Subject
Dostoevski and psychoanalysis
From
Date
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A.S[ to JM's "Your knowledge of the Russian language, literature and Nabokov is an inexaustible source of richness for you..."] Richness? You are joking. I am like Humbert as he leaves, a contented pauper, Windmuller's office, or like Pnin as he sobs before Joan Clements saying: "I haf nofing left, nofing!" ...
JM: I just read (BBC, Daily News, etc) about Grigory Perelman, a mathematician who lives in St.Petersburg. He discovered the algebraic proof for "Poincare's Conjecture," but he refused the million-dollar prize, offered by the Clay Institute (Cambridge, Mass), stating that he already has everything he wishes for. In 2006 he'd also refused the Fields medal and there were even other prizes before that.Are there then two Russian "contented paupers", happy with their special abilities?
I have no special riches and, even resorting to Nabokov's endless source, I sometimes feel drained (discussions are such fun, but "pleasant tussles" seldom occur).
Probably, though, I'm afflicted by the same symptom that plagued Beckett's "Molloy" (VN's favorite among SB's novels): "Not to want to say, not to know what you want to say, not to be able to say what you think you want to say, and never to stop saying, or hardly ever, that is the thing to keep in mind, even in the heat of composition." ( and here I shift a bunch of pebbles from one pocket into the other, reaching out to suck on a fresh one, starting a new cycle of repetitions).
To keep on churning and chewing, here comes another interesting tidbit from the EW/VN missives:
In his letter 161 (FEb.9,1947) Nabokov writes: "In historical and political matters you are partisan of a certain interpretation which you regard as absolute." ( & one may almost miss the cruel proximity bt "a partisan interpretation," and an "absolute interpretation"). Almost exactly two years later (letter 192), Nabokov will choose the "z" in "partizan", to invert it into "nazitrap," in an otherwise very affectionate letter to his friend.
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JM: I just read (BBC, Daily News, etc) about Grigory Perelman, a mathematician who lives in St.Petersburg. He discovered the algebraic proof for "Poincare's Conjecture," but he refused the million-dollar prize, offered by the Clay Institute (Cambridge, Mass), stating that he already has everything he wishes for. In 2006 he'd also refused the Fields medal and there were even other prizes before that.Are there then two Russian "contented paupers", happy with their special abilities?
I have no special riches and, even resorting to Nabokov's endless source, I sometimes feel drained (discussions are such fun, but "pleasant tussles" seldom occur).
Probably, though, I'm afflicted by the same symptom that plagued Beckett's "Molloy" (VN's favorite among SB's novels): "Not to want to say, not to know what you want to say, not to be able to say what you think you want to say, and never to stop saying, or hardly ever, that is the thing to keep in mind, even in the heat of composition." ( and here I shift a bunch of pebbles from one pocket into the other, reaching out to suck on a fresh one, starting a new cycle of repetitions).
To keep on churning and chewing, here comes another interesting tidbit from the EW/VN missives:
In his letter 161 (FEb.9,1947) Nabokov writes: "In historical and political matters you are partisan of a certain interpretation which you regard as absolute." ( & one may almost miss the cruel proximity bt "a partisan interpretation," and an "absolute interpretation"). Almost exactly two years later (letter 192), Nabokov will choose the "z" in "partizan", to invert it into "nazitrap," in an otherwise very affectionate letter to his friend.
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/