After completing reading the essay, "Good Readers and Good Writers" by Vladimir Nabokov, a few things caught my attention. The number one thing that captured my interest was towards the ending when Nabokov mentioned "the boy who cried wolf" story to prove his point about the art of literature. That was one thing I didn't expect to be in this type of essay. Up until this part of the essay I was unable to relate to some of the earlier examples Nabokov used. These included: Madam Bovary, the romance Bleak House, and Fanny Price in Mansfield Park (Nabokov, page 1, paragraph 5) all of which I have never read or heard of leaving me unable to identify myself with them. When I had lost all hope in using examples from the essay to relate to in my blogs, out of nowhere came a familiar story about a boy whose bad reputation ends up causing his death. Another part of the essay that aroused a reaction from me was where Nabokov explains that "every great writer is a great deceiver, but so is that arch-cheat Nature" (Nabokov, page 3, paragraph 6). I enjoyed the comparison of the way a butterfly's coloring deceives its predator, the way a great writer deceives its reader. These enjoyable parts of the essay made it more bearable to read.
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, and Fredson Bowers. Lectures on Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Print.
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