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Re: [NABOKOV-L] Pompons and pumpkins
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Perhaps start with Nabokov's fine short protest against "Rowe's Symbols" in
Strong Opinions. He was a master of metaphor, of simile, and of symbolism
in the authentic sense he expounds in "Rowe's Symbols" and in his Lectures
on Literature. What he detested was the prefabricated symbol as reductive,
deadening cliche, where A "really means", or "stands for" B, which "lies
behind" A. Nabokov's "symbolism" is true to the original meaning of
"sym-ballein".
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars: an ethical,
existential, phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy
See
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) for programme of
future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past seminars
In a message dated 13/07/2010 17:18:58 GMT Daylight Time, jansy@AETERN.US
writes:
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)?
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Strong Opinions. He was a master of metaphor, of simile, and of symbolism
in the authentic sense he expounds in "Rowe's Symbols" and in his Lectures
on Literature. What he detested was the prefabricated symbol as reductive,
deadening cliche, where A "really means", or "stands for" B, which "lies
behind" A. Nabokov's "symbolism" is true to the original meaning of
"sym-ballein".
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars: an ethical,
existential, phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy
See
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) for programme of
future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past seminars
In a message dated 13/07/2010 17:18:58 GMT Daylight Time, jansy@AETERN.US
writes:
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_
(mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu) _Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"_ (http://www.nabokovonl
ine.com/) _Visit Zembla_ (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm)
_View Nabokv-L Policies_ (http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/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/