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Fwd: the lectures,
which are based on Nabokov's unrevised notes ...
which are based on Nabokov's unrevised notes ...
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Date
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----- Forwarded message from spklein52@hotmail.com -----
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:35:17 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: the lectures, which are based on Nabokov's unrevised notes ...
------------------
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1473346,00.html[1]
Song of La Mancha
Guardian Unlimited - UK
... Get hold of a copy of VLADIMIR NABOKOV\'S "Lectures on Don
Quixote". One might object that Nabokov ... [2] [3][4] Song of La
Mancha
If you wish to tilt at Don Quixote this anniversary year, James
Fenton recommends Nabokov as a guide
Saturday April 30, 2005
The Guardian[5]
We are in the midst of a blossoming of essays on Don Quixote, marking
the 400th anniversary of the publication of Part One in 1605. Part Two
followed 10 years later, and one of the unique features of Cervantes's
novel is that there are characters in Part Two who know all about Don
Quixote and his squire before they meet them, because they have
already read Part One. Part One is indeed often taken to be essential
Quixote, and several of the famous incidents occur early in its pages.
If, by any chance, you are thinking of marking the anniversary by
reading the book, I have a small and obvious recommendation. Get hold
of a copy of Vladimir Nabokov's "Lectures on Don Quixote". One might
object that Nabokov was a powerful intellect, and the last thing one
wants, on encountering Cervantes for the first time, is another quite
distinct intellectual or artistic presence, to distract from a fresh
reading of the masterpiece.
If that is so, so be it. But a part of what made Nabokov distinctive
as a lecturer (on this subject at least) was his helpfulness towards
his students, even on matters that may seem obvious to us. He
insisted, we are told, "that they knew what a windmill was, and drew
them one on a blackboard, and instructed them in the names of its
parts. He told them why a country gentleman might mistake them for
giants they were an innovation in seventeenth-century Spain."
The students in question were at Harvard in 1951-1952, and in
Cornell from 1948-1959. No doubt they were not stupid, but some of
the critical authorities they would otherwise have read undoubtedly
were stupid. Nabokov, who did withering exceptionally well, is
withering about them. Among the numerous misconceptions about Don
Quixote is the idea that the knight never wins any of his contests:
he always ends up with a drubbing. But that is not true at all.
In one lecture Nabokov goes through the contests one by one, and
scores them, finding that the tally is even: the Don wins as many
contests as he loses. "Moreover," says Nabokov, "in each of the two
parts of the book the score is also even: 13 to 13 and 7 to 7,
respectively. This perfect balance of victory and defeat is very
amazing in what seems like such a disjointed and haphazard book. It
is due to a secret sense of writing, the harmonizing intuition of the
artist."
One may quibble with Nabokov's scoring, but I doubt that his
students will have forgotten the key point being made, that there is
a secret sense at work, an intuitive balance of give and take. Those
who know Don Quixote only through its innumerable offspring are in
for some surprises should they actually read the book. The Don dies
disillusioned and repentant of his quest, something that was not
allowed to happen at the end of The Man of La Mancha
WH Auden, who was commissioned, with Chester Kallman, to write the
lyrics for the musical, based on a television play by Dale Wasserman,
fell out with the author of the "book" on this point, as Wasserman
himself recalled. What Wasserman wanted was for Auden to write the
lyric which eventually became "Impossible Dream". But Auden wrote
something diametrically opposed. Here's how the argument went, as
recounted by Wasserman:
"Your words are existentialist," I argued.
"They are also fatalistic."
"They are the proper words for Don Quixote."
"They are not for Dale Wasserman."
Still we might have reconciled our differences but for the play's
finale. Here Auden was adamant: Quixote must repudiate his quest and
warn others against like folly.
I said no, in thunder.
"Wasserman, the man was mad."
"It's a madness we happen to need."
"That is arrant romanticism."
"I know, but it happens to be my thesis."
Quite how Auden and Wasserman would have sorted out the Dulcinea
problem, had they not fallen out over the Impossible Dream problem,
is not clear. Auden would definitely have wanted to follow Cervantes,
as in the surviving "Song of the Knight of the Mirrors":
Look! Those noble knights of old
Were, when the whole truth is told,
All crooks.
Look at Dulcinea! Mutt!
She's the common kitchen slut
She looks.
What Wasserman wanted was what Wasserman got: a Tart with a Heart of
Gold. But in the narrative of Don Quixote we never meet Dulcinea,
although the Don himself claims to have done so in the Cave of
Montesinos (an ambiguous episode, about which he seems to have come
close to lying).
I don't say that Nabokov is the perfect guide. He seems to me to
have a down on Sancho Panza - clearly a handicap for a critic of
Cervantes, who appears to have started his story without any idea
that Sancho Panza was going to exist, but then, having once invented
him, realised that he was the key to the whole comic scheme. But the
lectures, which are based on Nabokov's unrevised notes, give you a
thrilling sense of what the performance must have been like. And
there's a handy, complete plot summary, should you need a crib.
Links:
------
[1]
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1473346,00.html
[2] http://books.guardian.co.uk/Guardian/0,6961,,00.html
[3] http://books.guardian.co.uk/
[4] http://books.guardian.co.uk/Books/departments
[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:35:17 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: the lectures, which are based on Nabokov's unrevised notes ...
------------------
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1473346,00.html[1]
Song of La Mancha
Guardian Unlimited - UK
... Get hold of a copy of VLADIMIR NABOKOV\'S "Lectures on Don
Quixote". One might object that Nabokov ... [2] [3][4] Song of La
Mancha
If you wish to tilt at Don Quixote this anniversary year, James
Fenton recommends Nabokov as a guide
Saturday April 30, 2005
The Guardian[5]
We are in the midst of a blossoming of essays on Don Quixote, marking
the 400th anniversary of the publication of Part One in 1605. Part Two
followed 10 years later, and one of the unique features of Cervantes's
novel is that there are characters in Part Two who know all about Don
Quixote and his squire before they meet them, because they have
already read Part One. Part One is indeed often taken to be essential
Quixote, and several of the famous incidents occur early in its pages.
If, by any chance, you are thinking of marking the anniversary by
reading the book, I have a small and obvious recommendation. Get hold
of a copy of Vladimir Nabokov's "Lectures on Don Quixote". One might
object that Nabokov was a powerful intellect, and the last thing one
wants, on encountering Cervantes for the first time, is another quite
distinct intellectual or artistic presence, to distract from a fresh
reading of the masterpiece.
If that is so, so be it. But a part of what made Nabokov distinctive
as a lecturer (on this subject at least) was his helpfulness towards
his students, even on matters that may seem obvious to us. He
insisted, we are told, "that they knew what a windmill was, and drew
them one on a blackboard, and instructed them in the names of its
parts. He told them why a country gentleman might mistake them for
giants they were an innovation in seventeenth-century Spain."
The students in question were at Harvard in 1951-1952, and in
Cornell from 1948-1959. No doubt they were not stupid, but some of
the critical authorities they would otherwise have read undoubtedly
were stupid. Nabokov, who did withering exceptionally well, is
withering about them. Among the numerous misconceptions about Don
Quixote is the idea that the knight never wins any of his contests:
he always ends up with a drubbing. But that is not true at all.
In one lecture Nabokov goes through the contests one by one, and
scores them, finding that the tally is even: the Don wins as many
contests as he loses. "Moreover," says Nabokov, "in each of the two
parts of the book the score is also even: 13 to 13 and 7 to 7,
respectively. This perfect balance of victory and defeat is very
amazing in what seems like such a disjointed and haphazard book. It
is due to a secret sense of writing, the harmonizing intuition of the
artist."
One may quibble with Nabokov's scoring, but I doubt that his
students will have forgotten the key point being made, that there is
a secret sense at work, an intuitive balance of give and take. Those
who know Don Quixote only through its innumerable offspring are in
for some surprises should they actually read the book. The Don dies
disillusioned and repentant of his quest, something that was not
allowed to happen at the end of The Man of La Mancha
WH Auden, who was commissioned, with Chester Kallman, to write the
lyrics for the musical, based on a television play by Dale Wasserman,
fell out with the author of the "book" on this point, as Wasserman
himself recalled. What Wasserman wanted was for Auden to write the
lyric which eventually became "Impossible Dream". But Auden wrote
something diametrically opposed. Here's how the argument went, as
recounted by Wasserman:
"Your words are existentialist," I argued.
"They are also fatalistic."
"They are the proper words for Don Quixote."
"They are not for Dale Wasserman."
Still we might have reconciled our differences but for the play's
finale. Here Auden was adamant: Quixote must repudiate his quest and
warn others against like folly.
I said no, in thunder.
"Wasserman, the man was mad."
"It's a madness we happen to need."
"That is arrant romanticism."
"I know, but it happens to be my thesis."
Quite how Auden and Wasserman would have sorted out the Dulcinea
problem, had they not fallen out over the Impossible Dream problem,
is not clear. Auden would definitely have wanted to follow Cervantes,
as in the surviving "Song of the Knight of the Mirrors":
Look! Those noble knights of old
Were, when the whole truth is told,
All crooks.
Look at Dulcinea! Mutt!
She's the common kitchen slut
She looks.
What Wasserman wanted was what Wasserman got: a Tart with a Heart of
Gold. But in the narrative of Don Quixote we never meet Dulcinea,
although the Don himself claims to have done so in the Cave of
Montesinos (an ambiguous episode, about which he seems to have come
close to lying).
I don't say that Nabokov is the perfect guide. He seems to me to
have a down on Sancho Panza - clearly a handicap for a critic of
Cervantes, who appears to have started his story without any idea
that Sancho Panza was going to exist, but then, having once invented
him, realised that he was the key to the whole comic scheme. But the
lectures, which are based on Nabokov's unrevised notes, give you a
thrilling sense of what the performance must have been like. And
there's a handy, complete plot summary, should you need a crib.
Links:
------
[1]
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1473346,00.html
[2] http://books.guardian.co.uk/Guardian/0,6961,,00.html
[3] http://books.guardian.co.uk/
[4] http://books.guardian.co.uk/Books/departments
[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/
----- End forwarded message -----