I love RLSK, too, although it’s not one of my favorites.
Thanks for correcting me about V. who, after all, is responsible for the overall climate and pace of statements like the one that was quoted. I wonder if the loving, efficient and passionate Clare Bishop could, somehow, be related to Véra? The real femme fatale’s identity is known, of course.
De: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] Em nome de frances assa
Enviada em: sábado, 13 de setembro de 2014 17:02
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Assunto: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and L. Trilling
Hello Jansy,
The statement is made by Sebastian's half brother when he rejects one of the possible suspects for the femme fatale who ruined his brother's life. I love that book. One of my favorites. thank you for your comments. Fran
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:49:37 -0300
From: jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and L. Trilling
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Hello, Frances
I’ve been following your arguments with more interest than the one I felt while watching the Trilling-Nabokov encounter, as also the replies that were elicited by you.
The sentence from RLSK, taken out of the context of a novel, which you chose as an example of “healthy versus passion-love”, struck me as being a representative of something else, though: it’s a statement that departs from the male point of view exclusively – quite fitting for Sebastian, perhaps for Nabokov, too.
De: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] Em nome de frances assa
Enviada em: quarta-feira, 10 de setembro de 2014 12:45
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Assunto: Re: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and L. Trilling
I see where Anthony Stadlen is coming from. Interesting how two people can read the same text in such different ways. In the paragraph I quoted, I did not view Trilling as using the terms health and pathology in Freudian terms at all. He certainly didn't say he was relying on Freud, and it seemed to me, in deference to Nabokov's intent, that he was staying away from Freudian interpretation (as much as Trilling could.) I read the paragraph in the more ordinary usage of the word "health"--as a metaphor, not as a medical pronouncement: the kind of meaning Brian Boyd used to describe a good kind of love, versus passion-love. As Nabokov put it in Sebastian Knight, “Girls of her type do not smash a man’s life—they build it.”
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.