I agree that his ideas are pretentious and condescending. In fact, if you leave your e-mail address, I can forward it to you. I assure you, the tone of the essay will make you even more angry, but it certainly gets your attention. I'm not fully sure if he's right, but Nabakov is definitely saying that the quality of a writer is objective and quantifiable. Same goes for good readers. There's another good essay about poems by a Perrine fellow that presents his theory that a poem's meaning is (fairly) precise and exact, and I think it applies to literature and other art forms as well. Perrine states that the words in poems are like cones of light, as from a flashlight, and there are varying meanings within that beam of light but you can't go outside of it. If that makes any sense. I can't remember the name of that particular essay but I'll find out and post it later if anybody is interested in poetry criticism.