Vladimir Nabokov writing Superman

[kjn]

One of the most famous novelists of the 20th century was Vladimir Nabokov, perhaps most well-known for Lolita.

But back in 1942, newly immigrated to the USA, he wrote a poem about Superman and his relation with Lois Lane—possibly because his nine-year-old son was a Superman fan. It was discovered recently and published by the Times Literary Supplement: “The Man of Tomorrow’s Lament”. The article and poem is paywalled, but here is an extract from it:

“But even if that blast of love should spare
her fragile frame – what children would she bear?
What monstrous babe, knocking the surgeon down,
would waddle out into the awestruck town?
When two years old he’d break the strongest chairs,
fall through the floor and terrorize the stairs;
at four, he’d dive into a well; at five,
explore a roaring furnace – and survive;
at eight, he’d ruin the longest railway line
by playing trains with real ones; and at nine,
release all my old enemies from jail,
and then I’d try to break his head – and fail.”

[manwhohaseverything]

Wow!he actually used an imageries from the old books.

[superduperman]

That's kind of bleak. Not necessarily inaccurate, but bleak!

[Johnny Thunders!]

Did he say this to Silent Bob. I swear I’ve seen this in a movie.

[kjn]

Wow!he actually used an imageries from the old books.

One article about the poem (it has made a splash with reporting in both Guardian and Rolling Stone) pointed out that it directly uses some of Lois Lane's dialogue from a then-recent issue of Superman.

That's kind of bleak. Not necessarily inaccurate, but bleak!

It's also interesting that Nabokov found up a theme that later Larry Niven picked up nearly thirty years later, with Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, but they went in entirely different directions with it from a stylistic and emotional level.

[manwhohaseverything]

One article about the poem (it has made a splash with reporting in both Guardian and Rolling Stone) pointed out that it directly uses some of Lois Lane's dialogue from a then-recent issue of Superman.

I knew it,superman#16 and I have to believe superman#17 is also a factor as well as Siegel's original origin for superman.

[The Frog Bros]

Did he say this to Silent Bob. I swear I’ve seen this in a movie.

Ha, sounds like something that would have been included in a director's cut of Mallrats (is there such thing as the Kevin Smith cut? ha). Brodie and TS definitely discussed the theory behind Clark and Lois having a kid