Subject
THOUGHTS: Nabokov, Plato, and extratextual characters
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Let us begin, as he did, by defining the concept of species. By "species"
he intends the original of a being, nonexistent in our reality but unique
and definite in concept, that recurs ad infinitum in the mirror of nature,
creating countless reflections; each one of them perceived by our
intelligence, reflected in that selfsame glass and acquiring its reality
solely within it, as a living individual of the given species
[...] "Father's Butterflies"
I didn't know this text; could someone please tell me who is the "he"
of "as he did"?
JA: For instance, Van Veen's walking on his hands seems to obtain a curious
extra-textual meaning when we recall that Ganin in Nabokov's first novel
also walked on his hands. Seperate though interesting details, together
they form some discrete ideal action having more meaning than anything the
specific characters do
This is approximately what I meant when I linked Natasha to Zina and to
Clare on the one hand, and Baron Wolfe to Fyodor on the other hand.
Together they form extra textual characters (Natasha/Zina/Clare - Baron
Wolfe/Fyodor) hovering over the different stories and lending more meaning
to the specific characters in each story.
Compare TG chapter 3 : " [Fyodor]Waiting for her arrival [Zina's][...] Thus
it transpired that even Berlin could be mysterious.[...]The night sky melts
to peach beyond that gate. There water gleams, there Venice vaguely shows.
Look at that street- it runs to China straight, and yonder star above the
Volga glows! Oh, swear to me to put in dreams your trust, and to believe in
fantasy alone..." and Natasha : "How I dream, Natasha, how I dream [...] My
God! The music of geographical names."
Are these extra textual characters the original beings, the true "reality"
of which the specific characters are only a reflection in a cave? this
would be a platonic view but I think Nabokov's view is different. He writes
in TT chapter 24: "Human life can be compared to a person dancing in a
variety of forms around his own self: thus the vegetable of our first
picture book encircled a boy in his dream - green cucumber, blue eggplant
[...]their spinning ronde going faster and faster and gradually forming a
transparent ring of banded colours around a dead person or planet." The
nucleus (concept) is dead, there is no ultimate "reality".
Laurence Hochard
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he intends the original of a being, nonexistent in our reality but unique
and definite in concept, that recurs ad infinitum in the mirror of nature,
creating countless reflections; each one of them perceived by our
intelligence, reflected in that selfsame glass and acquiring its reality
solely within it, as a living individual of the given species
[...] "Father's Butterflies"
I didn't know this text; could someone please tell me who is the "he"
of "as he did"?
JA: For instance, Van Veen's walking on his hands seems to obtain a curious
extra-textual meaning when we recall that Ganin in Nabokov's first novel
also walked on his hands. Seperate though interesting details, together
they form some discrete ideal action having more meaning than anything the
specific characters do
This is approximately what I meant when I linked Natasha to Zina and to
Clare on the one hand, and Baron Wolfe to Fyodor on the other hand.
Together they form extra textual characters (Natasha/Zina/Clare - Baron
Wolfe/Fyodor) hovering over the different stories and lending more meaning
to the specific characters in each story.
Compare TG chapter 3 : " [Fyodor]Waiting for her arrival [Zina's][...] Thus
it transpired that even Berlin could be mysterious.[...]The night sky melts
to peach beyond that gate. There water gleams, there Venice vaguely shows.
Look at that street- it runs to China straight, and yonder star above the
Volga glows! Oh, swear to me to put in dreams your trust, and to believe in
fantasy alone..." and Natasha : "How I dream, Natasha, how I dream [...] My
God! The music of geographical names."
Are these extra textual characters the original beings, the true "reality"
of which the specific characters are only a reflection in a cave? this
would be a platonic view but I think Nabokov's view is different. He writes
in TT chapter 24: "Human life can be compared to a person dancing in a
variety of forms around his own self: thus the vegetable of our first
picture book encircled a boy in his dream - green cucumber, blue eggplant
[...]their spinning ronde going faster and faster and gradually forming a
transparent ring of banded colours around a dead person or planet." The
nucleus (concept) is dead, there is no ultimate "reality".
Laurence Hochard
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/