The first two come via MobyLives, who posted these clips of Vladimir Nabokov discussing Lolita to show how bad TV sucks these days. One might also appreciate this window into a time when a new medium was trying to explore how to bank off strong elements (authors) of a previously dominant medium (books). As we can see, eventually tv producers said "Screw it!" and just turned to bestselling self-help writers, on the whole.
Fun stuff! I love me some Nabokov.
Next we have the rarely seen (anymore) Fran Lebowitz talking about the mass misreading of Jane Austen, which leads her to complain (quite rightfully) about how we teach reading and what we expect from books. (To paraphrase her, they should be "tours," not "mirrors.") For those who don't know, Lebowitz was Sedaris before Sedaris, but smarter, with an edge. I was pleased to see her here, mouthing off.
Fran Lebowitz: Reflections on Austen from The Morgan Library & Museum on Vimeo.
[Thanks to Editorial Ass for the link - see her blog for commentary, as well.]
Enjoy!
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