When “Lolita” made Nabokov a star in 1958, journalists were delighted to discover his hidden life as a butterfly expert. A famous photograph of Nabokov that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post when he was 66 is from a butterfly’s perspective. The looming Russian author swings a net with rapt concentration. But despite the fact that he was the best-known butterfly expert of his day and a Harvard museum curator, other lepidopterists considered Nabokov a dutiful but undistinguished researcher. He could describe details well, they granted, but did not produce scientifically important ideas.
Remember, said Garrison Keillor, when you could take the cover off, look inside, and see how things work. Old engines are like that. They have grease and gears and valves and hoses and pumps, sparks and circuits you can follow with your eye. No USB ports, no algorithms. You'll never put penetrating oil on your hard drive and you'll never have to put any muscle into your laptop.
