Subject
Re: Nabokov, Dunne, and dreams (fwd)
From
Date
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Sunday, July 18, 2004 11:02 PM -0400
From: George Shimanovich <gshiman@optonline.net>
To: 'Vladimir Nabokov Forum' <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: RE: Nabokov, Dunne, and dreams
After reading this it strikes me that Nabokov's style can be characterized
as having precision and conviction of recorded dream.
- George
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 12:39 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fw: Nabokov, Dunne, and dreams
EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Dmitri Nabokov for sharing the items below and
attached. J.W. Dunne's _An Experiment with Time_ (many editions &
reprintings) led VN to his own experiments to determine dream evidence
bearing on the nature of time. The material below is a fascinating sample.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
To: NABOKV-L
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 9:17 AM
Subject: Nabokov, Dunne, and dreams
Dear Don,
In the context of Aaron Bradford's posting of Bastille Day, feel free to
post all of the following, including the attachment.
The attachment contains a dream my father had on the night from November
23rd to November 24th, 1964. Something to honor VN's hundredth birthday had
been requested by David Remnick of the NEW YORKER and he was very pleased
to publish VN's transcription of a dream. Some time thereafter Anthony
Stadlen, in connection with his Inner Circle Seminar titled Psychotherapy
Without Psychologism, approached me about the possibility of utilizing some
VN dreams in one of his London lectures. All this led me to transcribe from
handwritten index cards and begin carefully examining my father's resulting
dream book, some 110 triple-spaced pages mainly of his own dreams but also
in part of Véra Nabokov's, meticulously recorded in late 1964 and early
1965, in an effort to reproduce some of the phenomena described in J.W.
Dunne's "An Experiment with Time". I used a portion of Father's dream
material in a couple of my California lectures. Otherwise it is
unpublished. As one might imagine, it contains much that it is stunning. I
have not yet decided exactly how to deal with it. It begins thus:
Re Dunne Oct. 14, 1964
An Experiment
The following checking of dream events was undertaken to illustrate the
principle of "reverse memory". The waking event resembling or coinciding
with the dream event does so not because the latter is a prophecy but
because this would be the kind of dream that one might expect to have after
the event. If the succession of dream and waking event were reversed[,]
approximations are marked by underlined dates in red[,] and indubitable
repetitions thus[symbol?].
Curious features of my dreams:
1) Very exact clock time awareness but hazy passing-of-time feeling
2) Many perfect strangers - some in almost every dream
3) Verbal details
4) Fairly sustained, fairly clear, fairly logical (within special limits)
cogitation
5) Great difficulty in recalling a complete dream even in outline
6) Recurrent types and themes
Types of dreams:
1) Professional & vocational (in my case: literature, teaching and
lepidoptera)
2) Dim-doom dreams (in my case fatidic-sign nightmares,[sic] (thalamic
calamities, menacing series and riddles)
3) Obvious influences of immediate occupations & impressions (olympic games
etc)
4) Memories of the remote past (childhood, emigré life, school, parents)
5) "Precognitive"
6) Erotic tenderness and heart-rending enchantment
Followed by transcriptions of the dreams.
Best greetings to all,
DN, assistant expert
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Sunday, July 18, 2004 11:02 PM -0400
From: George Shimanovich <gshiman@optonline.net>
To: 'Vladimir Nabokov Forum' <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: RE: Nabokov, Dunne, and dreams
After reading this it strikes me that Nabokov's style can be characterized
as having precision and conviction of recorded dream.
- George
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 12:39 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fw: Nabokov, Dunne, and dreams
EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Dmitri Nabokov for sharing the items below and
attached. J.W. Dunne's _An Experiment with Time_ (many editions &
reprintings) led VN to his own experiments to determine dream evidence
bearing on the nature of time. The material below is a fascinating sample.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
To: NABOKV-L
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 9:17 AM
Subject: Nabokov, Dunne, and dreams
Dear Don,
In the context of Aaron Bradford's posting of Bastille Day, feel free to
post all of the following, including the attachment.
The attachment contains a dream my father had on the night from November
23rd to November 24th, 1964. Something to honor VN's hundredth birthday had
been requested by David Remnick of the NEW YORKER and he was very pleased
to publish VN's transcription of a dream. Some time thereafter Anthony
Stadlen, in connection with his Inner Circle Seminar titled Psychotherapy
Without Psychologism, approached me about the possibility of utilizing some
VN dreams in one of his London lectures. All this led me to transcribe from
handwritten index cards and begin carefully examining my father's resulting
dream book, some 110 triple-spaced pages mainly of his own dreams but also
in part of Véra Nabokov's, meticulously recorded in late 1964 and early
1965, in an effort to reproduce some of the phenomena described in J.W.
Dunne's "An Experiment with Time". I used a portion of Father's dream
material in a couple of my California lectures. Otherwise it is
unpublished. As one might imagine, it contains much that it is stunning. I
have not yet decided exactly how to deal with it. It begins thus:
Re Dunne Oct. 14, 1964
An Experiment
The following checking of dream events was undertaken to illustrate the
principle of "reverse memory". The waking event resembling or coinciding
with the dream event does so not because the latter is a prophecy but
because this would be the kind of dream that one might expect to have after
the event. If the succession of dream and waking event were reversed[,]
approximations are marked by underlined dates in red[,] and indubitable
repetitions thus[symbol?].
Curious features of my dreams:
1) Very exact clock time awareness but hazy passing-of-time feeling
2) Many perfect strangers - some in almost every dream
3) Verbal details
4) Fairly sustained, fairly clear, fairly logical (within special limits)
cogitation
5) Great difficulty in recalling a complete dream even in outline
6) Recurrent types and themes
Types of dreams:
1) Professional & vocational (in my case: literature, teaching and
lepidoptera)
2) Dim-doom dreams (in my case fatidic-sign nightmares,[sic] (thalamic
calamities, menacing series and riddles)
3) Obvious influences of immediate occupations & impressions (olympic games
etc)
4) Memories of the remote past (childhood, emigré life, school, parents)
5) "Precognitive"
6) Erotic tenderness and heart-rending enchantment
Followed by transcriptions of the dreams.
Best greetings to all,
DN, assistant expert
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L