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Re: [SIGHTING] Detectives and NATASAHA: Babikov's essay
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Jansy: I misplaced your submission about "hottentot" and its extension in context with the little story you told. Please disabuse me of the understanding that Hottentot is an offensive term for a member of the Khoikhoi people and/or their language. The Khoikhois are a member of a formerly nomadic African people, now principally residing in Namibia with some in western South Africa, belonging to Khoisan and characterzed by the use of click consonants. Around 55,000. Possibly, VN, when suggesting in "Strong Opinions" that Dostoevski (whom I greatly admire)was a "claptrap journalist and slapdash comedian" he (VN) was simply being hottentottish [late 17th century, Dutch, probably] toward the great Russian writer.
James s
----- Original Message ----
From: jansymello <jansy@AETERN.US>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 12:02:46 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [SIGHTING] Detectives and NATASAHA: Babikov's essay
J. Aisenberg toL.Hochard [...]"The thing especially where Wolfe brings up how he feels his imaginative trip to Bombay is more real than his friend's actual trip strikes me as the most fatuous idea of all: just because the friend doesn't cater to his cheesy romantic "far east" exotica cliches, he thinks the man is dull and spiritually lacking somehow. Maybe if Wolfe were a little more interested in what the man had experienced, he might have made discoveries about the place that far outstripped the canned glamor of his fantasies."
JM: I couldn't agree more about "canned glamor or his fantasies" versus "experiencing real India" and this is why I thought Nabokov conveyed both ideas thru the Baron: the alienation of "ars gratia artis" and the connection bt. real life's quotidian objects and people and "the otherworld", through art.
As a winter treat I found myself surrounded by a pile of pocket-mystery novels by Bioy Casares, Borges, Poe while musing about Roberto Arlt's (1900-1942) tactics of casually introducing a dainty purse, nonchalantly carried by a dainty lady, only to have this same purse perform an important function later on - and Nabokov's equally casual reference to small unimportant objects now potentialized in every page of novels such as "Ada, or Ardor". It was when the cover of George Simenon's Brazilian 2006 edition of GS's 1966 "Maigret et les breves gens" caaught my eye. A chess game and a familiar profile and...voilá! a VN sighting. There is chess in the novel and Maigret himself is extremelly clever, rather corpulent and unable to drive a car. The picture was taken by P.Halsman in 1966, Montreux.
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James s
----- Original Message ----
From: jansymello <jansy@AETERN.US>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 12:02:46 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [SIGHTING] Detectives and NATASAHA: Babikov's essay
J. Aisenberg toL.Hochard [...]"The thing especially where Wolfe brings up how he feels his imaginative trip to Bombay is more real than his friend's actual trip strikes me as the most fatuous idea of all: just because the friend doesn't cater to his cheesy romantic "far east" exotica cliches, he thinks the man is dull and spiritually lacking somehow. Maybe if Wolfe were a little more interested in what the man had experienced, he might have made discoveries about the place that far outstripped the canned glamor of his fantasies."
JM: I couldn't agree more about "canned glamor or his fantasies" versus "experiencing real India" and this is why I thought Nabokov conveyed both ideas thru the Baron: the alienation of "ars gratia artis" and the connection bt. real life's quotidian objects and people and "the otherworld", through art.
As a winter treat I found myself surrounded by a pile of pocket-mystery novels by Bioy Casares, Borges, Poe while musing about Roberto Arlt's (1900-1942) tactics of casually introducing a dainty purse, nonchalantly carried by a dainty lady, only to have this same purse perform an important function later on - and Nabokov's equally casual reference to small unimportant objects now potentialized in every page of novels such as "Ada, or Ardor". It was when the cover of George Simenon's Brazilian 2006 edition of GS's 1966 "Maigret et les breves gens" caaught my eye. A chess game and a familiar profile and...voilá! a VN sighting. There is chess in the novel and Maigret himself is extremelly clever, rather corpulent and unable to drive a car. The picture was taken by P.Halsman in 1966, Montreux.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
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/