Subject
Update from Kurt Johnson on Nabokov's blues, work in progress
From
Date
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[EDNOTE. Kurt Johnson kindly allowed the following note to be forwarded
to the List as a whole, in order to "let people know what's up" in his
work at the moment. -- SES]
I am assembling a very large archive of all the materials gathered by me
over the years, and in the preparation of Nabokov's Blues, and during
the
Centennial Year, to go to the McGuire Center for Tropical Biology at the
Univ. of Florida (which is now my research affiliation). Zsolt Balint,
Dubi Benyamini and me are also assembling a reference collection of
Nabokov's blues for Univ. of Florida. The reasons for this are as
follows:
Nothing is going on anymore with Lepidoptera at the American Museum in
New
York. The staff is all gone-- Miller resigned and left, Rindge retired
and
left, Quinter retired and left, I left in 1995; no effort was made by
the
AMNH to replace anyone in staff for Lepidoptera. In 2004, Quinter and I
moth-balled the huge collection there and it is essentially now
unavailable;
this includes the historical and Johnson/Balint era Nabokov material
which
had, unfortunately, been deposited there over the many years. Harvard
has
continued its interest in the DNA of Nabokov's Blues but its staff is so
busy that we only hear from them when they want something and this had
not
included any useful replied to our queries about what to do with Nabokov
material. Florida received $10 million to build a new center centering
on
traditional faunal survey work in Latin America; this now houses the
largest
collection, and active collection of Latin American Lepidoptera; they
are
the only institution emphasizing this work. Thus, our material to Univ.
of
Florida will be actually available, not locked away etc. I plan to
itemize
this material and provide an itemization to various Nabokov-related
groups,
institutions etc. so that anyone will be able to know what is in the
archive.
My interest in Nabokov continues but mostly in the context now of
conservation matters. Last year I authored a new opinion on the status
of
the Karner Blue for the New York conservation authorities; and, I did
the
the same for two other of the blues for the Florida conservation dept.
I plan to retire in June of next year and turn my attention more toward
inter-cultural activities wherein I have been very active in the last
few
years, esp. at the UN. In the last five years I have become an 'expert'
on
the similarities between contemplative experiences in Consciousness
studies
and have started publishing a lot in that area. How that relates to
Nabokov
is noted slightly below. This resulted from my running across a
synthesis
that, for me, and others, really put together quantum mechanics,
brain/mind,
and the Great Wisdom Traditions. Esp. concerned with the negative
effect in
the world of organized religion, as opposed to spirituality and ethics,
I
was a cofounder of www.isdna.org in 2003 and, in 2006 the World Wisdom
Alliance (www.clubofbudapest.ca). A book chapter "Religion, Democracy
and
the Language of Separation" appeared in the book The Fate of Democracy
in
2005, and I have several things in press with KOSMOS, The Integral
Journal
of Global Awakening. I'm working on a book with Japanese scholar Gorakh
Hayashi on the interspiritual thought of joint pioneer Catholic
contemplative and Hindu thinker (Dr.) Wayne Teasdale. This parallels
Thomas Merton's work with Zen, etc. and I am also working closely with
the
Zen Roshi's of S.Fran. and Indianapolis etc.
In that context I think Nabokov was one of a number of artists/writers
who,
as a child especially, experienced the kind of Consciousness that is not
invaded by ideas/or brain conditioning-- what is called "Unitive
Consciousness"-- the moments he often harkened back to in his childhood,
as
his most cherished moments, where he felt an unimpeded experience of
unity
and innocence, when he was alone with nature. As you know, he often
said
those moments were more important to his world of experience than all
his
success in literature, and this also underpinned his seemingly odd
dedication to butterflies. He often looked back to those pristine
moments
in childhood, noting how he had to sneak our of his home in Russia etc.
to
be totally alone in nature, to have this experience. THIS IS SO COMMON
when
one knows about Consciousness studies and states of the unimpeded mind
before it is over-conditioned by how we are taught, how we live etc.
There is now a large literature on this stuff and many various tortured
artists etc. are seen as having had such "times of clarity"
unfortunately
unintegrated with various "adult" emotions, leading to internal conflict
etc. -- (Dylan Thomas, Van Gogh, S. Plath etc.). When such states of
Consciousness are rightly cultivated, as in many of the Great Wisdom
Traditions (and these occur across all of history, even now among some
folk
as diverse as quantum physicists) it is possible, as Nabokov yearned
for, to
"recapture" and return to these pristine states of amazingly integrated
aspects of our consciousness. Savant studies point to the same thing--
that the human mind has incredible potentials but these are often edited
out
by conditioning-- and then, as in savants, occur as anomalies. I look
forward to my ongoing work worldwide to the many many folk involved in
this
work-- most recently like Dr. Russell Targ who originally led the CIA's
work
on telepathy and so on. He continues this research once the the CIA
decided
it had no military value!
Dr. Kurt Johnson
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
to the List as a whole, in order to "let people know what's up" in his
work at the moment. -- SES]
I am assembling a very large archive of all the materials gathered by me
over the years, and in the preparation of Nabokov's Blues, and during
the
Centennial Year, to go to the McGuire Center for Tropical Biology at the
Univ. of Florida (which is now my research affiliation). Zsolt Balint,
Dubi Benyamini and me are also assembling a reference collection of
Nabokov's blues for Univ. of Florida. The reasons for this are as
follows:
Nothing is going on anymore with Lepidoptera at the American Museum in
New
York. The staff is all gone-- Miller resigned and left, Rindge retired
and
left, Quinter retired and left, I left in 1995; no effort was made by
the
AMNH to replace anyone in staff for Lepidoptera. In 2004, Quinter and I
moth-balled the huge collection there and it is essentially now
unavailable;
this includes the historical and Johnson/Balint era Nabokov material
which
had, unfortunately, been deposited there over the many years. Harvard
has
continued its interest in the DNA of Nabokov's Blues but its staff is so
busy that we only hear from them when they want something and this had
not
included any useful replied to our queries about what to do with Nabokov
material. Florida received $10 million to build a new center centering
on
traditional faunal survey work in Latin America; this now houses the
largest
collection, and active collection of Latin American Lepidoptera; they
are
the only institution emphasizing this work. Thus, our material to Univ.
of
Florida will be actually available, not locked away etc. I plan to
itemize
this material and provide an itemization to various Nabokov-related
groups,
institutions etc. so that anyone will be able to know what is in the
archive.
My interest in Nabokov continues but mostly in the context now of
conservation matters. Last year I authored a new opinion on the status
of
the Karner Blue for the New York conservation authorities; and, I did
the
the same for two other of the blues for the Florida conservation dept.
I plan to retire in June of next year and turn my attention more toward
inter-cultural activities wherein I have been very active in the last
few
years, esp. at the UN. In the last five years I have become an 'expert'
on
the similarities between contemplative experiences in Consciousness
studies
and have started publishing a lot in that area. How that relates to
Nabokov
is noted slightly below. This resulted from my running across a
synthesis
that, for me, and others, really put together quantum mechanics,
brain/mind,
and the Great Wisdom Traditions. Esp. concerned with the negative
effect in
the world of organized religion, as opposed to spirituality and ethics,
I
was a cofounder of www.isdna.org in 2003 and, in 2006 the World Wisdom
Alliance (www.clubofbudapest.ca). A book chapter "Religion, Democracy
and
the Language of Separation" appeared in the book The Fate of Democracy
in
2005, and I have several things in press with KOSMOS, The Integral
Journal
of Global Awakening. I'm working on a book with Japanese scholar Gorakh
Hayashi on the interspiritual thought of joint pioneer Catholic
contemplative and Hindu thinker (Dr.) Wayne Teasdale. This parallels
Thomas Merton's work with Zen, etc. and I am also working closely with
the
Zen Roshi's of S.Fran. and Indianapolis etc.
In that context I think Nabokov was one of a number of artists/writers
who,
as a child especially, experienced the kind of Consciousness that is not
invaded by ideas/or brain conditioning-- what is called "Unitive
Consciousness"-- the moments he often harkened back to in his childhood,
as
his most cherished moments, where he felt an unimpeded experience of
unity
and innocence, when he was alone with nature. As you know, he often
said
those moments were more important to his world of experience than all
his
success in literature, and this also underpinned his seemingly odd
dedication to butterflies. He often looked back to those pristine
moments
in childhood, noting how he had to sneak our of his home in Russia etc.
to
be totally alone in nature, to have this experience. THIS IS SO COMMON
when
one knows about Consciousness studies and states of the unimpeded mind
before it is over-conditioned by how we are taught, how we live etc.
There is now a large literature on this stuff and many various tortured
artists etc. are seen as having had such "times of clarity"
unfortunately
unintegrated with various "adult" emotions, leading to internal conflict
etc. -- (Dylan Thomas, Van Gogh, S. Plath etc.). When such states of
Consciousness are rightly cultivated, as in many of the Great Wisdom
Traditions (and these occur across all of history, even now among some
folk
as diverse as quantum physicists) it is possible, as Nabokov yearned
for, to
"recapture" and return to these pristine states of amazingly integrated
aspects of our consciousness. Savant studies point to the same thing--
that the human mind has incredible potentials but these are often edited
out
by conditioning-- and then, as in savants, occur as anomalies. I look
forward to my ongoing work worldwide to the many many folk involved in
this
work-- most recently like Dr. Russell Targ who originally led the CIA's
work
on telepathy and so on. He continues this research once the the CIA
decided
it had no military value!
Dr. Kurt Johnson
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