Positively riveting, and inevitably creepy, video of Nabokov and Trilling talking about Lolita, not least because of the way these courtly older men of letters dance discreetly, even coyly, around the topics of sex and passion before taking them more or less head-on.
In part 2 below, I can't quite decipher Vlad's accent, but I think he says something like, "If sex is the sermon made of art, then love is the lady of that tower." Even Dylan and Waits don't drop quotes like that.
(h/t Chait)
I wrote my dissertation on Lionel Trilling, who I recommend highly for his criticism. What is fascinating about these clips is that there was a time when people talking about ideas was part of the television lineup in primetime.
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