On May 13, 2012, at 12:10 PM, Jansy wrote: In one of his interviews ( BBC.1962) Nabokov said :" I don't think in any language. I think in images. I don't believe that people think in languages...No, I think in images, and now and then a Russian phrase or an English phrase will form with the foam of the brainwave, but that's about all." Inspite of his conclusivon "that's about all", perhaps there's something else, something non-verbal, taking place in VN's (and in some of the other writer's) style.

I am very interested in the fact that VN speaks of "thinking in images." I first heard a somewhat similar phrase used by the remarkable Temple Grandin, a woman who despite her autism, became (to quote Wikipedia) "an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior. As a person with high-functioning autism, Grandin is also noted for her work in autism advocacy and is the inventor of the squeeze machine designed to calm hypersensitive people."

Miss Grandin speaks of "thinking in pictures." It is in fact the title of her autobiography, Thinking in Pictures: Other Reports from My Life with Autism (1996) ISBN 0-679-77289-8 Her descriptions of how her mind works is fascinating. It might behoove anyone interested in the Nabokovian mind to read her book. My father, who taught radiology, found the book invaluable in helping his students learn how to analyze x-rays.

Somewhat off point, but perhaps not, I had an epiphany a few years ago and realized that very likely God, if there is a God anything like what we humans imagine, doesn't understand language at all. It makes for an interesting theology - an ill-favored theology, perhaps, but mine own?