Vladimir Nabokov reading at 92nd Street Y (March 1964)
I went looking for audio of Monday night’s 92Y Nabokov event and instead came across this from 1964. A delight for me. Pure delight.
Nabokov himself is reading from one of my favorite books ever, Pale Fire. The reading includes the narrator’s jaunty defense of his decision to install two ping-pong tables in his basement. And this:
His laconic suggestion that I “try the pork” amused me. I am a strict vegetarian, and I like to cook my own meals. Consuming something that had been handled by a fellow creature was, I explained to the rubicund convives, as repulsive to me as eating any creature, and that would include — lowering my voice — the pulpous pony-tailed girl student who served us and licked her pencil.
It’s such effective writing. Outside of a Radiohead song, you can’t necessarily count on a narrator to come right out and say, “I’m a creep. I’m a weirdo.” No, as Nabokov shows us, the teetering madman is more apt to say, “My free and simple demeanor set everybody at ease.”
Nabokov’s reading voice is somehow less grand than I imagined. But I don’t care. It’s his voice. As I do my dishes and listen, smile after smile spreads across my face.
