Posted on 11/02/2016 10:32:24 AM PDT by Borges
In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the publication of Vladimir Nabokov’s first English-language novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg answered a few questions about her former professor.
Before championing women’s rights and becoming the most popular Supreme Court Justice of her time, and even before she went to Harvard Law School to begin her storied law career, Ruth Bader Ginsburg studied a diverse range of subjects at her undergraduate alma mater, Cornell University. Among them was a class on European literature taught by none other than Vladimir Nabokov.
“He was magnetically engaging,” she told Culture Trip. “He stood alone, not comparable to any other lecturer.”
Apparently his tutelage has given Ginsburg a lifelong love for the humanities and language. Despite turning 83 this year, Ginsburg is set to make her operatic debut as the non-singing Duchess of Crakenthorp in Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment. The performance, set to take place at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, will be one-night only (Nov. 12). She has previously lectured on law in opera, which coincidentally was the only musical subject Nabokov lectured on. His son Dmitri was a professional opera singer.
When asked how Nabokov’s writing influenced her legal writing, she replied: “I seek the right word and word order. And I use the “read aloud” test to check whether I have succeeded.” She also cited legendary justice Louis D. Brandeis as the legal writer she most admired.
“There are constraints,” she continued, when asked about how legal writing differs from other written work. “For example, an appellate judge can’t look outside the record of the case as it played out in the the first and second instances. And we must save the reader from uncertainty about what the court ruled and why. No double entendres or mysteries.”
And her favorite Nabokov novel? “Lolita.”
Popular?
Good one. Hahaha!
There is a reason “Lolita” is synonymous with pedophilia.
In the same way that Macbeth and ‘Crime and Punishment’ are synonymous with murder?
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staffroom
The accusations fly
It’s no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabakov
That was just too easy.
I award you no points!
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