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Re: Idle note on Sebastian (Knight)
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Dear Mr. Vanherwegen:
Maxim D. Shrayer and I had made the connection between St. Sebastian and
Sebastian Knight's name as early as 2003, in an article entitled "Though Art
Not Though," published in THE NABOKOVIAN in the Spring of 2003.
As far as Dr. Johnson's inquiry. Despite Nabokov's attitude towards
Faulkner, I always found echos of the following passage from ABSALOM!
ABSALOM! (1936) in RLSK:
"Maybe we are both Father. Maybe nothing ever happnes once and is finished.
Maybe happen is never once but like riplles maybe on water after the pebble
sinks, the ripples moving on, spreading, the pool attached by a narrow
umbilical water-cord to the next pool which the first pool feeds, has fed,
did feed, let this second pool contain a different temperature of water, a
different molecularity of having seen, felt, remembered, reflect in a
different tone the infinite unchanging sky, it doesn't matter: that pebble's
watery echo whose fall it did not even see moves across its surface too at
the original ripple space, to the old ineradicable rhythm thinking Yes, we
are both Father. Or maybe Father and I are both Shreve, maybe it took father
and me both to make Shreve or Shreve and me both to make Father or maybe
Thomas Sutpen to make all of us."
Margarit Tadevosyan
On Sun, May 23, 2010 at 4:44 AM, Koen Vanherwegen <
koen_vanherwegen@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Mr Johnson,
>
> Michael Maar in his recent study "Speak Nabokov" suggests the name being
> connected to the christian saint associated to gays. Nabokovs brother and
> uncle were gay and he himsels seems to have been very troubled with that
> (exactly as his father who had written an article in favor of de-penalizing
> homosexuality in Russia).
>
> Nabokov would have tried to imagine how Sergey, his brother, would have
> lived his brothers attitude towards him... (at the same time as trying to
> imagine what Vera might have felt if he would have left her for Irina G).
>
> He elaborates the idea further, it's worth reading !
>
> I'm always a little bit troubled though with VN so insisting on keeping the
> life of the author out of literary analysises.
>
> Koen
>
> Hoping I gave a correct short account of MMs idea as to the name of SK ....
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 22 May 2010 11:36:17 -0700
> From: chtodel@COX.NET
> Subject: [NABOKV-L] Idle note on Sebastian (Knight)
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
>
>
> Food for (s)peculation.
>
> "I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we are both someone neither
> of us knows"
>
> None of the historical persons or places evoked by the name
> seem to be obviously connected to VN's novel (see www below). In an idle
> moment it ocurred to me that the first syllable of the name echoes the
> Russian pronoun SEBYA meaning "one's self ." Given the tangled
> relationship between the narrating half -brother and his brother
> Sebastain, I wonder if this pseudo-etymology sheds any light on the novel.
>
> Tennis, anyone?
>
>
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevastopol#Etymology_of_the_name
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
> ------------------------------
> Je eigen @hotmail.BE adres? Het kan! Klik en registreer snel je
> persoonlijke adres. <http://85.255.193.198/specials/hotmailbe/nl/>
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
Maxim D. Shrayer and I had made the connection between St. Sebastian and
Sebastian Knight's name as early as 2003, in an article entitled "Though Art
Not Though," published in THE NABOKOVIAN in the Spring of 2003.
As far as Dr. Johnson's inquiry. Despite Nabokov's attitude towards
Faulkner, I always found echos of the following passage from ABSALOM!
ABSALOM! (1936) in RLSK:
"Maybe we are both Father. Maybe nothing ever happnes once and is finished.
Maybe happen is never once but like riplles maybe on water after the pebble
sinks, the ripples moving on, spreading, the pool attached by a narrow
umbilical water-cord to the next pool which the first pool feeds, has fed,
did feed, let this second pool contain a different temperature of water, a
different molecularity of having seen, felt, remembered, reflect in a
different tone the infinite unchanging sky, it doesn't matter: that pebble's
watery echo whose fall it did not even see moves across its surface too at
the original ripple space, to the old ineradicable rhythm thinking Yes, we
are both Father. Or maybe Father and I are both Shreve, maybe it took father
and me both to make Shreve or Shreve and me both to make Father or maybe
Thomas Sutpen to make all of us."
Margarit Tadevosyan
On Sun, May 23, 2010 at 4:44 AM, Koen Vanherwegen <
koen_vanherwegen@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Mr Johnson,
>
> Michael Maar in his recent study "Speak Nabokov" suggests the name being
> connected to the christian saint associated to gays. Nabokovs brother and
> uncle were gay and he himsels seems to have been very troubled with that
> (exactly as his father who had written an article in favor of de-penalizing
> homosexuality in Russia).
>
> Nabokov would have tried to imagine how Sergey, his brother, would have
> lived his brothers attitude towards him... (at the same time as trying to
> imagine what Vera might have felt if he would have left her for Irina G).
>
> He elaborates the idea further, it's worth reading !
>
> I'm always a little bit troubled though with VN so insisting on keeping the
> life of the author out of literary analysises.
>
> Koen
>
> Hoping I gave a correct short account of MMs idea as to the name of SK ....
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 22 May 2010 11:36:17 -0700
> From: chtodel@COX.NET
> Subject: [NABOKV-L] Idle note on Sebastian (Knight)
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
>
>
> Food for (s)peculation.
>
> "I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we are both someone neither
> of us knows"
>
> None of the historical persons or places evoked by the name
> seem to be obviously connected to VN's novel (see www below). In an idle
> moment it ocurred to me that the first syllable of the name echoes the
> Russian pronoun SEBYA meaning "one's self ." Given the tangled
> relationship between the narrating half -brother and his brother
> Sebastain, I wonder if this pseudo-etymology sheds any light on the novel.
>
> Tennis, anyone?
>
>
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevastopol#Etymology_of_the_name
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
> ------------------------------
> Je eigen @hotmail.BE adres? Het kan! Klik en registreer snel je
> persoonlijke adres. <http://85.255.193.198/specials/hotmailbe/nl/>
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/