Subject
QUERY: puzzle in Laughter in the Dark
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I am not a Nabokov scholar, but rather a visual artist who is pursuing
a writing project for the magazine Cabinet, and this is my first
posting to Nabokov-L. My query concerns what seems to me to be a
puzzle planted in the text of Laughter in the Dark: at the very
beginning of the novel Albinus has a "beautiful idea"-- that a
hand-drawn animated film could be made in which a famous painting,
"preferably of the Dutch school," is brought to life, its actors moving
gradually into position through the implicit landscape of the painting.
It is in trying to realize this idea that Albinus meets his future
"friend" Axel Rex.
At the end of Laughter, after Margot shoots Albinus, Nabokov's
description of the murder scene is a rather forensic set of "stage
directions": "Chair--lying close by dead body of man in a purplish
brown suit and felt slippers. Automatic pistol not visable. It is
under him." And etc.
It occurs to me that the final crime scene description might be, in
some perversely dark manner, the realization of Albinus' "beautiful
idea." In other words, the entire novel might take the form of a
tableau vivant which leads up to all the objects in the scene finding
their precise position. Noting also that the gun is not visible, it
seems that much more likely that the tableau might be based on a
painting of an earlier age--if not the Dutch school, perhaps something
more recent (the original novel, Kamera Obscura as well as the two
English translations were done in the 1930's.)
I have not yet found a painting with the required characteristics, but
am beginning to search through the Nabokov literature for clues. Any
helpful comments will be much appreciated. First and foremost: has
this puzzle been explored elsewhere?
Thank you,
David B. Brody
----- End forwarded message -----
a writing project for the magazine Cabinet, and this is my first
posting to Nabokov-L. My query concerns what seems to me to be a
puzzle planted in the text of Laughter in the Dark: at the very
beginning of the novel Albinus has a "beautiful idea"-- that a
hand-drawn animated film could be made in which a famous painting,
"preferably of the Dutch school," is brought to life, its actors moving
gradually into position through the implicit landscape of the painting.
It is in trying to realize this idea that Albinus meets his future
"friend" Axel Rex.
At the end of Laughter, after Margot shoots Albinus, Nabokov's
description of the murder scene is a rather forensic set of "stage
directions": "Chair--lying close by dead body of man in a purplish
brown suit and felt slippers. Automatic pistol not visable. It is
under him." And etc.
It occurs to me that the final crime scene description might be, in
some perversely dark manner, the realization of Albinus' "beautiful
idea." In other words, the entire novel might take the form of a
tableau vivant which leads up to all the objects in the scene finding
their precise position. Noting also that the gun is not visible, it
seems that much more likely that the tableau might be based on a
painting of an earlier age--if not the Dutch school, perhaps something
more recent (the original novel, Kamera Obscura as well as the two
English translations were done in the 1930's.)
I have not yet found a painting with the required characteristics, but
am beginning to search through the Nabokov literature for clues. Any
helpful comments will be much appreciated. First and foremost: has
this puzzle been explored elsewhere?
Thank you,
David B. Brody
----- End forwarded message -----