Explain The Four Attributes Of Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov challenged his Cornell students in one of his introductory literature courses to select four attributes that each student finds most necessary for good reading. Nabokov provided the students with a list of ten attributes they were to choose the four from; belong to a book club, identify with the hero or heroine, concentrate on the social-economic angle, prefer a story with action and dialogue, have seen the book in a movie, be a budding author, have imagination, have memory, have a dictionary and have some artistic sense. Although each of these can contribute to good reading, four attributes stand out greater than the rest for me. Those four are; have imagination, identify with the hero or heroine, have some artistic sense, and have memory. These four attributes will be

Artistic sense is the ability of a reader to appreciate the different in works and the creativity of the author. Having artistic sense is very important when reading especially in fictional works as the story is created by the author rather than being based on true events and facts. Artistic sense comes into play while reading "Longing for America" when the David Rubin is describing Zero Road right when Hari Lal arrives. The statement from the author was, "Now he felt a pang of anguish, then a hardening of his resolution until quite unexpectedly his whole mood softened and he stood in the clear, dry November sunlight drinking in the smells he had missed, almond rice with onion, pickled mangos and lemons..etc." A reader must be able to appreciate the author's use of words to describe this scenario in detail. This scene relates to artistic sense because he could have just described how Hari Lal arrived but he chose to explain in great detail the smells and scenes the protagonist is experiencing. The author is very creative when writing this as he starts with feelings and ends with the sense of