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Re: Fw: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: Re: Brian Boyd's "American Scholar"
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*Jansy*: ...*and what we may find in his more intimate conversation with
wife and family...*
**This remark baffles me, Jansy. How about the letters to his wife and
family in *Selected Letters 1940-1977* (ed. Dmitri Nabokov and Matthew J.
Bruccoli, 1989)? Published, as you will notice, posthumously, too. Did/do
you have any qualms about the 'intimate conversations' (to Véra: *The
eastern side of every minute of mine is already colored by the light of our
impending meeting.*) amongst these letters?
*Jansy: *...*shall be preferably directed to Nabokov scholars, art
historians and such, instead of opened to the public in general.*
*
*
God help the lot of us, as Burgess would say! I am not a scholar, nor an art
historian as many, I dare guess (I know, I should guess less and shave
more), of the people on this forum, but why should we be left in the cold?
Who is to decide? Well, Dmitri Nabokov, in the first place. Your
maternalistic position in this, seems very odd, to say the least.
*
*
*Best,*
*
*
*Hafid Bouazza *
2010/3/14 Jansy <jansy@aetern.us>
> *Maurice Couturier*: "*In his "American Scholar" article about The
> Original of Laura Brian covers a lot of interesting ground about his own
> involvement with Nabokov as a scholar and a friend of Vera; he also offers
> inspiring critical comments about the novel itself, and announces the
> publication of new Nabokov material we all look forward to. There are still
> a few questions concerning TOOL which I would like to address. Despite his
> extended comment about the opening, I still think there is nothing really
> new here. Someone mentioned the opening of To the Lighthouse; I think the
> opening of My Dalloway makes even more sense... Nabokov never outdid
> Virginia Woolf in this kind of discursive game (see the samples of it I
> analyzed in "La Figure de l’auteur"). Brian’s explanations concerning the
> fact that no one spotted Nabokov in the quiz are interesting but not
> sufficient in my opinion. I have been a translator of Nabokov for over
> thirty years now and I never had to deal with a text of his so
> underdetermined poetically, though there are a few good passages of course.
> Had he had time to finish the novel, there is no doubt that he would have
> rewritten even the almost finished first chapter. In most of his other
> novels, Nabokov is indeed the perfect dictator, making sure that the reader
> won’t misuse his words and run away with his text. William Gass: “when
> readers read as if the words on the page were only fleeting visual events,
> and not signs to be sung inside themselves – so that the author’s voice is
> stilled – the author’s hand must reach out into the space of the page and
> put a print upon it that will be unmistakable, uneradicable. With lipstick,
> perhaps.” (Representation and Performance in Postmodern Literature, ed. by
> M. Couturier, Delta, 1983, p. 41). Nabokov didn’t have the time and the
> energy to achieve that in this case.I wish, also, Brian had addressed the
> question of who invents whom. Who is Eric, who is Ivan Vaughan? Is “Aurora”
> another text, another book?.*.."
>
> *JM*: In relation to the innovation found in TOoL's opening lines, when it
> is compared with a train of other VN openings, as they've been by "The New
> Yorker" critic, Anthony Lane (quoted by Fulmerford), we may note qua first
> sentences: "*their lack of preamble or introduction. The reader is almost
> always set down at some mid point of the narrative.'... 'Again and again,
> with polite indifference, the stories drop us in media res, and leave us to
> work out what on earth the res might be'." - Cf. VN's **The Circle**:
> "In the second place, because he was possessed by a sudden mad hankering
> after Russia". *Couturier's discussion about Mrs. Dalloway
> is ellucidating in more levels than this one , and his added quotation
> from W.Gass, too - plus the enticing bibliography he added.
>
> I was very thrilled when I read about Brian Boyd's future projects
> concerning Nabokov's still unpublished letters, poems and writings, but I
> checked myself. There's a difference in following Nabokov/Wilson's
> exchanges, or his open letters to his publishers, and his
> deliberately-voiced strong opinions, and what we may find in his more
> intimate conversation with wife and family, and in his unrevised poems.
>
> I feel that TOoL caused a lot of exposure to him, for it was aimed at the
> readers in general, and subjected to a volley of important, often
> cruel, critical reviews which considered the "novel" for what it's
> worth and, coherently, forgot all about the ailing author, totally at
> their mercy, deprived of repartees and his effective authorial "dictator's
> voice." I keep hoping that the edition of Nabokov's archival treasures
> shall be preferably directed to Nabokov scholars, art historians and such,
> instead of opened to the public in general.
> 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/~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/
wife and family...*
**This remark baffles me, Jansy. How about the letters to his wife and
family in *Selected Letters 1940-1977* (ed. Dmitri Nabokov and Matthew J.
Bruccoli, 1989)? Published, as you will notice, posthumously, too. Did/do
you have any qualms about the 'intimate conversations' (to Véra: *The
eastern side of every minute of mine is already colored by the light of our
impending meeting.*) amongst these letters?
*Jansy: *...*shall be preferably directed to Nabokov scholars, art
historians and such, instead of opened to the public in general.*
*
*
God help the lot of us, as Burgess would say! I am not a scholar, nor an art
historian as many, I dare guess (I know, I should guess less and shave
more), of the people on this forum, but why should we be left in the cold?
Who is to decide? Well, Dmitri Nabokov, in the first place. Your
maternalistic position in this, seems very odd, to say the least.
*
*
*Best,*
*
*
*Hafid Bouazza *
2010/3/14 Jansy <jansy@aetern.us>
> *Maurice Couturier*: "*In his "American Scholar" article about The
> Original of Laura Brian covers a lot of interesting ground about his own
> involvement with Nabokov as a scholar and a friend of Vera; he also offers
> inspiring critical comments about the novel itself, and announces the
> publication of new Nabokov material we all look forward to. There are still
> a few questions concerning TOOL which I would like to address. Despite his
> extended comment about the opening, I still think there is nothing really
> new here. Someone mentioned the opening of To the Lighthouse; I think the
> opening of My Dalloway makes even more sense... Nabokov never outdid
> Virginia Woolf in this kind of discursive game (see the samples of it I
> analyzed in "La Figure de l’auteur"). Brian’s explanations concerning the
> fact that no one spotted Nabokov in the quiz are interesting but not
> sufficient in my opinion. I have been a translator of Nabokov for over
> thirty years now and I never had to deal with a text of his so
> underdetermined poetically, though there are a few good passages of course.
> Had he had time to finish the novel, there is no doubt that he would have
> rewritten even the almost finished first chapter. In most of his other
> novels, Nabokov is indeed the perfect dictator, making sure that the reader
> won’t misuse his words and run away with his text. William Gass: “when
> readers read as if the words on the page were only fleeting visual events,
> and not signs to be sung inside themselves – so that the author’s voice is
> stilled – the author’s hand must reach out into the space of the page and
> put a print upon it that will be unmistakable, uneradicable. With lipstick,
> perhaps.” (Representation and Performance in Postmodern Literature, ed. by
> M. Couturier, Delta, 1983, p. 41). Nabokov didn’t have the time and the
> energy to achieve that in this case.I wish, also, Brian had addressed the
> question of who invents whom. Who is Eric, who is Ivan Vaughan? Is “Aurora”
> another text, another book?.*.."
>
> *JM*: In relation to the innovation found in TOoL's opening lines, when it
> is compared with a train of other VN openings, as they've been by "The New
> Yorker" critic, Anthony Lane (quoted by Fulmerford), we may note qua first
> sentences: "*their lack of preamble or introduction. The reader is almost
> always set down at some mid point of the narrative.'... 'Again and again,
> with polite indifference, the stories drop us in media res, and leave us to
> work out what on earth the res might be'." - Cf. VN's **The Circle**:
> "In the second place, because he was possessed by a sudden mad hankering
> after Russia". *Couturier's discussion about Mrs. Dalloway
> is ellucidating in more levels than this one , and his added quotation
> from W.Gass, too - plus the enticing bibliography he added.
>
> I was very thrilled when I read about Brian Boyd's future projects
> concerning Nabokov's still unpublished letters, poems and writings, but I
> checked myself. There's a difference in following Nabokov/Wilson's
> exchanges, or his open letters to his publishers, and his
> deliberately-voiced strong opinions, and what we may find in his more
> intimate conversation with wife and family, and in his unrevised poems.
>
> I feel that TOoL caused a lot of exposure to him, for it was aimed at the
> readers in general, and subjected to a volley of important, often
> cruel, critical reviews which considered the "novel" for what it's
> worth and, coherently, forgot all about the ailing author, totally at
> their mercy, deprived of repartees and his effective authorial "dictator's
> voice." I keep hoping that the edition of Nabokov's archival treasures
> shall be preferably directed to Nabokov scholars, art historians and such,
> instead of opened to the public in general.
> 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/~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/