tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post6059160516540033086..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Quietude and calm settled on the island - Ivan Bunin's "Death on Capri"Amateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-6642112669152528862017-05-14T09:26:32.388-05:002017-05-14T09:26:32.388-05:00Nabokov's prose was in some sense in direct co...<i>Nabokov's prose was in some sense in direct competition with Bunin's prose, both in style and subject, and the younger man was a fierce competitor.</i><br /><br />Just what I was going to say! I'm not a great fan of Bloom, but this is a pretty clear case of anxiety of influence.Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-29090033709918428322017-05-14T09:25:12.242-05:002017-05-14T09:25:12.242-05:00Ah, "some critics" were not just Soviet ...Ah, "some critics" were not just Soviet stooges, but the premier Soviet stooge! <br /><br />The Nobel nomination process is a strange one, but Gorky was <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=3557" rel="nofollow">nominated in 5 years</a> from 1918 to 1933, and Bounine <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=1449" rel="nofollow">in 5 years from 1923 to 1933</a>. He got lots of nominations from 1931 on, whatever that means.<br /><br />The most interesting example is in 1923, when Romain Rolland nominated both Gorky and Bunin.<br /><br />Nabokov's prose was in some sense in direct competition with Bunin's prose, both in style and subject, and the younger man was a fierce competitor.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-36944604664251925062017-05-14T01:47:23.567-05:002017-05-14T01:47:23.567-05:00I believe Gorky had been in the running for the pr...I believe Gorky had been in the running for the prize for quite some time, while Bunin had only been nominated for the first time in 1930. Stalin was not pleased when the first Russian laureate was an anti-Communist émigré.<br /><br />I'd love to read Bunin's poetry. I know Nabokov thought very highly of it, while taking a dim view of the prose.Mimic Hootingshttp://mimichootings.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-10002333948848009142017-05-12T08:16:08.051-05:002017-05-12T08:16:08.051-05:00And this would be Gorky in 1933! That would have ...And this would be Gorky in 1933! That would have been an ugly choice.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51295918458141784092017-05-12T07:37:35.941-05:002017-05-12T07:37:35.941-05:00Bunin is a wonderful writer, and a wonderful poet ...Bunin is a wonderful writer, and a wonderful poet (which has largely been forgotten). I can't understand why he's so little appreciated and remembered, especially considering the Nobel.<br /><br /><i>I cannot understand why Bunin was ever considered one of the jokey, undeserving Nobel laureates, except that some critics at the time thought it should have gone to Gorky.</i><br /><br />Good lord, is that true? This is the first I've heard of it. If so, "some critics" were clearly Soviet stooges, because as a writer Gorky was not fit to tie Bunin's shoelaces (though as a Soviet stooge he was a great help to writers who needed food and shelter in the hard years).Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-47590495542736798622017-05-11T20:55:31.132-05:002017-05-11T20:55:31.132-05:00Hettlinger's Collected Stories has about half ...Hettlinger's <i>Collected Stories</i> has about half of <i>Dark Avenues</i>. Maybe a little less. There is a lot of overlap with the Raduga collections, too, but only two of the four stories in the old Hogarth Press book.<br /><br />Or so I think. Some of this is obscure to me. My one knock on Hettlinger is that he scrambles the chronology and doesn't say where anything was published.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-81445768024300723842017-05-11T15:49:30.944-05:002017-05-11T15:49:30.944-05:00I remember disliking Bunin for a time after readin...I remember disliking Bunin for a time after reading The Gentlemen etc and Other Stories. Just the kind of short stories I dislike, dull, realistic and full of abstruse and subtle symbolism, just like Joyce and all modern short story writers. But some other collections I read were much better, Light Breathing/Apple Fragrance, published I think by Raduga, and of course the sex obsessed Dark Avenues.obookihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03885121629202810216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-75464168680453472802017-05-11T11:04:07.220-05:002017-05-11T11:04:07.220-05:00I suppose Bunin's Nobel had a super-political ...I suppose Bunin's Nobel had a super-political cast to it, or was at least easy to perceive as political.<br /><br />I have some complaints - let's say puzzles - about Bunin that I will write about today, but I would be happy to read more by him.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84903647806890831572017-05-11T09:22:28.530-05:002017-05-11T09:22:28.530-05:00It's a fine story. That Hettlinger book is a g...It's a fine story. That Hettlinger book is a gem. I cannot understand why Bunin was ever considered one of the jokey, undeserving Nobel laureates, except that some critics at the time thought it should have gone to Gorky. I haven't read Gorky, but I've read enough Bunin to conclude that he was an excellent writer.Mimic Hootingshttp://mimichootings.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com