I don't get it. It was one of the best books I ever read

>>9204845
Nabokov writes nice things, there isn't anything to "get". He's a writer who wants to make you feel something, not think something.

What do you mean by that?

>>9204919
Well said. VN was all about creating a purely aesthetic experience. He considered discussions of things like plot to be beneath him.

>>9204924
plot is aesthetic though. he's a pleb.

Sisters have tongue fun in wonderful prose. Whatcha want

>>9205121
>>9204920
the whole thing is full of nabokov's patented unreliable narrator games, it's all set against a queer alternate history backdrop and there's some heavy metaphysical philosophizing right before a really ambiguous ending

>>9204845
I have the same "issue" with Salinger. I enjoy his books but I can't make anything out of them other than what was explicitly said in the book

http://www.waggish.org/2011/kinbote-triumphant-in-hell-the-riddle-of-nabokovs-ada/

an interesting read that better poses some of my questions (though i feel this guy is looking for too concrete of answers, and his dislike for the characters i can't quite relate to)

>>9204924
Nabokov discusses plot at huge depth in his lectures.

He doesn't like discussing general themes and allegorie and trying to fit them into a work.

>>9205287
I always thought it was weird that he liked The Metamorphosis so much for that reason. It is hard to argue that The Metamorphosis is without allegory.

>>9205685
For Nabokov, the aesthetic of the work, what makes it art, is more important than anything else.

It's easier to understand when you learn his view of art; he believes art is of no practical use. It is elicit beauty and pity.

>>9205777
it is to elicit*

>>9205777
That is pretty interesting. Like decadence with a focus on higher emotions.

>>9205826
I recommend reading the beginning of his lecture on Madame Bovary.