Exciting stuff! Agree that a detox from things like politics is like an apple a day, though it depends on the literary tradition. For Americans, the more detached the better it seems. Though doing so also risks a descent into irrelevance: for as much as Americans pretend they're not political or tired of it, we do hail from a politicized country. It is what it is, I guess.
Don't know if you've gone back that far, but Nabokov's early, Russian-language novels (which he translated himself) are an interesting back journey. My favorite is the Luzhin Defense, but comparing that with what he wrote in English is a rare glance into the kinds of creative tectonic shifts writers have to undergo sometimes. (in his case, actually switching to a non-native language)
Exciting stuff! Agree that a detox from things like politics is like an apple a day, though it depends on the literary tradition. For Americans, the more detached the better it seems. Though doing so also risks a descent into irrelevance: for as much as Americans pretend they're not political or tired of it, we do hail from a politicized country. It is what it is, I guess.
Don't know if you've gone back that far, but Nabokov's early, Russian-language novels (which he translated himself) are an interesting back journey. My favorite is the Luzhin Defense, but comparing that with what he wrote in English is a rare glance into the kinds of creative tectonic shifts writers have to undergo sometimes. (in his case, actually switching to a non-native language)