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Re: THOUGHTS: Terra and Antiterra and ADA
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JA (to JM): I agree with you that how you take the material says something about how you relate to it, but I'm curious about what all this consciouness picking was really about. I've read the book over and over and over and never been fully satisfied, I think because Nabokov is trying to force the satirical, the lyrical, and the pedantic sides of his nature to come together and the effect is much more inscrutable than is necessary, pointing several contradictory directions at once. So perhaps you're right, and the bl in the words siblings which Nabokov claimed was his main interest in the subject of incest then connects up with the word blank.
JM: ..."the effect is much more inscrutable than is necessary" and, as a tease, I ask: ain't this too utilitarian?
VN's apparently unsuccessful attempt to bring together the satirical, lyrical, pedantic sides in his nature ( the bawdy and the puritan, too) is for me a source of endless delight. No "unified field theory"! ( and I loved your angry comment "the bl in the words siblings...connects up with the word blank".)
JA:Nabokov also said that the imagination was either a plaything for genius, without quotiation marks of course, or a bane to the cracked and the immature...
JM: In TRLSK,we read that "imagination is the muscle of the mind". Another useful application: Nabokovian mental calysthenics...
JA: Certainly Van is waving reality off rather hysterically when he insists vehemently that death need not have anything to do with him, and does not represent a future certainty--if that's not a waving away of reality I don't know what is.
JM: Ditto.
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JM: ..."the effect is much more inscrutable than is necessary" and, as a tease, I ask: ain't this too utilitarian?
VN's apparently unsuccessful attempt to bring together the satirical, lyrical, pedantic sides in his nature ( the bawdy and the puritan, too) is for me a source of endless delight. No "unified field theory"! ( and I loved your angry comment "the bl in the words siblings...connects up with the word blank".)
JA:Nabokov also said that the imagination was either a plaything for genius, without quotiation marks of course, or a bane to the cracked and the immature...
JM: In TRLSK,we read that "imagination is the muscle of the mind". Another useful application: Nabokovian mental calysthenics...
JA: Certainly Van is waving reality off rather hysterically when he insists vehemently that death need not have anything to do with him, and does not represent a future certainty--if that's not a waving away of reality I don't know what is.
JM: Ditto.
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/