Subject
QUERY: puzzle in Laughter in the Dark
From
Date
Body
David,
I'm not absolutely certain VN was doing this at the time that he was writing
KQK, but I believe that during VN's Berlin period, he at least once, and
perhaps several times, supplemented his slender income by performing as an
"extra" in films. One can pick up a decent day's pay (decent if one is in
tight financial circumstances), even now, by applying for such work. VN was
a distinctively good-looking young man, and was an easy candidate for such
scenes as a theatre crowd in evening attire.
In any case, I've seen signs in VN's early novels that he was familiar with
the film director's practice of "story boarding." This artistic process --
practiced in extreme detail by Alfred Hitchcock, for one, throughout his
entire career -- the director and a sketch artist carefully draw the scenes
for each day's work. Through this technique the composition of every shot,
every camera angle, the number of actors, and the position of all the props,
are drawn in what is sometimes called "skinny line" sketches, a term that
comes from the artist's practice of using only a black marker to draw broad
strokes on a large white pad, about fourteen by seventeen or twenty inches.
By doing this in advance, directors can plan each day's work -- ideally,
three minutes of usable film per day, about three story boards -- will keep
the film on time and within budget. Principle shooting of a 90 to a 120
minute film is about 30 or 40 days. If all goes well (a rarity).
In any case, it seems to me that one of VN's techniques for narrative
compression (picnic, lightening) MAY have a filmic influence. Just a theory
of mine.
AB
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 7:48 PM
Subject: QUERY: puzzle in Laughter in the Dark
> 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 -----
----- End forwarded message -----
I'm not absolutely certain VN was doing this at the time that he was writing
KQK, but I believe that during VN's Berlin period, he at least once, and
perhaps several times, supplemented his slender income by performing as an
"extra" in films. One can pick up a decent day's pay (decent if one is in
tight financial circumstances), even now, by applying for such work. VN was
a distinctively good-looking young man, and was an easy candidate for such
scenes as a theatre crowd in evening attire.
In any case, I've seen signs in VN's early novels that he was familiar with
the film director's practice of "story boarding." This artistic process --
practiced in extreme detail by Alfred Hitchcock, for one, throughout his
entire career -- the director and a sketch artist carefully draw the scenes
for each day's work. Through this technique the composition of every shot,
every camera angle, the number of actors, and the position of all the props,
are drawn in what is sometimes called "skinny line" sketches, a term that
comes from the artist's practice of using only a black marker to draw broad
strokes on a large white pad, about fourteen by seventeen or twenty inches.
By doing this in advance, directors can plan each day's work -- ideally,
three minutes of usable film per day, about three story boards -- will keep
the film on time and within budget. Principle shooting of a 90 to a 120
minute film is about 30 or 40 days. If all goes well (a rarity).
In any case, it seems to me that one of VN's techniques for narrative
compression (picnic, lightening) MAY have a filmic influence. Just a theory
of mine.
AB
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 7:48 PM
Subject: QUERY: puzzle in Laughter in the Dark
> 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 -----
----- End forwarded message -----