Subject
BIRTHDAY: Limited edition of the Real Life of Sebastian Knight
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Dear List,
In the spirit of R. S. Gwynn's announcement (of an actual forthcoming
"facsimile" edition of Shade's manuscript), here's my proposal for an
imaginary edition of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Earlier, I
posted an assignment in which I asked students to imagine such a book;
with their permission, I will also share some of their responses.
Meanwhile, here's mine:
Proposal for an Edition of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
On every page, any occurrence of the letter “v” will be replaced by
white space. Those purloined letters will reappear, however, in almost
transparent sheets of vellum laid over the text. By necessarily turning
both sheets in order to read each page, a reader might come to
understand that Sebastian’s story is filtered through V.’s narration,
that Sebastian and V. are both essential to the text, and that the
reader ultimately determines the relationship between them. The novel’s
first page will be printed in a very dark violet ink on white paper,
with the missing v’s in a pale, virtually invisible shade of violet on
the vellum. As the novel progresses, however, the relationship between
those dark and pale violet hues gradually reverses, as Sebastian recedes
into the background and V.’s perception of him grows stronger.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Search archive with Google:
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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/
In the spirit of R. S. Gwynn's announcement (of an actual forthcoming
"facsimile" edition of Shade's manuscript), here's my proposal for an
imaginary edition of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Earlier, I
posted an assignment in which I asked students to imagine such a book;
with their permission, I will also share some of their responses.
Meanwhile, here's mine:
Proposal for an Edition of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
On every page, any occurrence of the letter “v” will be replaced by
white space. Those purloined letters will reappear, however, in almost
transparent sheets of vellum laid over the text. By necessarily turning
both sheets in order to read each page, a reader might come to
understand that Sebastian’s story is filtered through V.’s narration,
that Sebastian and V. are both essential to the text, and that the
reader ultimately determines the relationship between them. The novel’s
first page will be printed in a very dark violet ink on white paper,
with the missing v’s in a pale, virtually invisible shade of violet on
the vellum. As the novel progresses, however, the relationship between
those dark and pale violet hues gradually reverses, as Sebastian recedes
into the background and V.’s perception of him grows stronger.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
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/