From Strong Opinions, Interview: 6
“Strong Opinions” is a collection of interviews with Nabokov. I have blogged before about rediscovering my love of Nabokov in recent years, following falling a little out of love. I suspect Strong Opinions may have contributed to the falling out of love.
Evidently Freud was a bigger deal culturally in the 1960s and many of the interviewers seem to be more than a little incredulous that Nabokov dares to mock and deride his input. Therefore this features quite a bit in these interviews. I recall a book called “Freud and Nobokov” (or was it “Nabokov and Freud” ) – ah here, it is:
which essentially argued that Nabokov’s derision masked some interesting parallels in thought.
My own take is that Nabokov’s suspicion of Freud-as-guru and indeed Freud-as-literary-critic is justified; the more narrowly focused approach of Freud the clinician is perhaps a little missed in his critique.
Séamus Sweeney 