Just as in Somov's instance about a "cup", also the
name "Nabokov" might acquire a multiplicity of different
individual "meanings" and subjective interpretations. I wonder
if Somov's vision would
then side with New Criticism and Postmodern developments
- at least, as it they have been
criticized by E.O.Wilson, one of the original proponents of "Literary
Darwinism": cf. Consilience, "The Arts and Their
Interpretation"?
Edward O. Wilson opposes postmodernist critics who hold that "truth is
relative and personal..there is no privileged point, no lodestard, to guide
literary intelligence. And given that science is just another way of looking at
the world, there is no scientifically constructible map of human nature... There
is only unlimited opportunity for the reader to invent interpretations and
commentaries out of the world he himself constructs". The New
Critics insist "on drawing out the full meaning of the text, without much
concern for the personal history of the author" and the posmodernists argue for
the need to "search for what the text does not control, and explain the entirety
as a social construction on the part of the author" and for "turning away
from the idea of a universal human nature. "
Wilson holds that "interpretation
is the logical channel of consilient explanation between science and the arts...
for science needs the intuition and metaphorical power of the arts, and the arts
need the fresh blood of science".
Following his wake, various "Literary Darwinists"
maintain that, before one interprets art, one needs to consider the
"world outside the text" to reach the basic natural fundaments of man
and art. They hold that fiction develops human capacity to antecipate
events and deal with new challenges (Michelle Suglyama) and that art, in its origin, serves to enhance social
bonds and to stimulate creativity (B.Boyd).
How should we then read Nabokov?
Following his words in TT or his caveats related to Freud (a
staunch Darwinist and determinist)?
In his comments about the
intimate relationship bt. art and science? Is there a teleology that can be associated
to Nabokov's overt intentions about his art?
Is Nabokov's art "a side-product
of evolution" and does it also function as an instrument
for sexual seduction (Geoffrey
Miller)?
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Fran Assa: Has
anyone out there done some research on any influence Ouspensky's writings might
have had on Nabokov?
EDNote:Alexandrov, in N's Otherworld, and
in his article in his Garland Companion to VN, and Dieter Zimmer, in
"Mimicry in Nabokov and in Nature" (in Grayson, McMillin, Meyer, Nabokov's
World, V. 1 (The Shape of Nabokov's World). I also touch very lightly
on the subject in my new The Quill and the Scalpel: Nabokov's Art and the
Worlds of Science (Ohio State UP).
Claudio Soares: Brian Boyd, maior
biógrafo de Vladimir Nabokov, apresentará palestra
"Machado de Assis & Nabokov", dia
17/09/2009, às 17h30, na ABL. ...oportunidade de
se iniciar um belo e interessantíssimo diálogo entre as obras de dois grandes
autores, suas diferenças e similaridades, a partir de uma perspectiva
evolucionária. Cf. Boyd: On the Origin of Stories: Evolution,
Cognition, and Fiction (Belknap/Harvard,2009); Evolutionary Approaches to
Literature: A Reader in Art and Science (with Joseph Carroll eJonathan
Gottschall). Pontolit 2.0 (Pontolit) on Twitter
Sandy P. Klein on Nabokov’s
advice to novices in "TransparentThings"
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindful-living/2009/09/the-thin-ice-of-presence/The in
Thin Ice of Presence By Pavel G. Somov, Ph.D. September 11,
2009, where the author describes the process of discovery related to naming
a cup until " what used to be a cup now has acquired some additional
meanings, by virtue free-association" His thesis is that "meaning is an
association...a process of filling in the blanks of the mind… with words… that
trigger otherwords… As we grow and acquire language, we, inessence, acquire
a baggage of associations that weighs us down as we try to skate the thin ice of
presence."
For him "Nabokov...whose own style is so ingeniously laden with
association-rich detail, here, both de-constructs his own style and defines Zen:
'A thin veneer of immediate reality is spreadover natural
and artificial matter, and whoever wishes to remain in the now,with the now, on
the now, should please not break its tensionfilm'....Nabokov’s advice is
straight from Buddhism: to stay in the moment,we must somehow avoid weighing
down “what is” with our pre-conceived notionsof “what it means.”...Meaning is an
artifact of the Past, not the actual fact of the Present... Language
constructs perception: first, the word, then, the perceived reality...But in
reality, we are all imprisoned in our “so-called” realities of habitual
interpretation. Buddhism, particularly, Zen Buddhism, offers away out of this
prison: non-discursive thought."
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