Nabokov:If the book has great philosophical themes and it doesn't have good prose... then who fucking cares?
Bret Easton Ellis:Well, let's just say hypothetically ok? What if the book has good philosophical discourse?
[pause, all laugh]
Bret Easton Ellis:I know, I know.
[all in unison]
All:There are no novels with good philosophical discourse!
Dickens:A good philosophy consists of a book with a little hard cover, which will satisfy all storyline demands without being too plot driven about things, and will essentially will keep its dumb fucking themes unexplored.
Nabokov:The only novels with good philosophies which are smart or maybe funny or halfway intelligent or insightful, though god knows what the fuck that means, are badly written books.
Dickens:Absolutely.
Nabokov:And this is because they have to make up for how fucking awful their prose is.
>>8108847
Except Nabokov loved Ulysses. What is Ulysses but a bunch of references? Joyce personally leaked two cheat sheets explaining the structure and themes of Ulysses to his friends.
It's the ur-text of Literature of Ideas.
Nabokov also hates Freud but loves Kafka, who is probably the most Freudian writer of the 20th century.
>>8109039
Cheat sheet you say?
>>8109039
But references =/= philosophical themes, dolt. Fite me irl, I'll fuck you up.
>>8110958
Can't you just fuck me instead?
>>8108847
Ohh I just got the reference here. The movie version of American Psycho, featuring Christian Bale. Well done, OP. A fine post and worthy addition to the renowned chinese cartoon message board, Fourchan.
>>8109039
>The pity is, the public will demand and find a moral in my book — or worse, they may take it in some more serious way, and on the honor of a gentleman, there is not one single serious line in it. - james joyce on ulysses
>>8108847
For Nabokov the "philosophical themes" have to be worked into the aesthetic, the artistry, the narrative. He was opposed only to dry "novels of ideas", whether speculative or diagnostic, social commentary, novels espousing a specific philosophy. The Stranger, Sartre, Ayn Rand, Orwell etc
It is not possible to write a good book void of "philosophical themes" that isn't what he meant.
Dr. William Gass is against the reading of literature as philosophy, stating it is for people without the intelligence and discipline for tsystematic thought.
>>8111445
But I'm pretty sure Nabby was fan of The Metamorphosis. Doesn't Kafka express a certain philosophy?
>>8109039
Ulysses has zero philosophical content, pleb.
>>8111278
>
were u at shawty
Judging from Nabokov's stance there, Steinbeck and Hemingway tear him a new asshole in the boxing ring, prime for prime.
