Posted
12:25 PM
by Gene
Today appear two links on ArtsJournal.com re the often tenuous relations between "artists" and morals. First is the "revelation" that
Nabokov may have cribbed Lolita from a novella by a German news hack who went on to be a drum-banger for Hitler. Leaving Hitler aside this would seem risible on the face of it: why plagiarize a novel about sex? But I guess some writers need the inspiration. The second is
a Times piece on the endless debate over how Commie Shostakovich was. My notion: you do not get to write symphonies in a police state without a certain manner of squirm-making kowtowing, and with his Walter Mitty looks I don't think Shosty was Clark Kent.