Subject
Nabokov and Martin Amis
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Dear List,
While you are discussing Wells' influence on Nabokov (pity no one seems to
have read his short story 'The Moth', which I have pointed out a while ago:
it is more important than any green door), I want to show Nabokov's
influence on others. On Martin Amis, especially. In his hilarious and
delightful short story 'Let Me Count the Times' ( Amis at his best;
from *Heavy
Water*, Johathan Cape, 1998) the reader will find this sentence:
*Her hands mimed their defencelessness as the great muscles rippled and
plunged along Vernon's powerful back.*
*
*
*A strong echo of Nabokov's in Despair:
*
*From my magical point of vantage I watched the ripples running and plunging
along my muscular back...*
*
*
There is also this sentence in Amis' same story:
*Vernon always felt desperately ashamed afterwards, and would be a limp
spectre of embarrassment and remorse at breakfast the following day.*
*
*
That 'limp spectre of embarrassment...etc.' reminds me strongly of Nabokov,;
I am sure he used 'limp spectre of' at least once, but I cannot pinpoint any
passage. At first glance I was reminded of this (also from *Despair)*:
*
...and my will lay limp in an empty world... - which is not what I am
looking for.
Amis' whole erotic story seems to draw heavily from the sexual part in
Despair when the narrator dwells on his 'dissociation' during love-making
(chapter two).
Best,
Hafid Bouazza
*
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While you are discussing Wells' influence on Nabokov (pity no one seems to
have read his short story 'The Moth', which I have pointed out a while ago:
it is more important than any green door), I want to show Nabokov's
influence on others. On Martin Amis, especially. In his hilarious and
delightful short story 'Let Me Count the Times' ( Amis at his best;
from *Heavy
Water*, Johathan Cape, 1998) the reader will find this sentence:
*Her hands mimed their defencelessness as the great muscles rippled and
plunged along Vernon's powerful back.*
*
*
*A strong echo of Nabokov's in Despair:
*
*From my magical point of vantage I watched the ripples running and plunging
along my muscular back...*
*
*
There is also this sentence in Amis' same story:
*Vernon always felt desperately ashamed afterwards, and would be a limp
spectre of embarrassment and remorse at breakfast the following day.*
*
*
That 'limp spectre of embarrassment...etc.' reminds me strongly of Nabokov,;
I am sure he used 'limp spectre of' at least once, but I cannot pinpoint any
passage. At first glance I was reminded of this (also from *Despair)*:
*
...and my will lay limp in an empty world... - which is not what I am
looking for.
Amis' whole erotic story seems to draw heavily from the sexual part in
Despair when the narrator dwells on his 'dissociation' during love-making
(chapter two).
Best,
Hafid Bouazza
*
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/