http://www.accessinterviews.com/subject/vladimir-nabokov/482 en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 17:41:47 +0100 Access Interviews http://www.accessinterviews.com/interviews/direct/2604 http://www.accessinterviews.com/interviews/detail/2604 Review. Vladimir Nabokov talks to James Mossman about his view of other writers and the difference between genius and talent, how he reacts to criticism or speculation about his private life and the abrupt loss of childhood and his view of contemporary Russia.

]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 17:41:47 +0100 http://www.accessinterviews.com/interviews/direct/135 http://www.accessinterviews.com/interviews/detail/135 The Paris Review archive interview - Summer /Fall 1967. INTERVIEWER: "What is most characteristic of poshlust in contemporary writing? Are there temptations for you in the sin of poshlust? Have you ever fallen?". NABOKOV: “Poshlust,” or in a better transliteration poshlost, has many nuances, and evidently I have not described them clearly enough in my little book on Gogol, if you think one can ask anybody if he is tempted by poshlost. Corny trash, vulgar clichés, Philistinism in all its phases, imitations of imitations, bogus profundities, crude, moronic, and dishonest pseudoliterature—these are obvious examples. Now, if we want to pin down poshlost in contemporary writing, we must look for it in Freudian symbolism, moth-eaten mythologies, social comment, humanistic messages, political allegories, overconcern with class or race, and the journalistic generalities we all know. Poshlost speaks in such concepts as “America is no better than Russia” or “We all share in Germany’s guilt.” ....

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