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Analysis

As I began to read the essay “Good Readers and Good Writers” by Vladimir Nabokov, I began to form the preconception that Nabokov is going to generically discuss the qualities of an adept reader and adept writer. As I read on, it became clear that my preconception was flawed; Nabokov clearly has a maverick way of looking at what makes a good reader and good writer. My preconception was crushed after I read, “There is nothing wrong about the moonshine of generalization when it comes after the sunny trifles of the book have been lovingly collected.” This told me that this paper would not focus on actual generalizations on how to become a good reader or good writer; on the contrary, it would spotlight the common misconceptions of how to be a good reader or good writer, already listing one instance about generalization. Nabokov swept the floor out from under me with his extraordinary ideas. He forces you to reevaluate how you define a good reader and good writer.
Another inquiry that I made involved the 4 specifics that Nabokov gives on what a proficient reader possesses. He says very specifically that “the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense.” My inquiry would be why a reader would have a necessity for a dictionary in order to be considered a proficient reader? The only answer that comes to mind is that in order to truly understand all possible meanings of the words that the author utilizes one must use a dictionary.

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