do we care about 'the original of laura'?

chip kidd didn't seem to, much.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-OqVzvbASyU/SjzaJpcxv9I/AAAAAAAAAGI/0eXGr7AJFeo/s320/Original+of+Laura.jpg

Ha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNVga-NM_0

wait so apparently it actually just reproduces the index cards? and they're detachable? because now i actually want this.

ok they don't look detachable

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fLWHLVgSL._SS400_.jpg

ok i take back what i said about chip kidd

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31128VkO7lL._SS400_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Ow0pl816L._SS400_.jpg

love nakokov, not going to read this

nabokov yeah

It is pretty much only the index cards that intrigue me - all the reviews I've seen have said that it is very much an unfinished work, and doesn't look like it would have evolved into a masterwork even when finished.

matcham's masterstroke

I think the respectful thing to do wd be not to read it. Maybe if you had a PhD to write, but I don't think the thing shd have been published at all really.

I think someone who's read his entire oeuvre might as well, but I mean, if you haven't, why not just read one of the books he finished? It seems silly to consider this his lost masterpiece just cause he happened to die while writing it.

I think someone who's read his entire oeuvre might as well, but I mean, if you haven't, why not just read one of the books he finished?

otm (and it's a pretty big frickin' oeuvre)

Yup. I've got plenty I'd like to read for the first time and plenty I'd like to reread. But I'll probably leaf through this one in the bookstore.

i've read most of them, i think i'm just missing a couple of his really early ones

ok they don't look detachable

In the US version they're perforated for removal. Don't think this is the case with the UK version.

Am tempted to buy as an object, but not that fussed about reading the actual book.

looks really cool, maybe ill buy as a "design object" but i dont really want to read it

what james said

haha

Leafed through this the other day. Was a little surprised that Nabokov wrote English with Russian handwriting, if that makes any sense.

I think the respectful thing to do wd be not to read it. Maybe if you had a PhD to write, but I don't think the thing shd have been published at all really.

― eman moomar (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, November 18, 2009 6:16 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark

you could say the same of almost all of kafka. agree that the instructions to destroy it should have been followed, although i'm not sure how big a deal it is that they weren't. but since it still exists, i'm glad that now anyone who wants to can read it: i can't stand the priest-class nonsense of special access for academics.

^Great that it was extracted from the corpse-pallid hands of the academic priests (um). Still don't want to read it.

so did any of y'all nabokov "fans" descend from your nonsensical high horses to read this?

you know he tried to burn lolita, right?

it was interesting, obviously any huge nabokov fan/completist should read it. and yes, the cards are detachable. they don't look it at first. i didn't know until i read it on the back. dmitri's intro is a must even and especially if you don't want to read the "book."

i was wondering the other day how many of us have this sitting on our shelves unread. in the name of some kind of vague purity i'm sure i'll read it when i've read everything else he's done, but that'll be a while like. the detachable cards are such a jip, seems like an act of disgusting savagery to desecrate the book like that, but it's still a nice idea. i'll have to buy a second copy to also not read.

you don't HAVE to take them out

i agree with roxy, all the self-righteous kvetching about this book was very tiresome -- i won't be reading it till i've gotten to the rest of his novels but i'm looking forward to having one extra nabokov to read.

roxy but is it actually any good

it's not a finished novel and it is in fragments, so it would be ridiculous to say "this is a good novel." it is a great, enjoyable insight into a great novelist's process.

Review I read most recently which made me want to read it basically said it's nothing like a novel, but has lots of glorious Nabokovian sentences. Read it like a prose poem.

otm