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VN, Martin Gardner, G.K. Chesterton, and a visit to the archives
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[EDNOTE. Thanks to Jansy Mello for researching VN's connections with Gardner in the archives. -- SES]
VN-Archives ( July, 2003)
Mary Bellino: I read The Davinci Code during a slow spell a few weeks
ago,and found it dreadful ( as Carolyn Kunin says) and replete with minor
errors. It draws I believe pretty heavily on a book called The Codebreakers
by David Kahn, first published in 1967 and reissued in the mid-90s. The
Codebreakers is a good read -- although I don't think Nabokov read it. But
at some point prior to the publication of Ada, Nabokov fell under the spell
of the mathematician and popularizer Martin Gardner, whose book The
Ambidextrous Universe (1964) mentions John Shade (Nabokov in turn mentioned
Gardner in Ada, and the novel seems to draw on Gardner's book, which is
subtitled "Mirror asymmetry and time-reversed worlds"). Presumably Nabokov
had not heard of Gardner prior to 1964 -- or had he? Gardner is probably
best known for his "Annotated Alice," first published in 1960, and Nabokov
of course knew the Alice books well. If his attention was drawn to The
Annotated Alice in 1960, it's possible that Nabokov read some of Gardner's
voluminous popular writings on math, puzzles, codes and the like while he
was composing Pale Fire.
DBJ's ED note: Mary Bellino is the Associate Editor of the journal NABOKOV
STUDIES: More information on VN & Martin Gardner maybe found in my
"Ambidextrous Universe in Loook at the Harlequins" in Critical Essays on
VN_, ed. Phyllis Roth (1983) and reprinted in my WORLDS in REGRESSION.
Mary Krimmel: Martin Gardner may well be best known for his Annotated Alice
and Ambidextrous Universe.
He is widely known as a columnist for Scientific American magazine for some
thirty years. His columns have been expanded and published in many books
which are perennially popular among persons interested in recreational
mathematics and among mathematics students.He also has written other books
on popular science and on pseudo-science, has annotated other classics, has
written a novel and a book of philosophic essays.
Martin Gardner about Chesterton and VN's suggestions about "standing
metaphors on their heads"
(a) VN ( Lecture on James Joyce, pág 289)
"There is no special reason, but it may be argued that this constant shift
of the viewpoint conveys a more varied knowledge, fresh vivid glimpses from
this or that side. If you have ever tried to stand and bend your head so as
to look back between your knees, with your face turned upside down, you will
see the world in a totally different light. Try it on the beach: it is very
funny to see people walking when you look at them upside down. They seem to
be, with each step, disengaging their feet from the glue of gravitation,
without losing their dignity. Well, this trick of changing the vista, of
changing the prism and the viewpoint, can be compared to Joyce's new
literary technique, to the kind of new twist through which you see a greener
grass, a fresher world" ( circa 1940)
(b) "Standing on one's head to clear the mind was one of Chesterton's
favourite notions. He liked the artist's practice of looking back through
the legs to see a landscape's shapes and colours from a fresh perspective.
Gabriel Galé, the poet-detective in Chesterton's collection "The Poet and
the Lunatics", frequently stood on his head so he would view the world as
Peter must have viewd it when ( according to legend) he was crucified head
downward, 'seeing in death the beautiful visiono f his boyhood...the
landscape as it really is: with the stars like flowers, and the clouds like
hills, and all men hanging on the merci of God" ( footnote by Martin Gardner
in The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown, G.K.Chesterton, (1988/1998)
,Dover ed.page 16.)
GKChesterton- 1874-1936
Jansy Mello
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
VN-Archives ( July, 2003)
Mary Bellino: I read The Davinci Code during a slow spell a few weeks
ago,and found it dreadful ( as Carolyn Kunin says) and replete with minor
errors. It draws I believe pretty heavily on a book called The Codebreakers
by David Kahn, first published in 1967 and reissued in the mid-90s. The
Codebreakers is a good read -- although I don't think Nabokov read it. But
at some point prior to the publication of Ada, Nabokov fell under the spell
of the mathematician and popularizer Martin Gardner, whose book The
Ambidextrous Universe (1964) mentions John Shade (Nabokov in turn mentioned
Gardner in Ada, and the novel seems to draw on Gardner's book, which is
subtitled "Mirror asymmetry and time-reversed worlds"). Presumably Nabokov
had not heard of Gardner prior to 1964 -- or had he? Gardner is probably
best known for his "Annotated Alice," first published in 1960, and Nabokov
of course knew the Alice books well. If his attention was drawn to The
Annotated Alice in 1960, it's possible that Nabokov read some of Gardner's
voluminous popular writings on math, puzzles, codes and the like while he
was composing Pale Fire.
DBJ's ED note: Mary Bellino is the Associate Editor of the journal NABOKOV
STUDIES: More information on VN & Martin Gardner maybe found in my
"Ambidextrous Universe in Loook at the Harlequins" in Critical Essays on
VN_, ed. Phyllis Roth (1983) and reprinted in my WORLDS in REGRESSION.
Mary Krimmel: Martin Gardner may well be best known for his Annotated Alice
and Ambidextrous Universe.
He is widely known as a columnist for Scientific American magazine for some
thirty years. His columns have been expanded and published in many books
which are perennially popular among persons interested in recreational
mathematics and among mathematics students.He also has written other books
on popular science and on pseudo-science, has annotated other classics, has
written a novel and a book of philosophic essays.
Martin Gardner about Chesterton and VN's suggestions about "standing
metaphors on their heads"
(a) VN ( Lecture on James Joyce, pág 289)
"There is no special reason, but it may be argued that this constant shift
of the viewpoint conveys a more varied knowledge, fresh vivid glimpses from
this or that side. If you have ever tried to stand and bend your head so as
to look back between your knees, with your face turned upside down, you will
see the world in a totally different light. Try it on the beach: it is very
funny to see people walking when you look at them upside down. They seem to
be, with each step, disengaging their feet from the glue of gravitation,
without losing their dignity. Well, this trick of changing the vista, of
changing the prism and the viewpoint, can be compared to Joyce's new
literary technique, to the kind of new twist through which you see a greener
grass, a fresher world" ( circa 1940)
(b) "Standing on one's head to clear the mind was one of Chesterton's
favourite notions. He liked the artist's practice of looking back through
the legs to see a landscape's shapes and colours from a fresh perspective.
Gabriel Galé, the poet-detective in Chesterton's collection "The Poet and
the Lunatics", frequently stood on his head so he would view the world as
Peter must have viewd it when ( according to legend) he was crucified head
downward, 'seeing in death the beautiful visiono f his boyhood...the
landscape as it really is: with the stars like flowers, and the clouds like
hills, and all men hanging on the merci of God" ( footnote by Martin Gardner
in The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown, G.K.Chesterton, (1988/1998)
,Dover ed.page 16.)
GKChesterton- 1874-1936
Jansy Mello
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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