#poshlust

My tumblr username and description pay homage to Vladimir Nabokov who is my favorite writer. One day I’ll try to express what Nabokov’s prose and poetry mean to me. But for now, I’ll just share the meaning behind p o s h l u s t y

P O S H L O S T 

Vladimir Nabokov uses the word “poshlost”, a transliteration for the Russian word “пошлость”. Nabokov never provides a definition for “poshlost”, instead he relies on examples to convey it’s meaning.

In a 1967 interview in The Paris Review, Nabokov was asked explicitly about “poshlost” and elaborates:

INTERVIEWER What is most characteristic of poshlust in contemporary writing? Are there temptations for you in the sin of poshlust? Have you ever fallen?

NABOKOV “Poshlust,” or in a better transliteration poshlost, has many nuances, and evidently I have not described them clearly enough in my little book on Gogol, if you think one can ask anybody if he is tempted by poshlost. Corny trash, vulgar clichés, Philistinism in all its phases, imitations of imitations, bogus profundities, crude, moronic, and dishonest pseudo-literature—these are obvious examples. Now, if we want to pin down poshlost in contemporary writing, we must look for it in Freudian symbolism, moth-eaten mythologies, social comment, humanistic messages, political allegories, overconcern with class or race, and the journalistic generalities we all know. Poshlost speaks in such concepts as “America is no better than Russia” or “We all share in Germany’s guilt.” The flowers of poshlost bloom in such phrases and terms as “the moment of truth,” “charisma,” “existential” (used seriously), “dialogue” (as applied to political talks between nations), and “vocabulary” (as applied to a dauber). Listing in one breath Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and Vietnam is seditious poshlost. Belonging to a very select club (which sports one Jewish name—that of the treasurer) is genteel poshlost. Hack reviews are frequently poshlost, but it also lurks in certain highbrow essays. Poshlost calls Mr. Blank a great poet and Mr. Bluff a great novelist. One of poshlost’s favorite breeding places has always been the Art Exhibition; there it is produced by so-called sculptors working with the tools of wreckers, building crankshaft cretins of stainless steel, Zen stereos, polystyrene stinkbirds, objects trouvés in latrines, cannonballs, canned balls. There we admire the gabinetti wall patterns of so-called abstract artists, Freudian surrealism, roric smudges, and Rorschach blots—all of it as corny in its own right as the academic “September Morns” and “Florentine Flowergirls” of half a century ago. The list is long, and, of course, everybody has his bête noire, his black pet, in the series. Mine is that airline ad: the snack served by an obsequious wench to a young couple—she eyeing ecstatically the cucumber canapé, he admiring wistfully the hostess. And, of course, Death in Venice. You see the range.

P O S H + L U S T

In Philistines and Philistinism (1981), Nabokov once again attempts to relay the meaning of poshlost to readers. This time he mockingly spells it “poshlust”, suggesting a literal lust for that which is posh. Here he describes it as:

Russians have, or had, a special name for smug philistinism – poshlust. Poshlism is not only the obviously trashy but mainly the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive. To apply the deadly label of poshlism to something is not only an aesthetic judgment but also a moral indictment. The genuine, the guileless, the good is never poshlust. It is possible to maintain that a simple, uncivilized man is seldom if ever a poshlust since poshlism presupposes the veneer of civilization. A peasant has to become a townsman in order to become vulgar. A painte

P O S H L U S T Y

Yoga is divided into eight astanga (limbs). The first two are yama and niyamas. Yama incorporates moral commandments, ethical precepts, and restraints. Niyama is the self purification through discipline or observances.

Yama 

Ahimsa—nonviolence

Satya—truthfulness

Asteya—nonstealing

Brahmacarya--chastity

Aparigraha—non covetousness

Niyamas

Sauca—cleanliness of mind and body

Santosa –contentment

Tapas—fervor

Svadhyaya—self study