One evening at a remote provincial college through which I happened to be jogging on a protracted lecture tour, I suggested a little quiz - ten definitions of a reader, and from these ten the students had to choose four definitions that would combine to make a good reader. I have mislaid the list, but as far as I remember the definitions went something like this.
Select four answers to the question what should a reader be to be a good reader.
1. The reader should belong to a book club.
2. The reader should identify himself or herself with the hero or heroine.
3. The reader should concentrate on the social-economic angle.
4. The reader should prefer a story with action and dialogue to one with none.
5. The reader should have seen the book in a movie.
6. The reader should be a budding author.
7. The reader should have imagination.
8. The reader should have memory.
9. The reader should have a dictionary.
10. The reader should have some artistic sense.
Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature, 1982.
Provate a rispondere. Domani pubblico la risposta esatta (secondo Nabokov), a meno che non abbiate il libro in questione. In tal caso la risposta è a pagina 3.
Fra l’altro, dopo tanti tira e molla il figlio Dimitri ha deciso di pubblicare il manoscritto, The Original of Laura.
Postato da IM:
scelgo la 7. poi ci aggiungo la 8 -9 - 10.
A parte “Lolita”, letto casualmente (!) da adolescente e solo grazie a Kubrick, Nabokov è uno dei tanti che mi manca.
Tuttavia, avessi voluto perdermi anch’io in un decalogo avrei scritto “The reader should only enjoy the reading”, forse perché non ho mai provato il “gusto” della lettura per la lettura, e la narrativa, in genere, mi annoia.