Vladimir Nabokov on Writing, Reading, and the Three Qualities a Great Storyteller Must Have

In this article Maria Popova explains Vladimir Nabokov’s three qualities of a great storyteller. Nabokov says there are three qualities a storyteller must possess for their work to be deemed excellent. Nabokov breaks down the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, which is interesting because it is one of the simplest stories ever published or continually told he calls it the birth of literature. From here Nabokov goes into depth on the three personas of writers, a storyteller, a teacher, and an enchanter.
    Reading the article, I thought back to all the books I have read over the years and tried to fit each book into one of Nabokov’s three personas. A good story needs to have all three personas present for it to be something spectacular and memorable. For example, a book we read this year The Poisonwood Bible is told using the storyteller and teacher personas. It has a strong story that keeps you entertained and allows for emotional participation from the reader. You become attached to characters like Ruth May and start to feel a part of the family as they struggle to survive in the Congo. Not only is there emotional participation and entertainment the entire story takes place in this remote region that is rarely written about, full of fantastic beasts and beautiful color.
    Kingsolver becomes a teacher as she tells the story of the Price family by placing the family in a brutal time for the Congo. She sheds light on the atrocities that were committed in the Congo as the country struggled for independence. An argument could be made that The Poisonwood Bible was written to show the American population its governments role in the Congo and how it played a significant part in the destruction of the Congo.
    I have gained a new vantage point on literature after having read this article. It has added something deeper to examine while reading a novel or any work of literature in general.

Comments

  1. Summers AP LitOctober 28, 2018 at 10:59 AM

    Nick, I really enjoyed reading your insights and take-aways from Vladimir Nabokov's article. Though I, myself, did not read this particular piece, you adeptly captured and re-iterated the message Nabokov was trying to convey and I admire the fact that you connected this method of analyzing literature to our summer reading book, The Poisonwood Bible. Once you categorized the three generic personas assumed by writers (the storyteller, the teacher, and the enchantress), I, too, began to reel off and analyze the works of literature I have read in an effort to assess the author's purpose and properly categorize the writers of the story. I have most definitely encountered all three archetypes, but I do not entirely agree with Nabokov's assertion that all pieces of literature fit into such a mold.

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