CHW: But even in Finnegans
Wake we can only, and are only indirectly invited to, assume that the
ending returns to the beginning. Wikipedia: "The last sentence is
incomplete. As well as leaving the reader to complete it with his or her own
life, it can be closed by the sentence that starts the book – another
cycle." That is, it isn't actually closed in this way --- it's up to the
reader to make the closure.
A. Bouazza: One need not go
to FINNEGANS WAKE for a circular structure but to VN's own short story "The
Circle"...
J. Mello: One of the
fascinating aspects of reading Nabokov, for me, comes from the fact that
every re-reading seems to be entirely new. Although we are
invited (usually, by Kinbote) to "make the closure" and fill in the blanks left
by the author, we never seem to be able to return to the same place we
started from. We are caught in the circular structure described as Bouazza has
pointed out, but we spiral away...
Kinbote was haunted by external and internal
rotating objects ( a fan, a merry-go-round or carousel...) Recently I came
across an explanation about the meaning of the word "carousel" in Russian,
particularly in Nabokov: "a Russian cabaret...a Russian theatre travelling to
Berlin."
[Wikipedia: a carousel (or
carrousel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating platform with seats for
passengers." It may also refer to ( among other things) "Carrousel
(booklet), containing three short texts written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1923
for "Karussel" and published in 1987.]
This circulatory information shattered my
previous ideas concerning CK's migraines, insanity. It even broke down my
certainties about the nature of his relationship with Shade and his
commentaries.