Risking the wrath of Poftak

By Jim Stergios
July 6th, 2008

There are times when the esteemed director of research at Pioneer, Mr. Steven Poftak, takes exception to the wayward flavor of my Sunday posts. Musings on the state of our culture over Sunday brunch, or mocking of brothers who are afraid to race…

It is Sunday. It is a long, relaxing weekend of catching up on the piles of papers in front of my fireplace. There is a sense of forced relaxation, given the Arnolds Mills road race on the Fourth, held in my hometown of Cumberland, Rhode Island. Legs don’t hurt exactly, but it felt good yesterday to lie around and read. On these overcast lazy days, one almost takes pride in reading the first thing at hand. The laziness lends itself to random reading and thoughts. Lucky for me, in the pile was last week’s NY Times Book Review. Steve Coates had a great article thrashing Nine Khrushcheva’s book on Vladimir Nabakov and politics.

Hard to say you understand or love a great mind like Vladi’s. I claim nothing in common with him but a randy sense of humor and a love of insects and little critters. (This picture of a katydid cannot compare to the specimen in my office.)

But for all you aspiring poets and writers of novels, stories and plays, I have two pieces of advice:
(1) Stop reading policy blogs and stop thinking primarily about politics; and
(2) Have this Nabakov quote engraved in your left or right temple (whichever way you swing):

A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me. (Cited by Coates.)

As Coates, co-author of “Nabokov’s Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius,” notes:

Nabakov was in fact notoriously averse to groups or “movements” of any sort, whether political, artistic or social.

Amen.