Subject
Re: [NABOKOV-L] Pompons and pumpkins
From
Date
Body
I believe your Ada comparison is on the right track, in that VN's words are
further evidence of his rejection, stated emphatically in *Speak, Memory*,
of Freud's mundane and vulgar idea that a madman might reconstruct his
personal "reality" by scouring repressed memories for "kernels of truth"
(childhood abuse, pompoms, pumpkins, whatever) to understand how they define
him. VN's take might be that a madman's inner "kernel of sanity" can only
blossom posthumously, in an aesthetic and spiritual otherworld. A discussion
of the VN-"Signy Froit" argument may be seen, i.e., at
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/cohen4.htm and Brian Boyd's annotations
at Ada Online might give you some useful ideas as well:
http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/index.htm
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 7:46 AM, Jansy <jansy@aetern.us> wrote:
> Some time in April I started a message which was interrupted and
> misplaced in my archives. It was related to a review sent to the Nab-List by
> someone named Farmer (which I couldn't locate), dated from April 13,2010.
>
> I selected the following from it:
> Farmer notes that " 'Lolita' is the spiritual ideal of The Nymphet; Dolores
> Haze is a temporary manifestation. To love the spiritual ideal through
> Dolores's bodily reality, Humbert must discard Dolores as a real
> individual."
> I tried to compare Farmer's comment with another, from ADA, using Nabokov's
> words: "the lewd, ludicrous and vulgar mistake of the Signy-Mondieu
> analysts consists in their regarding a real object, a pompon, say, or a
> pumpkin as a significant abstraction of the real object," but I got
> nowhere.
>
> Farmer's comment seems clear enough to me: the girl Dolores was an icon
> through which Humbert could access the "spiritual ideal of the nymphet." A
> living fetish.
> Nabokov's, on the contrary, remains puzzling, also because VN often
> returned to these two "real objects" (pompom, pumpkin) in various novels, in
> a figurative sense (particularly in KQKn) like the red and white camelias
> in the movie (perhaps also in Dumas' novel).
> Could anyone help me to figure out what Nabokov intended as a criticism of
> "Signy-Mondieu" (Freud, I presume)?
> 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.
>
--
Norky
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/
further evidence of his rejection, stated emphatically in *Speak, Memory*,
of Freud's mundane and vulgar idea that a madman might reconstruct his
personal "reality" by scouring repressed memories for "kernels of truth"
(childhood abuse, pompoms, pumpkins, whatever) to understand how they define
him. VN's take might be that a madman's inner "kernel of sanity" can only
blossom posthumously, in an aesthetic and spiritual otherworld. A discussion
of the VN-"Signy Froit" argument may be seen, i.e., at
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/cohen4.htm and Brian Boyd's annotations
at Ada Online might give you some useful ideas as well:
http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/index.htm
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 7:46 AM, Jansy <jansy@aetern.us> wrote:
> Some time in April I started a message which was interrupted and
> misplaced in my archives. It was related to a review sent to the Nab-List by
> someone named Farmer (which I couldn't locate), dated from April 13,2010.
>
> I selected the following from it:
> Farmer notes that " 'Lolita' is the spiritual ideal of The Nymphet; Dolores
> Haze is a temporary manifestation. To love the spiritual ideal through
> Dolores's bodily reality, Humbert must discard Dolores as a real
> individual."
> I tried to compare Farmer's comment with another, from ADA, using Nabokov's
> words: "the lewd, ludicrous and vulgar mistake of the Signy-Mondieu
> analysts consists in their regarding a real object, a pompon, say, or a
> pumpkin as a significant abstraction of the real object," but I got
> nowhere.
>
> Farmer's comment seems clear enough to me: the girl Dolores was an icon
> through which Humbert could access the "spiritual ideal of the nymphet." A
> living fetish.
> Nabokov's, on the contrary, remains puzzling, also because VN often
> returned to these two "real objects" (pompom, pumpkin) in various novels, in
> a figurative sense (particularly in KQKn) like the red and white camelias
> in the movie (perhaps also in Dumas' novel).
> Could anyone help me to figure out what Nabokov intended as a criticism of
> "Signy-Mondieu" (Freud, I presume)?
> 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.
>
--
Norky
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/