{"efta_number": "EFTA02565172", "page_count": 1, "url": "https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02565172", "pdf_url": "https://epstein-data.com/pdf/EFTA02565172.pdf", "pages": [{"efta_number": "EFTA02565172", "page_number": 0, "text_content": "From: \nEd < \nSent: \nSunday, January 20, 2013 2:43 PM \nTo: \nEpstein, Jeff \nSubject: \nHappy Birthday \nHi Jeff \nHappy Birthday. Also thanks for the coffee (Jennifer is a superb =rewer). In looking back at my class notes, you may be \ninterested in =abokov's first-day of instructions to the students in Lit 311 on =onday, September 14, 1953, the first day \nof his day of teaching at =ornell. It was also my first lecture course. After telling us to =ake (and stay in) numbered seats \nin the lecture hall (which had about =00 seats), and introducing Vera Nabokov. Who sat on a chair on stage =acing him. \nas the course assistant, he said what we, readers, needed =o read novels was 1)a good memory 2)artistic feelings, and 3) \na good =ictionary. He then said it was a fatal mistake, though a current =rend in academia, to search for historical or \nsocial meaning because a =reat novel is a pure invention by the author, and like nature, a =eception. He also warned \nagainst identifying with any of the =haracters/ Instead, he said we should be looking for \"a tingling in =he spine.\" The \nauthor were enchanters, and created their effects by =rchestrating details that evoked pictures in our head. \nPS. I don't think I ever got through The Gift, though, fdollowing his =nstructions, I bathed myself in the details Best \nregards Ed Epstein www.edwardjayepstein.com <?xml version=.0\" encoding=TF-8\"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC \"-\n//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN\" \"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd\"> \n<plist version=.0\"> \n<dict> \n<key>conversation-id</key> \n<integer>242605</integer> \n<key>date-last-viewed</key> \n<integer>0</integer> \n<key>date-received</key> \n<integer>1358692958</integer> \n<key>flags</key> \n<integer>8623750145</integer> \n<key>gmail-label-ids</key> \n<array> \n<integer>6</integer> \n<integer>2</integer> \n</array> \n<key>remote-id</key> \n<string>270244</string> \n</diet> \n</plist> \n1 \nEFTA_R1_01729359 \nEFTA02565172\n", "char_count": 1930}]}