sigizmund reviewed The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov
Chess kinda cool tho
5 stars
Great book. Very interesting look at both life-in-exile for the Russian bourgeoisie post-revolution, at artistic/excellent genius, and at chess. Luzhin was interesting and enjoyable to converse with. Prose vibrant, lyrical, etc, vivid. Now spoilers ahead so:
The book was an interesting interrogation of what we can call infantile genius, or schizoid genius I guess. I'm sure there's a proper term for this, but I don't know it. But Luzhin being pushed around his whole life essentially, being a brilliant chess-player, but also a pawn, was interesting. I think this is something many brilliant sportspeople can likely recognize today, or people who excel in a certain field, and are pushed to pursue it from a young age. You have control only in the game, and so the game consumes even more of your life outside it, which I guess makes it harder to get control again. For Luzhin he of course …
Great book. Very interesting look at both life-in-exile for the Russian bourgeoisie post-revolution, at artistic/excellent genius, and at chess. Luzhin was interesting and enjoyable to converse with. Prose vibrant, lyrical, etc, vivid. Now spoilers ahead so:
The book was an interesting interrogation of what we can call infantile genius, or schizoid genius I guess. I'm sure there's a proper term for this, but I don't know it. But Luzhin being pushed around his whole life essentially, being a brilliant chess-player, but also a pawn, was interesting. I think this is something many brilliant sportspeople can likely recognize today, or people who excel in a certain field, and are pushed to pursue it from a young age. You have control only in the game, and so the game consumes even more of your life outside it, which I guess makes it harder to get control again. For Luzhin he of course never fit in originally anyway, and chess becomes an outlet for him for that reason. It consumes his attention, and ends up consuming his life too, leaving him living it basically for chess. This bad? or good?, who's to say, but I think Nabokov's conclusion is that you should stay true to your genius, if you have one. Luzhin does not do well in other fields, something his wifey isn't really willing to accept. She married Luzhin because he's a chess savant, but his ability to deal with other matters is null. To sum up the whole ordeal, chess may very well kill Luzhin, but it's also his raison de vivre. Le epic dilemma!
