My reaction varies to reading Nabokov's essay, "Good Readers and Good Writers". My first immediate reaction to reading this essay was excitement that the essay is relatively short. After reading the first sentence of the first paragraph however, my excitement withered to a sort of dread when I read that Nabokov was going to go into "lingering detail" (Nabokov, page 1, paragraph 3). To me, these words meant I was about to read a boring and wordy essay. After reading the entire essay though, I find my initial reaction lacked followed through. I found the essay to be very informative and full of examples one can relate to to help a willing reader and a potentially good writer, such as me, better their understanding of literature. One of my favorite examples Nabokov used was where he took the story of "the boy who cried wolf" and used it to show how the "the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall story there is a shimmering go-between". He then explains that the go-between or prism is an art of literature (Nabokov, page 3, paragraph 5). My overall reaction to the essay "Good Readers and Good Writers" is a logical one. It is a logical reaction because the information I received from it is logical and educating rather than a personal or emotional.
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, and Fredson Bowers. Lectures on Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Print.
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