Subject
"we think not in words,
but in shadows of words" (verbs vs. description)
but in shadows of words" (verbs vs. description)
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Going back to the earlier discussions about symbols and words, I've been
thinking recently about VN's frequent use of passive, linking verbs,
even in some of his most heady prose. ("I am thinking of aurochs and
angels...") While writing students are encouraged to activate their
sentences with verbs--to avoid what one of of my professors calls
"neutral copulators"--I think Nabokov shows us how explosive descriptive
sentences can in fact be.
I'm not a linguist, but I would bet that our natural way of thinking is
basically that of pure description. What more can our brains do,
really, than describe the world around us with the five senses?
Will Dane
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thinking recently about VN's frequent use of passive, linking verbs,
even in some of his most heady prose. ("I am thinking of aurochs and
angels...") While writing students are encouraged to activate their
sentences with verbs--to avoid what one of of my professors calls
"neutral copulators"--I think Nabokov shows us how explosive descriptive
sentences can in fact be.
I'm not a linguist, but I would bet that our natural way of thinking is
basically that of pure description. What more can our brains do,
really, than describe the world around us with the five senses?
Will Dane
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