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Re: NATASHA: Bed springs and the delights of imagination
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L.Hochard: 1. More generally, the way Khrenov imparts his "visions" is matter-of-fact, without "stagecraft", as if there was no emotional participation on Khrenov's part, as if he were only the medium through which an oracle is pronounced; 2. [Wolfe, Natasha] neither of them dismisses the other's fantasies or visions; on the contrary, this same shared taste for the products of imagination (in other words: poetry)is what seals their love. Work-related squabbles...etc... all the things that on a Nabokovian scale of values have no substance. This is why I don't think the characters of this story can be seen as pathetic liars; on the contrary, although their life happens to take place in terrible historical circumstances, they are able to outlive them nearly untouched.
JM: At first I thought we were in agreement about "matter-of-fact" visions, mystic visitation by saints and the poetic transformative power of words. Unless oracles merely announce squabbles, continuing pain and wish-fullfillment fantasies, there are no other fabulous revelations to be found in Kh's unemotional ennunciations.
Wolfe's productions are distinct from Natasha's trances and this is why I don't think "this same shared taste for the product of imagination (poetry) is what seals their love."
I also disagree about "poetry" versus "the things that on a Nabokovian scale of values have no substance" [ domestic squabbles, poverty, old age, terrible historical circumstances...]
How surprising it is to realize that, for me, Nabokov's genius lies exactly in that he takes his time with squabbles, small gestures, unclean servants, pathetic lies, worn shoes, madness, aso... while he simultaneously lets us glimpse into another ( parallel?) world of "compassion, tenderness, beauty" and impedes some of his readers to "outlive [his stories] ..nearly untouched" by their related mediocrity, tyrannies and evil.
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JM: At first I thought we were in agreement about "matter-of-fact" visions, mystic visitation by saints and the poetic transformative power of words. Unless oracles merely announce squabbles, continuing pain and wish-fullfillment fantasies, there are no other fabulous revelations to be found in Kh's unemotional ennunciations.
Wolfe's productions are distinct from Natasha's trances and this is why I don't think "this same shared taste for the product of imagination (poetry) is what seals their love."
I also disagree about "poetry" versus "the things that on a Nabokovian scale of values have no substance" [ domestic squabbles, poverty, old age, terrible historical circumstances...]
How surprising it is to realize that, for me, Nabokov's genius lies exactly in that he takes his time with squabbles, small gestures, unclean servants, pathetic lies, worn shoes, madness, aso... while he simultaneously lets us glimpse into another ( parallel?) world of "compassion, tenderness, beauty" and impedes some of his readers to "outlive [his stories] ..nearly untouched" by their related mediocrity, tyrannies and evil.
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/