Monday, October 20, 2008

Conjunctionitis

An exam question set by Vladimir Nabokov when he was a college tutor in the 1950s, quoted by Martin Amis:

"Discuss Flaubert's use of the word 'and'."

6 comments:

Fat Roland said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fat Roland said...

...and?

(Second attempt at commenting. Must try not to hit the bin icon this time.)

Rog said...

Nabokov was well known for his own wandering 'and.

Anonymous said...

Once again I'm convinced that Nabokov is either an genius or smirking at us all behind his index cards.

For some reason Flaubert is an inspired choice for this question.

Mapeel said...

Ah, but wouldn't that be "et"? Changes the whole assignment, I'd say.

Tim F said...

FR: ...or?

Murph: And he couldn't keep his butterflies closed.

Billy: Both, I reckon.

Mrs Peel: Yes, I thought that. Maybe it's a trick question.