JM: "Just now did I receive Sergey Sakoun's reply about patterns in "The Luzhin Defense" demanding the "sacrifice of the Black Knight," with a very rich bibliography which, until now, shall remain inaccessible to me. Before S.Sakoun's message reached me, I was writing down my comments to Dave Haan's contribution (off-list) and this is why I shall reproduce them here, without considering S.Sakoun's generous arguments (with whatever means I must still find out later on, since I cannot read or speak Russian.) S.Sakoun's line of thought seems to demolish my views, still headstrongly centered on the idea that Luzhin has to check-mate the white king and decides to drop out of the game before accomplishing this command".
Sergey Sakoun: Could I argue for my point of view on the pattern of the novel with some quotations from novel in a certain sequence?
That will help my English and will be appealed to the primary base of the problem.
My base thesis is that Nabokov’s novels are very transparent, but we must caress each little detail, each trifle. And first step of the solution his novel-riddle must be recombining those details like in the puzzle game ('poozels').
Let’s try to do it.
The Luzhin Defense as chess combination:
End of 7 chapter.
“and while thinking of the unexpected turn taken by his defense against Turati,… a strange black light to leap there, to leap like his black Knight which simply took the Pawn if Turati moved it out on the seventh move, as he had done at their last meeting. The Knight, of course, perished, but this loss was recompensed with a subtle attack by black and here the chances were on his side. There was, true, a certain weakness on the Queen's flank”
7 chapters = 7 moves. It is a center (all – 14 chapter) of the novel and of the circle of the Luzhin life.
Main person of the Luzhin Defense (as chess combination) is sacrificial King’s black Knight. It is Gambit.
The Luzhin as allegory of the Black Knight:
1.Theorem: Luzhin(X) playing with more stronger Turati (Rook (Typa – rus.)) for right on game with champion of the world.
“He has come from Paris for the tournament that will be held in Berlin in two months' time. If he wins he'll challenge the world champion”.
Value of the chess-man: Pawn – Bishop, Knight – Rook – Queen – King.
Loser Luzhin contra winner Turati = Kight – Rook.
2. “Horse” image of the Luzhin:
Chess Knight’s bend of the body, only chess Knight has a “profile”:
“his heavy profile, his corpulent hunched body”
“baring his uneven teeth … and bending his head with its heliced crown”
“his shoulders were bent”
“and after every push he hunched himself up still more as if hiding in a dark nook”.
“A fat man without a hat lay all hunched up on the sidewalk”
“he was now half lying on the couch, uncomfortably doubled up, and the head on the pillow was waxen”. (waxen “head on the pillow” – Black chess Knight in the white square).
“at the other a solitary Luzhin, his head bent gloomily, sat chewing a segment of orange”
“Luzhin … climbed into a taxi, bending his back roundly”
and so on…
Horses shagginess of Luzhin’s image:
“Finally a cloth was chosen that was also dark gray, but soft and flexible, and even just a bit shaggy”
“His large face with loose folds around the nose and mouth was slightly shiny, and on his cheeks the constantly shaved, constantly sprouting bristle showed golden in the lamplight. His dark gray suit, shaggy to the touch, enfolded him tighter than before”
and so on …
“The main thing is not to look,' uttered Luzhin hollowly, using his hands as a form of blinkers”.
Allegory Chess Knight moves of a Luzhin:
“unforgettable walks during which it seemed to her that Luzhin's every step was an insult. Despite his stoutness and short wind he would suddenly develop extraordinary speed, his companions would drop back … Luzhin would suddenly turn around, give a wry smile and plop down on a bench”. (walks Pawns with a Knight)
“and Luzhin walked through all three rooms, looking for a place to hide the pocket chess set”.
“And now began a strange promenade - Luzhin walking back and forth through the three adjoining rooms, as if with a definite objective” (the three square of the Knight move)
Knight move kisses.
“and would want to take him by the shoulders, shake him and kiss him soundly on his pale cheek, on the eyes and on his tender concave temple”.
“she began to kiss him - on the right eye, then the chin, then the left ear - observing a strict sequence that had once been approved by him”.
Let’s remember also “little donkey with a shaggy belly is being brutally beaten”,
And “child prodigy in a nightgown that reached to his heels playing on an enormous piano” – “the piano - a large silent piano shod with thick glass and caparisoned with a brocaded cloth”. In the reality of the story “an enormous piano”, “shod with thick glass and caparisoned with a brocaded cloth”, was played on our prodigy chess player.
These are some of my basic arguments, and this is only first step in the novel analysis.
JM: “How does this occurrence relate to a sui-mate chess problem? Are we supposed to relate it to Christ and his preordained destiny and death, or to his victorious ressurrection?”
Sergey Sakoun: You are absolutely right, speaking on “relate it to Christ and his preordained destiny and death, or to his victorious resurrection”!
This a “Big Idea” is and mine too. Sacrificial composition of the “Luzhin Defense” (and as a chess problem, and as a novel). Chronology points of the end and start of the Luzhin’s chess destiny. Spring. Easter. And many not so strong directive details.
But if in other VN’s texts that problem solving with a (+) mark, in “the Defense” on the contrary it solved with a (-) mark. Like a tragedy parody of the Christian Sacrifice, fulfillment in the mad mind place of another said of the mirror. (Windows like a mirrors in the novel) Like a “self-mate”, or in other words, like a “qui pro quo”. Seek “salvation” – get a suicide. And “vice versa” – Sleptsov seek suicide but has found Salvation. Same positive solution (but not “self-mat”, what hi want, Pilgram was got) we found also in the story "The Aurelian" (“Pilgram”). Those stories (“A MATTER OF CHANCE”, “BACHMANN”, “THE CHRISTMAS STORY”, “MUSIC”, "The Aurelian") and poems (“Chess Knigh”, “Stanzas on horse”} are the nearest texts (in time and in sense) to “The Defense” .
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Best regards,
Svs79 mailto:svs79@mail.ru