Juan Martinez Juan Martinez

SIGHTING: Nabokov's Color Field

Carrie Frye contrasts Nabokov's color field to Muriel Spark's:
Through this "scattering of nutshells" (Lane's phrase) you get a portrait of Nabokov as a writer. I was reminded of it by Maud's similar collage of first sentences from nine Muriel Spark novels. Interesting to compare the two. For example, Nabokov's color field: azure shading into quivering blue, vivid greens and a spot of red. The only colors in the Spark selection: "almost white" and the "clear crystal" you come to after the "murk & smog" -- a fittingly chilly palette for a writer who writes as cleanly and sparely as Spark does.
The rest here. (Via Maud Newton)
Read More