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Fwd: The Importance of Being Ada
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----- Forwarded message from ArdisManor@aol.com -----
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 13:58:52 EST
From: ArdisManor@aol.com
Reply-To: ArdisManor@aol.com
Subject: The Importance of Being Ada
To:
Fireberry - Hawthorn....Du côté de chez Ardis?
Or (I have not been following this entire thread...) has there been any
mention of the possible "Bunbury" connection to Wilde, whose first plays were
"Vera" and "The DuCHESS of P-ADuA? The brilliant wordplay, the garden scene at
the manor house, the child and brothers who are not what they seem, or who go
missing, "in married life three is company and two is none", and much, much
more...?
Would VN agree with Wilde's comment on the "philosophy" in The Importance of
Being Earnest - "That we should treat all the trivial things of life
seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied
triviality."
Algernon - "Truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be
very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!
Jack - That wouldn't be at all a bad thing.
Algernon - Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don't try
it. You should leave that to people who haven't been at a University. They
do it so well in the daily papers. What you really are is a Bunburyist. ...
Jack - What on earth ...?
Algernon - You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in
order that you may be able to come to town as often as you like. I have
invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be
able to go down into the country whenever I choose. Bunbury is perfectly
invaluable."
I am not aware of what VN's take was on Wilde, but it strikes me that they
both enjoyed, in their best writing, inverting respectable, conventional
clichés. For them respectability is tiresome, repetitious and unoriginal, and
they apply an aesthetic judgment by bringing in the contrasting brightness and
inventiveness of their witty characters.
These witty characters (Van, Ada, Humbert, Kinbote) may be heavily painted
as selfish creatures - but VN is a master at letting us catch glimpses of
their tincture of heartbrokenness. These strokes of selfishness/superiority
remind me of the final lines of TIoBE:
Jack - "What is a selfish person? A selfish person is surely one who seeks
to keep his joys and sorrows to himself. I am not like that. When I am
happy, as I am now, I desire everyone to share in my unhappiness. I give
freely
of my misfortunes. I do not treat my misery as a miser treats his gold. On
the contrary, I scatter it abroad with a lavish hand. If I am blighted there
is a general blight, and no one can complain that they are left out or
overlooked.
Cecily - Gwendolen, will you appeal to him.
Gwendolen - I will be very glad indeed to tell him what I think of his
conduct. (Goes over to Jack.)...Up to the present moment I will frankly admit
that
I have always admired you. Now I simply adore you. It requires merely
physical courage to sacrifice oneself. To sacrifice others moral courage is
necessary."
How lucky we are that VN allows his characters to share with us their
happiness and unhappiness!
David Krol
----- End forwarded message -----