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Fw: VN finest/favorites: Approaches to GLORY
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Grigori Utgof" <utgof@tpu.ee>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 15:35:16 +0300
> From: Grigori Utgof <utgof@hot.ee>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> From: Grigori Utgof [utgof@tpu.ee]
>
> Nobody invited me to go on, but... _Glory_. Why doesn't anyone ever talk
about this?
> But can we start, for instance, a who-invented-whom debate around _Glory_?
I have my doubts. Nabokovians with the background in Consciousness Studies,
who shape the mainstream of NABOKV-L, tend to ignore this little masterpiece
because of their incompetence in or indifference to linguistics and poetics,
while experts in Comparative Literature, such as Alexander Dolinin, Jane
Grayson, Pekka Tammi, Leona Toker, et al., are too preoccupied with other
projects to participate.
>
> Personally, I think before even approaching _Glory_ and other Nabokov's
writings, we need to forget, that "there are three points of view from which
a writer may be considered: he may be considered as a storyteller, as a
teacher, and as an enchanter" (Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good
Writers." In his _Lectures on Literature_. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich / Bruccoli Clark, 1980. P. 5), although we, good readers, flatter
ourselves with the hope to become Nabokov's doubles, Nabokov's brothers. "My
brother is playing organ. My sister is reading. She is my aunt" (Nabokov,
Vladimir. _Gogol_. Norfolk: New Directions, 1944. P. 150). "The set
(Einstellung) toward the message as such, focus on the message for its own
sake, is the poetic function of language" (Jakobson, Roman. "Linguistics and
Poetics." In his _Selected Writings_, vol. 3: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar
of Poetry. The Hague, Paris, New York: Mouton, 1981. P. 25).
>
> And here is one illustration.
> 'Fulfilment' would have been, perhaps, an even better title for the
novel: Nabokov cannot be unaware that the obvious translation of _podvig_ is
'exploit' [in fact, the obvious translation would have been 'path,'
'movement,' 'pilgrimage,' 'gallant feat,' 'high deed'; see Dahl's
_Interpretative Dictionary of the Living Russian Language_], and, indeed, it
is under that title that his _Podvig_ is listed by bibliographers; but if
you once perceive in 'exploit' the verb 'utilize,' gone is the _podvig_, the
inutile deed of renown. The author chose therefore the oblique 'glory,'
which is a less literal but much richer rendering of the original title with
all its natural associations branching in the bronze sun [Nabokov, Vladimir.
Glory. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974. P. 10].
> "With all its natural associations..." What did Nabokov mean by that? My
memory prompts me the first line of a well-known poem by Aleksandr Blok: "O
doblestiakh, o podvigakh, o slave..." (in literal translation: "About
valours, about exploits, about glory..."). Had I refrained from mentioning
this subtext, the passage as such would have been a "message for its own
sake" (Jakobson, Roman. Ibid. P. 25) - self-sufficient, oblique, poetic.
>
> But isn't that "the most terrible of crimes, gnostical turpitude"
(Nabokov, Vladimir. Invitation to a Beheading. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001.
P. 61) to approach Nabokov from Jakobson's side? Should we, good readers,
honest Nabokovians, who boycott Akademicheskii proekt edition of Nabokov's
_Collected Poems_, read the man, whom the master accused in making "short
trips to totalitarian countries"? (Nabokov, Vladimir. Selected Letters:
1940-1977. San Diego, New York, London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich / Bruccoli
Clark Layman, 1989. P. 216). But are there any alternatives? We may argue,
of course, that Nabokov did not mention Blok "suspecting a spectral veto",
(Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1990. P. 473), in a way Godunov-Cherdyntsev in Brian
Boyd's vision of _Dar_ "abandons the work on his father" (Boyd, Brian. Ibid.
P. 473), but the veracity of such an explanation is questionable, if not
wrong.
>
> Good enough. The sarcasm itself is the worst way to settle problems. Yet
the Estonian structuralists, just as their predecessors, have come from
Gogol's _The Overcoat_.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> My top three are:
> The Dare
> Hebe's Cup
> The Doubtful Asphodel
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 20:30:17 -0700
> > From: D. Barton Johnson <chtodel@cox.net>
> > Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: VN finest/favorites
> >
> > EDNOTE. As Mark Dintnfass points out "finest" and "favorite" may be
quite different things. VN once observed LOLITA was his favorite; INVITATION
TO A BEHEADING--his most esteemed.
> > M. Mulhern provides the coolest answer.
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> > 1. Pale Fire
> > 2. Speak Memory
> > 3. Lolita
> >
> > d. johnston
> > --------------------------------
> > 1. Sebastian Knight
> > 2. Ada
> > 3. The Gift
> > r. james
> > -----------------------
> > 1. Pnin
> > 2. Lolita
> > 3. Laughter in the Dark
> > (4. Transparent Things
> > 5. Pale Fire
> > 6. Ada)
> > Robert Rabiee
> > ------------------------
> > Finest and favorite are not the same thing. The finest (richest? most
resonant? more blissfully aesthetic?) is "Lolita," I believe, but my
favorite is "Pnin." If art, as Professor Lake teaches, is the naturalization
of man-made things, it is VN's most fully naturalized--his most fully
human--of the novels, or of the English-language ones anyway.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mark Dintenfass
> > -------------------------------
> > No scholar, and not even a reader of all Nabokov, I list
> >
> > Pale Fire
> > Lolita
> > Speak, Memory
> >
> > Nobody invited me to go on, but...
> > Pnin
> > Glory (Why doesn't anyone ever talk about this?)
> > Mary Krimmel
> > ------------------------------------------
> > My top three are:
> > Ardis
> > Camera Lucida
> > Dr. Olga Repnin
> >
> > M. Mulhern
> >
>
>
>
From: "Grigori Utgof" <utgof@tpu.ee>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 15:35:16 +0300
> From: Grigori Utgof <utgof@hot.ee>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> From: Grigori Utgof [utgof@tpu.ee]
>
> Nobody invited me to go on, but... _Glory_. Why doesn't anyone ever talk
about this?
> But can we start, for instance, a who-invented-whom debate around _Glory_?
I have my doubts. Nabokovians with the background in Consciousness Studies,
who shape the mainstream of NABOKV-L, tend to ignore this little masterpiece
because of their incompetence in or indifference to linguistics and poetics,
while experts in Comparative Literature, such as Alexander Dolinin, Jane
Grayson, Pekka Tammi, Leona Toker, et al., are too preoccupied with other
projects to participate.
>
> Personally, I think before even approaching _Glory_ and other Nabokov's
writings, we need to forget, that "there are three points of view from which
a writer may be considered: he may be considered as a storyteller, as a
teacher, and as an enchanter" (Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good
Writers." In his _Lectures on Literature_. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich / Bruccoli Clark, 1980. P. 5), although we, good readers, flatter
ourselves with the hope to become Nabokov's doubles, Nabokov's brothers. "My
brother is playing organ. My sister is reading. She is my aunt" (Nabokov,
Vladimir. _Gogol_. Norfolk: New Directions, 1944. P. 150). "The set
(Einstellung) toward the message as such, focus on the message for its own
sake, is the poetic function of language" (Jakobson, Roman. "Linguistics and
Poetics." In his _Selected Writings_, vol. 3: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar
of Poetry. The Hague, Paris, New York: Mouton, 1981. P. 25).
>
> And here is one illustration.
> 'Fulfilment' would have been, perhaps, an even better title for the
novel: Nabokov cannot be unaware that the obvious translation of _podvig_ is
'exploit' [in fact, the obvious translation would have been 'path,'
'movement,' 'pilgrimage,' 'gallant feat,' 'high deed'; see Dahl's
_Interpretative Dictionary of the Living Russian Language_], and, indeed, it
is under that title that his _Podvig_ is listed by bibliographers; but if
you once perceive in 'exploit' the verb 'utilize,' gone is the _podvig_, the
inutile deed of renown. The author chose therefore the oblique 'glory,'
which is a less literal but much richer rendering of the original title with
all its natural associations branching in the bronze sun [Nabokov, Vladimir.
Glory. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974. P. 10].
> "With all its natural associations..." What did Nabokov mean by that? My
memory prompts me the first line of a well-known poem by Aleksandr Blok: "O
doblestiakh, o podvigakh, o slave..." (in literal translation: "About
valours, about exploits, about glory..."). Had I refrained from mentioning
this subtext, the passage as such would have been a "message for its own
sake" (Jakobson, Roman. Ibid. P. 25) - self-sufficient, oblique, poetic.
>
> But isn't that "the most terrible of crimes, gnostical turpitude"
(Nabokov, Vladimir. Invitation to a Beheading. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001.
P. 61) to approach Nabokov from Jakobson's side? Should we, good readers,
honest Nabokovians, who boycott Akademicheskii proekt edition of Nabokov's
_Collected Poems_, read the man, whom the master accused in making "short
trips to totalitarian countries"? (Nabokov, Vladimir. Selected Letters:
1940-1977. San Diego, New York, London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich / Bruccoli
Clark Layman, 1989. P. 216). But are there any alternatives? We may argue,
of course, that Nabokov did not mention Blok "suspecting a spectral veto",
(Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1990. P. 473), in a way Godunov-Cherdyntsev in Brian
Boyd's vision of _Dar_ "abandons the work on his father" (Boyd, Brian. Ibid.
P. 473), but the veracity of such an explanation is questionable, if not
wrong.
>
> Good enough. The sarcasm itself is the worst way to settle problems. Yet
the Estonian structuralists, just as their predecessors, have come from
Gogol's _The Overcoat_.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> My top three are:
> The Dare
> Hebe's Cup
> The Doubtful Asphodel
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 20:30:17 -0700
> > From: D. Barton Johnson <chtodel@cox.net>
> > Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: VN finest/favorites
> >
> > EDNOTE. As Mark Dintnfass points out "finest" and "favorite" may be
quite different things. VN once observed LOLITA was his favorite; INVITATION
TO A BEHEADING--his most esteemed.
> > M. Mulhern provides the coolest answer.
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> > 1. Pale Fire
> > 2. Speak Memory
> > 3. Lolita
> >
> > d. johnston
> > --------------------------------
> > 1. Sebastian Knight
> > 2. Ada
> > 3. The Gift
> > r. james
> > -----------------------
> > 1. Pnin
> > 2. Lolita
> > 3. Laughter in the Dark
> > (4. Transparent Things
> > 5. Pale Fire
> > 6. Ada)
> > Robert Rabiee
> > ------------------------
> > Finest and favorite are not the same thing. The finest (richest? most
resonant? more blissfully aesthetic?) is "Lolita," I believe, but my
favorite is "Pnin." If art, as Professor Lake teaches, is the naturalization
of man-made things, it is VN's most fully naturalized--his most fully
human--of the novels, or of the English-language ones anyway.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mark Dintenfass
> > -------------------------------
> > No scholar, and not even a reader of all Nabokov, I list
> >
> > Pale Fire
> > Lolita
> > Speak, Memory
> >
> > Nobody invited me to go on, but...
> > Pnin
> > Glory (Why doesn't anyone ever talk about this?)
> > Mary Krimmel
> > ------------------------------------------
> > My top three are:
> > Ardis
> > Camera Lucida
> > Dr. Olga Repnin
> >
> > M. Mulhern
> >
>
>
>