". If you click on this tab it will create a new section. By the way, you're not being annoying at all! I know how confusing discussion can be on Wikipedia when you start out. I left a comment about solipsism on the Lolita talk page, but if you want, let's just continue the discussion here. --JayHenry (talk) 02:47, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ohh, this is how to do it. JayHenry, I can't wait to read the newly released half-finished novel by Nabokov. Unfortunately, I am immutably ethical, and am still not sure how I feel about it. I wasn't sure how I felt about reading Kafka's unfinished work, either, when he had intended to burn it. But I can't stand to read what Brian Boyd has written about it (new fictional devices) and NOT read it. Have you read his work on Gogol (it's amazing, read it) and how do you think the discussion of gogol's burning of the second part of Dead Souls applies?

Hahaha, I love you too Meghan! Unfortunately I've never read Invitation to a Beheading in Russian. Actually -- oh gosh you'll be disappointed here -- I haven't read it in English either... Sorry! I actually tried once to start The Gift in Russian. But I think Nabokov likes strange word play in Russian as much as in English. For someone who's not a native speaker I found it very difficult to get through. Imagine all sorts of Russian words like "solipsize" that aren't even in Russian dictionaries. Imagine my confusion and frustration when they're of course not in my Russian-English dictionary either!

Unfinished novels are always strange to read--you dream that they would have been so much better if the author had live to finish them off (but not being a genius like the author, you can't fill in the missing pieces yourself). F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Love of the Last Tycoon is like that too. I think I'm like Nabokov's son, I can't decide whether or not to burn it! I suppose though, that he knows his father best. Also, imagine if Nabokov had been a brilliant scientist. Say he had only completed half of a scientific theorem. If his son saw the beginnings of a brilliant or important piece of science, don't you think he would even be obligated to share that with the rest of the world?

Of course, science and literature are very different, but it's another interesting way to think about the issue. --JayHenry (talk) 03:46, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Good work creating a new section on the talk page! I should probably warn you though that some people prefer to see talk pages only used to discuss the articles, and prefer that the pages not get used for just general discussion. (Imagine the discussion page for God, if everyone in the world started discussing the idea of God on Wikipedia. The concern is that there'd be no place left for editors to talk about the article!) Feel free to continue general discussions on your page here though. --JayHenry (talk) 03:52, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

JayHenry, please work through all the Nabokov novels, at least in English. I know you'll get through them eventually (I still haven't done it either).

I absolutely love The Last Tycoon, and I think it would have been less brilliant if it had been finished. Still, I'd like to see how other people feel about the publication of The Original of Laura, so I added a statement on that page. The Gift (in English) is actually next on my list of Nabokov novels to read. Is it just my translation, or was Laughter in the Dark sub-par? Incidentally, have you read Vladimir Alexandrov's article on Nabokov's Otherworld? Another must-read. One day I'll figure out how to add these references to the text of wikipedia articles. Meghank (talk) 04:10, 8 May 2008 (UTC) Meghank[reply]