The first post on Look at the Harlequins! is from Emily, click here to read her blog post. And so it begins. .....
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Want to continue reading (re-reading) Nabokov?..........
Anyone want to join in reading Look at the Harlequins! by V. Nabokov?
Look At the Harlequins! is a fictional autobiography narrated by Vadim Vadimovich N., a Russian-American writer with uncanny biographical likenesses to the novel's author, Vladimir Nabokov.
Just a thought, sounds interesting. I'll pick it up to start reading this weekend perhaps??
Look At the Harlequins! is a fictional autobiography narrated by Vadim Vadimovich N., a Russian-American writer with uncanny biographical likenesses to the novel's author, Vladimir Nabokov.
Just a thought, sounds interesting. I'll pick it up to start reading this weekend perhaps??
Exam Day, our last official meeting, but the conversation will sustain.....
December 15, 2009 marked the last official meeting of the Major Author Class LIT 431 at Montana State University led by our Psychopompos/Professor Dr. Michael Sexson featuring Vladimir Nabokov and his works: Speak Memory, Lolita, Pale Fire, and Transparent Things.
We offered a sacrifice and ended the class with a ritual bibliocide, taking out the perforated cards in The Original of Laura, Nabokov's final book, unfinished. The book was passed around the class several times and each student removed a card and brought it to the front of the room. Riley led this activity because he is now an expert on The Original of Laura and he had already removed the cards from his book to learn more for his Term Paper (click on the link to read it and see his blog).
I will be monitoring the blogs of the class in the days, weeks, months, years to come and report any activity. Check in for updates. We will continue to run into VN outside of class and we can share it all here. Thanks for a great class that extends beyond the walls of Willson.
We offered a sacrifice and ended the class with a ritual bibliocide, taking out the perforated cards in The Original of Laura, Nabokov's final book, unfinished. The book was passed around the class several times and each student removed a card and brought it to the front of the room. Riley led this activity because he is now an expert on The Original of Laura and he had already removed the cards from his book to learn more for his Term Paper (click on the link to read it and see his blog).
I will be monitoring the blogs of the class in the days, weeks, months, years to come and report any activity. Check in for updates. We will continue to run into VN outside of class and we can share it all here. Thanks for a great class that extends beyond the walls of Willson.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Final Paper
Hermetic Trickery of Vladimir Nabokov
As the author, the teacher, the storyteller, the enchanter, the trickster Nabokov leads the reader into a labyrinth where there are more dead ends than open passages. If we only focus on the little games he plays that are enjoyable, causing us to not only read his novels, but participate and experience them, we miss out on his way of playing a trickster that expresses the quintessential qualities to understanding Nabokov as an author and more. Lewis Hyde discusses the character of the trickster in his book Trickster Makes This World, but he gives one mere desultory and seemingly tangential sentence acknowledging Nabokov as such a character saying, “Or there is Vladimir Nabokov; if you think his deft magic is serious, you’re wrong, and if you think it’s just a game, you’re wrong” (Hyde 209). By looking at a legendary trickster known as Hermes from Greek mythology who strongly resembles what Nabokov accomplishes through his writing, and it becomes clear that tricksters are not just creatures of myth, but working figures of our current culture.
Hermes is commonly known as “Hermes the Thief” however, his thievery is not a product of greed but results from a need “to disturb the established categories of truth and property and, by so doing, open the road to possible new worlds” (Hyde 13). The Homeric Hymn to Hermes is where we learn of baby Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle, walking backwards to try and mislead Apollo, inventing and sharing a method of making fire. Hermes “is simultaneously presenting the human race with the domestic beasts whose meat the fire will cook. A whole complex of cultural institutions around killing and eating cattle are derived from the liar and thief, Hermes” (Hyde 9). Hermes’ thievery is an act of culture bringing rather than motivated by personal gain, - he is the culture hero. Through looking at Nabokov’s Pale Fire we see this trickster quality come into play.
The title Pale Fire, as some scholars believe, was most likely used from Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens passage,
This motif of theft is one applicable to the trickster, as we have seen in Hermes, and to Nabokov. When we read Nabokov’s novels we feel the influences of previous authors, Shakespeare, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Samuel Coleridge and more than any one scholar can identify. Nabokov can’t help but steal other images from previous authors, because if nothing is original, then the only way to deal with any sort of anxiety of influence is to embrace it. Nabokov is as Hyde describes trickster as “disturbing the established categories of property” by blatantly emulating previous great authors to open the road to a new realm of literature (Hyde 13). Nabokov writing “Pale Fire” by John Shade within his novel Pale Fire cries out openly in the poem, “But this transparent thingum does require/Some moondrop title. Help me, Will! Pale Fire” (Nabokov 68). Nabokov, through candidly thieving from other authors, is the reader’s own culture bringer. Taking an old image and putting it in a new context as a form of bricolage. Nabokov and Hermes have stolen needed goods to give to the mortals of this world and enliven our lives with mischief and knowledge of the other realm that may not be a place we should go alone and unprepared.
If Nabokov is starting to sound more like a god than human because he is likened to Hermes, it is because he has truly become an immortal figure through the art of his works. Living beyond the end of his human life through the pages he has written. Nabokov truly has omnipresence in his novels, through his own personal habits found in his characters and, for example, the anagram Vivian Darkbloom in Lolita. No longer do you have to become an alchemist to create the sorcerer’s stone, but rather write something worthwhile. One way to live beyond the dark abyss is to achieve immortality. As Humbert Humbert concludes his journal, and Nabokov finishes Lolita saying, “I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share” (Nabokov 309). Hermes is the messenger god, an immortal benefiting human kind, as Nabokov has found his own immortality through his novels that are available for people to read and experience and convey a message as an immortal figure.
The wily and light-fingered qualities found in Hermes are not the only way the trickster model enlightens our understanding of Nabokov. As Hermes is designated as the psychopompos by Zeus, the guide of souls from this world to Hades, Nabokov is the reader’s psychopompos who helps the reader in their transition between worlds. Both Hermes and Nabokov are moving us across the threshold as figures of the doorway or the in-between. “Hermes will deliver a soul into whatever world or mental state lies across the line” (Hyde 208). No longer is Nabokov just playing games in his books, he is the guide through the novel, but something much more, he is the guide of our souls. Nabokov leaves clues in Pale Fire indicating that something darker and mysterious is going on by using vocabulary like chthonic, wraith, underworld, stygian, Lethe, Mercury, Lower World (Nabokov 46, 56, 85, 133, 231). Nabokov is the liminal figure, neither one thing nor the other in relation to the reader, moving between the living and dead, guiding us through the experience of his novels or his expressions of the stygian abyss. Nabokov’s novels serve as the limn, because while Nabokov writes he is in the doorway, and we the readers are neither in this world or the next. Kinbote relates to the reader a conversation that he had with Shade where Shade (an anagram for Hades), says, “There is always a psychopompos around the corner isn’t there?” (Nabokov 226). Is the corner the turn of the page, or perhaps the turn of death?
Nabokov is concerned with the in-between of life and death, writing about communications of the dead to the living in Pale Fire, and the dead narrating the living in Transparent Things. The question stems from mortality and immortality, what happens after we die? Brian Boyd highlights an important answer to the afterlife question given by Nabokov in his book The Magic of Artistic Discovery, “Asked by an interviewer: Do you believe in God? he answered: To be quite candid- and what I’m going to say now is something I never said before. And I hope it produces a salutary little chill- I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more” (Boyd 248). The eerie elusive answer Nabokov gives relays the notion that he is a religious author in a broad sense, omnipresent, taking us on a journey to the underworld, and communicates the notions of a deeper meaning of “Pale Fire”, the phosphorescent footprints of the deity himself perhaps. Nabokov seems to be a messenger of the gods, as is one of the activities of the trickster Hermes, expressing what he can for us mere mortals reading his novels, delivering secrets from the other world where we cannot go. Nabokov transforms such things that we deem inexpressible into “something that can be turned over to the reader in printed characters to have him cope with the blessed shiver,” something he ponders in Speak Memory, perhaps Nabokov as messenger and thief works to bring us the salutary chill that runs down the spine at epiphany (Nabokov 212).
Transparent Things by Nabokov is a novel where the lines are blurred between reality and fiction, author and reader. Several specters, who are deceased characters from the novel, in the other world are narrating Hugh Person’s experiences, past, present, future. The deceased Mr. R is helping Hugh Person transition from one world to the other at the very end saying, “This is, I believe, it: not the crude anguish of physical death but the incomparable pangs of the mysterious mental maneuver needed to pass from one state of being to another. Easy, you know, does it son” (Nabokov 158). Mr. R is present guiding Hugh Person through the transition, a sort of psychopompos, making the mysterious mental maneuver manageable for Hugh Person, because Mr. R has done this before. Nabokov is psychopompos to the reader, you person, as it seems like when the novel talks about Hugh Person, it is really talking to you, the person, the reader. Nabokov breaks the assumed boundaries between reader and author speaking directly to us through the novel as our guide, in short, trickster is a boundary-creator and crosser (Hyde 7).
Nabokov is following in the steps of other great writers whose works he most likely read and subsequently influenced by. The protagonists of the author’s novels communicate with the dead, as in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Homer’s Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, Joyce’s Ulysses, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Allusions strongly indicate that Nabokov read these listed works and used their influence in his novels. In Chapter 6 of Joyce’s Ulysses, Hades, for example, covers the 11:00 hour when Bloom and his companions ride through the cemetery towards Patty Dignam’s funeral. This chapter corresponds with Homer’s Odyssey where Odysseus goes to the underworld, a visit to Hades, and communicates with “shades” or shadows of the dead. Sounds like John Shade from Pale Fire. The characters in Joyce’s Ulysses correspond with Homer’s characters, Sisyphus with Martin Cunningham, Cerberus with Father Coffey, Hades with the caretaker, Elopenor with Dignam. Nabokov uses Joyce, as Joyce uses Homer. The theft runs deep in the literary world, and is crucial to exploring new ideas with old ones. The concern with the underworld, the afterlife, beyond the pale fire, is explored much as Nabokov likes to explore what happens after we die. The reader is able to safely explore what happens after death through the psychopompos, in this case the author, Nabokov, crossing the boundary between earth and Underworld, the river Styx, through his writing.
The first lines of “Pale Fire” read, “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain /By the false azure in the windowpane; /I was the smudge of ashen fluff-and I /Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky” (Nabokov 33). The waxwing lives on in the optical illusion created by the glass after dying from the impact; the only way to reach the reflection is to cross the liminal boundary between worlds, of this life and the next, to be a wraith in the pale fire of our world. Nabokov openly reveals his fascination with the black void or abyss before and after this life in chapter one of Speak Memory saying, “Over and over again, my mind has made colossal efforts to distinguish the faintest of personal glimmers in the impersonal darkness on both sides of my life...Short of suicide, I have tried everything” (Nabokov 20). He also says that the dark abyss that lies on either side of life, the two eternities of darkness, “are identical twins, [and] man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more clam that the one he is heading for” (Nabokov 19). This helps explain his deep fascination with the notions of the Underworld and mortality that pervade his novels.
Hyde says this of trickster in his book, which we can now associate with Nabokov,
While Nabokov may not be writing his novels with the intention of being a trickster as he has been described, understanding Nabokov in this way is helpful to comprehending and appreciating his works of literature. Nabokov is the messenger from the other side, wherever that may be, thieving from those before him to bring to us the culture we might have missed, cluing us in on immortality and expressing the inexpressible.
Vladimir Nabokov becomes part of the mythic tradition in terms of a trickster figure: he is not a moral figure, nor do his novels tell us how to behave, but rather they tell us who we might become. If Humbert from Lolita had understood something about Quilty, just as if we understand something about Nabokov we can understand something about ourselves. Quilty is a trickster figure to Humbert, as Nabokov is to the reader. As Hermes enchants Apollo with the homemade lyre and the experience of music, Nabokov enchants the reader with his novel. Nabokov as a trickster leads us through the epiphany of experience rather than meaning.
Works Cited
Boyd, Brian. Nabokov's Pale Fire The Magic of Artistic Discovery. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 248. Print.
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World. New York: First North Point Press, 1999. 6, 7, 13, 208-9. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. 50th Anniversary ed. New York: Vintage International, 1997. 309. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Pale Fire. New York: Vintage International, 1989. 33, 46, 56, 68, 85, 133, 226, 231. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Speak, Memory. New York: Vintage International, 1989. 19,20,19. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Transparent Things. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1974. 158. Print.
As the author, the teacher, the storyteller, the enchanter, the trickster Nabokov leads the reader into a labyrinth where there are more dead ends than open passages. If we only focus on the little games he plays that are enjoyable, causing us to not only read his novels, but participate and experience them, we miss out on his way of playing a trickster that expresses the quintessential qualities to understanding Nabokov as an author and more. Lewis Hyde discusses the character of the trickster in his book Trickster Makes This World, but he gives one mere desultory and seemingly tangential sentence acknowledging Nabokov as such a character saying, “Or there is Vladimir Nabokov; if you think his deft magic is serious, you’re wrong, and if you think it’s just a game, you’re wrong” (Hyde 209). By looking at a legendary trickster known as Hermes from Greek mythology who strongly resembles what Nabokov accomplishes through his writing, and it becomes clear that tricksters are not just creatures of myth, but working figures of our current culture.
Hermes is commonly known as “Hermes the Thief” however, his thievery is not a product of greed but results from a need “to disturb the established categories of truth and property and, by so doing, open the road to possible new worlds” (Hyde 13). The Homeric Hymn to Hermes is where we learn of baby Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle, walking backwards to try and mislead Apollo, inventing and sharing a method of making fire. Hermes “is simultaneously presenting the human race with the domestic beasts whose meat the fire will cook. A whole complex of cultural institutions around killing and eating cattle are derived from the liar and thief, Hermes” (Hyde 9). Hermes’ thievery is an act of culture bringing rather than motivated by personal gain, - he is the culture hero. Through looking at Nabokov’s Pale Fire we see this trickster quality come into play.
The title Pale Fire, as some scholars believe, was most likely used from Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens passage,
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction / Robs the vast sea; the moon's
an arrant thief, / And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; / The sea's a
thief whose liquid surge resolves / The moon into salt tears. – (4.3.435-40)
This motif of theft is one applicable to the trickster, as we have seen in Hermes, and to Nabokov. When we read Nabokov’s novels we feel the influences of previous authors, Shakespeare, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Samuel Coleridge and more than any one scholar can identify. Nabokov can’t help but steal other images from previous authors, because if nothing is original, then the only way to deal with any sort of anxiety of influence is to embrace it. Nabokov is as Hyde describes trickster as “disturbing the established categories of property” by blatantly emulating previous great authors to open the road to a new realm of literature (Hyde 13). Nabokov writing “Pale Fire” by John Shade within his novel Pale Fire cries out openly in the poem, “But this transparent thingum does require/Some moondrop title. Help me, Will! Pale Fire” (Nabokov 68). Nabokov, through candidly thieving from other authors, is the reader’s own culture bringer. Taking an old image and putting it in a new context as a form of bricolage. Nabokov and Hermes have stolen needed goods to give to the mortals of this world and enliven our lives with mischief and knowledge of the other realm that may not be a place we should go alone and unprepared.
If Nabokov is starting to sound more like a god than human because he is likened to Hermes, it is because he has truly become an immortal figure through the art of his works. Living beyond the end of his human life through the pages he has written. Nabokov truly has omnipresence in his novels, through his own personal habits found in his characters and, for example, the anagram Vivian Darkbloom in Lolita. No longer do you have to become an alchemist to create the sorcerer’s stone, but rather write something worthwhile. One way to live beyond the dark abyss is to achieve immortality. As Humbert Humbert concludes his journal, and Nabokov finishes Lolita saying, “I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share” (Nabokov 309). Hermes is the messenger god, an immortal benefiting human kind, as Nabokov has found his own immortality through his novels that are available for people to read and experience and convey a message as an immortal figure.
The wily and light-fingered qualities found in Hermes are not the only way the trickster model enlightens our understanding of Nabokov. As Hermes is designated as the psychopompos by Zeus, the guide of souls from this world to Hades, Nabokov is the reader’s psychopompos who helps the reader in their transition between worlds. Both Hermes and Nabokov are moving us across the threshold as figures of the doorway or the in-between. “Hermes will deliver a soul into whatever world or mental state lies across the line” (Hyde 208). No longer is Nabokov just playing games in his books, he is the guide through the novel, but something much more, he is the guide of our souls. Nabokov leaves clues in Pale Fire indicating that something darker and mysterious is going on by using vocabulary like chthonic, wraith, underworld, stygian, Lethe, Mercury, Lower World (Nabokov 46, 56, 85, 133, 231). Nabokov is the liminal figure, neither one thing nor the other in relation to the reader, moving between the living and dead, guiding us through the experience of his novels or his expressions of the stygian abyss. Nabokov’s novels serve as the limn, because while Nabokov writes he is in the doorway, and we the readers are neither in this world or the next. Kinbote relates to the reader a conversation that he had with Shade where Shade (an anagram for Hades), says, “There is always a psychopompos around the corner isn’t there?” (Nabokov 226). Is the corner the turn of the page, or perhaps the turn of death?
Nabokov is concerned with the in-between of life and death, writing about communications of the dead to the living in Pale Fire, and the dead narrating the living in Transparent Things. The question stems from mortality and immortality, what happens after we die? Brian Boyd highlights an important answer to the afterlife question given by Nabokov in his book The Magic of Artistic Discovery, “Asked by an interviewer: Do you believe in God? he answered: To be quite candid- and what I’m going to say now is something I never said before. And I hope it produces a salutary little chill- I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more” (Boyd 248). The eerie elusive answer Nabokov gives relays the notion that he is a religious author in a broad sense, omnipresent, taking us on a journey to the underworld, and communicates the notions of a deeper meaning of “Pale Fire”, the phosphorescent footprints of the deity himself perhaps. Nabokov seems to be a messenger of the gods, as is one of the activities of the trickster Hermes, expressing what he can for us mere mortals reading his novels, delivering secrets from the other world where we cannot go. Nabokov transforms such things that we deem inexpressible into “something that can be turned over to the reader in printed characters to have him cope with the blessed shiver,” something he ponders in Speak Memory, perhaps Nabokov as messenger and thief works to bring us the salutary chill that runs down the spine at epiphany (Nabokov 212).
Transparent Things by Nabokov is a novel where the lines are blurred between reality and fiction, author and reader. Several specters, who are deceased characters from the novel, in the other world are narrating Hugh Person’s experiences, past, present, future. The deceased Mr. R is helping Hugh Person transition from one world to the other at the very end saying, “This is, I believe, it: not the crude anguish of physical death but the incomparable pangs of the mysterious mental maneuver needed to pass from one state of being to another. Easy, you know, does it son” (Nabokov 158). Mr. R is present guiding Hugh Person through the transition, a sort of psychopompos, making the mysterious mental maneuver manageable for Hugh Person, because Mr. R has done this before. Nabokov is psychopompos to the reader, you person, as it seems like when the novel talks about Hugh Person, it is really talking to you, the person, the reader. Nabokov breaks the assumed boundaries between reader and author speaking directly to us through the novel as our guide, in short, trickster is a boundary-creator and crosser (Hyde 7).
Nabokov is following in the steps of other great writers whose works he most likely read and subsequently influenced by. The protagonists of the author’s novels communicate with the dead, as in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Homer’s Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, Joyce’s Ulysses, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Allusions strongly indicate that Nabokov read these listed works and used their influence in his novels. In Chapter 6 of Joyce’s Ulysses, Hades, for example, covers the 11:00 hour when Bloom and his companions ride through the cemetery towards Patty Dignam’s funeral. This chapter corresponds with Homer’s Odyssey where Odysseus goes to the underworld, a visit to Hades, and communicates with “shades” or shadows of the dead. Sounds like John Shade from Pale Fire. The characters in Joyce’s Ulysses correspond with Homer’s characters, Sisyphus with Martin Cunningham, Cerberus with Father Coffey, Hades with the caretaker, Elopenor with Dignam. Nabokov uses Joyce, as Joyce uses Homer. The theft runs deep in the literary world, and is crucial to exploring new ideas with old ones. The concern with the underworld, the afterlife, beyond the pale fire, is explored much as Nabokov likes to explore what happens after we die. The reader is able to safely explore what happens after death through the psychopompos, in this case the author, Nabokov, crossing the boundary between earth and Underworld, the river Styx, through his writing.
The first lines of “Pale Fire” read, “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain /By the false azure in the windowpane; /I was the smudge of ashen fluff-and I /Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky” (Nabokov 33). The waxwing lives on in the optical illusion created by the glass after dying from the impact; the only way to reach the reflection is to cross the liminal boundary between worlds, of this life and the next, to be a wraith in the pale fire of our world. Nabokov openly reveals his fascination with the black void or abyss before and after this life in chapter one of Speak Memory saying, “Over and over again, my mind has made colossal efforts to distinguish the faintest of personal glimmers in the impersonal darkness on both sides of my life...Short of suicide, I have tried everything” (Nabokov 20). He also says that the dark abyss that lies on either side of life, the two eternities of darkness, “are identical twins, [and] man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more clam that the one he is heading for” (Nabokov 19). This helps explain his deep fascination with the notions of the Underworld and mortality that pervade his novels.
Hyde says this of trickster in his book, which we can now associate with Nabokov,
“He is the adept who can move between heaven and earth, and between the living
and the dead. As such he is sometimes the messenger of the gods and sometimes
the guide of souls, carrying the dead into the underworld or opening the tomb to
release them when they must walk among us. Sometimes it happens that the road
between heaven and earth is not open, whereupon trickster travels not as a
messenger but as a thief, the one who steals from the gods the good things that
humans need if they are to survive this world” (Hyde 6).
While Nabokov may not be writing his novels with the intention of being a trickster as he has been described, understanding Nabokov in this way is helpful to comprehending and appreciating his works of literature. Nabokov is the messenger from the other side, wherever that may be, thieving from those before him to bring to us the culture we might have missed, cluing us in on immortality and expressing the inexpressible.
Vladimir Nabokov becomes part of the mythic tradition in terms of a trickster figure: he is not a moral figure, nor do his novels tell us how to behave, but rather they tell us who we might become. If Humbert from Lolita had understood something about Quilty, just as if we understand something about Nabokov we can understand something about ourselves. Quilty is a trickster figure to Humbert, as Nabokov is to the reader. As Hermes enchants Apollo with the homemade lyre and the experience of music, Nabokov enchants the reader with his novel. Nabokov as a trickster leads us through the epiphany of experience rather than meaning.
Works Cited
Boyd, Brian. Nabokov's Pale Fire The Magic of Artistic Discovery. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 248. Print.
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World. New York: First North Point Press, 1999. 6, 7, 13, 208-9. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. 50th Anniversary ed. New York: Vintage International, 1997. 309. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Pale Fire. New York: Vintage International, 1989. 33, 46, 56, 68, 85, 133, 226, 231. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Speak, Memory. New York: Vintage International, 1989. 19,20,19. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Transparent Things. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1974. 158. Print.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Let's Recap the class Lit 431, quickly now
I liked Adam's quick recap of the class by ranking the Nabokov books that we've read. I think it is a good way to reflect. Of course there is no way to truly rank these against each other or anything else for that matter. (I will be posting my final term paper tomorrow after I've proofread it a couple more times. Then I present on Tuesday.)
4 - Lolita, this was my second encounter with the novel. I had read it only once before so that I could write a paper for my Literary Criticism class. Sutter suggested the novel for the paper, so I read it quickly so I could use it. I felt like I knew so much about this book having already written a paper on it, but little did I know how little I knew. Lolita is when I truly realized you never just read a Nabokov book, but rather you must be a re-reader. I learned that through my overconfidence approaching the novel. Vivian Darkbloom is Vladimis Nabokov....or is it the other way around? What do we do with the child molestation part of the novel? Is it an allegory of the artistic process? Do you think Humbert asked for this role? Maybe he never wanted to like little girls, he dreamed of being an astronaut. (picnic, lightening). Waterproof.
3 - Speak Memory, good read with clever writing. The most interested I've ever been in an autobiography. I love the insight into the mysterious Nabokov, although presented of himself by himself. I realize he has a certain slant on things. We learned not to look lazily at things and look at a photograph the way Nabokov might, seeing the divine detail in everything. We thought about our earliest childhood memory, hopefully at a pure image, an experience before it had labels. Christina's blog has a good example of this.
2 - Pale Fire, I had no idea what to expect with this novel. I was under the impression it might be a bit boring because it was just about a guy commenting on another guy's poem. This is called a novel, but really it just looked like a poem being explicated. I was so pleasantly suprised at how much I enjoyed this. I read this side by side with Sutter. And we fell in love with the pedantic Kinbote and I genuinely felt for Shade and the loss of Hazel. This is when I started to notice a deeper experience to Nabokov's novels. Everyone is a thief, and like the moon can't help but take the silvery light from the sun, we all can't help but take our material from everything that surrounds us. Nothing is original....perhaps. I also had never seen a waxwing bird before, and really very beautiful with their black mask. Lemniscate (Bloom and Stephen). Timon of Athens, I had never heard of that Shakespeare play before. I watched the Prisoner of Zenda. This novel seemed to have so much more going on than I could have EVER imagined.
1- Transparent Things, I can't wait to sit down and read this again. and then again. Just because it is short does not mean it's a fast read. It was by far the most interesting to me. The way the past, present and future were wound together, narrators who were characters who died in the novel narrating Hugh Persons's life.....you person. The multiple narrators and the levels of narration were at first very confusing, but as we talked in class things clicked! Armande was my favorite character, perhaps I just like her name. somnambulism. And the most interesting of all: mysterious mental manuever.
Thank you Dr. Sexson, our professor and psychopompos for the class. We quite literally would never have made it this far without you....ever.
4 - Lolita, this was my second encounter with the novel. I had read it only once before so that I could write a paper for my Literary Criticism class. Sutter suggested the novel for the paper, so I read it quickly so I could use it. I felt like I knew so much about this book having already written a paper on it, but little did I know how little I knew. Lolita is when I truly realized you never just read a Nabokov book, but rather you must be a re-reader. I learned that through my overconfidence approaching the novel. Vivian Darkbloom is Vladimis Nabokov....or is it the other way around? What do we do with the child molestation part of the novel? Is it an allegory of the artistic process? Do you think Humbert asked for this role? Maybe he never wanted to like little girls, he dreamed of being an astronaut. (picnic, lightening). Waterproof.
3 - Speak Memory, good read with clever writing. The most interested I've ever been in an autobiography. I love the insight into the mysterious Nabokov, although presented of himself by himself. I realize he has a certain slant on things. We learned not to look lazily at things and look at a photograph the way Nabokov might, seeing the divine detail in everything. We thought about our earliest childhood memory, hopefully at a pure image, an experience before it had labels. Christina's blog has a good example of this.
2 - Pale Fire, I had no idea what to expect with this novel. I was under the impression it might be a bit boring because it was just about a guy commenting on another guy's poem. This is called a novel, but really it just looked like a poem being explicated. I was so pleasantly suprised at how much I enjoyed this. I read this side by side with Sutter. And we fell in love with the pedantic Kinbote and I genuinely felt for Shade and the loss of Hazel. This is when I started to notice a deeper experience to Nabokov's novels. Everyone is a thief, and like the moon can't help but take the silvery light from the sun, we all can't help but take our material from everything that surrounds us. Nothing is original....perhaps. I also had never seen a waxwing bird before, and really very beautiful with their black mask. Lemniscate (Bloom and Stephen). Timon of Athens, I had never heard of that Shakespeare play before. I watched the Prisoner of Zenda. This novel seemed to have so much more going on than I could have EVER imagined.
1- Transparent Things, I can't wait to sit down and read this again. and then again. Just because it is short does not mean it's a fast read. It was by far the most interesting to me. The way the past, present and future were wound together, narrators who were characters who died in the novel narrating Hugh Persons's life.....you person. The multiple narrators and the levels of narration were at first very confusing, but as we talked in class things clicked! Armande was my favorite character, perhaps I just like her name. somnambulism. And the most interesting of all: mysterious mental manuever.
Thank you Dr. Sexson, our professor and psychopompos for the class. We quite literally would never have made it this far without you....ever.
The Homeric Hymn to Hermes
Here is part of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, you can read parts on my blog, or click the link in the title below and read the whole thing. It is not very long and it's a fun read. I'm using Hermes in my final paper, so if you don't know Hermes very well, this will help you.
THE HOMERIC HYMN TO HERMES
HERMES IS BORN
Muse, sing in honor of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, lord of Kyllene, lord of Arcadia with all its sheep, bringer of luck, messenger of the gods. His mother was Maia with the wonderful hair, a shy and shamefaced nymph who stayed in her shady cave, avoiding the company of the blessed gods. In the darkest night, when sweet sleep held white-armed Hera fast, Zeus, the son of Kronos, used to lie with the nymph with the fabulous hair. No one knew about it, neither the gods, who do not die, nor human beings, who do.
Now, when he had finished what he had in mind and when ten moons had risen in the sky, Zeus led his notorious child into the light. Maia gave birth to a wily[1] boy, flattering and cunning, a robber and cattle thief, a bringer of dreams, awake all night, waiting by the gates of the city—Hermes, who was soon to earn himself quite a reputation among the gods, who do not die.
As the sun rose on the fourth day of the month, lady Maia bore him; by noon he played the lyre and by evening he had stolen the cattle of Apollo, who shoots from afar.
[1] Or "cunning," "versatile," "much traveled," "polytropic": polútropon (literally, turning-many-ways). In all of Greek literature, three characters are polytropic: Hermes, Odysseus, and Alcibiades.
HERMES INVENTS THE LYRE
Indeed, he didn't lie around in his sacred cradle, no, the minute he slipped from his mother's immortal arms he leapt up and set out to find Apollo's herds. As he crossed the threshold of that roomy cave, he happened on a turtle and got himself an endless source of wealth. For you should know that it was Hermes who first made the turtle into something that could sing. Their paths crossed at the courtyard gate, where the turtle was waddling by, chewing the thick grass in front of the dwelling. Hermes, the bringer of luck, took a close look, laughed, and said:
"Here's a bit of luck[1] I can't ignore! Hello there, you shapely thing, dancing girl, life of the party. Lovely to see you. How'd a mountain girl with a shiny shell get so playful? Let me carry you inside! What a blessing! Do me a favor, come on, I'll respect you. It's safer inside, you could get in trouble out there. A living turtle, they say, keeps troublesome witchcraft away. And yet, if you were to die you'd sing most beautifully."
So saying, Hermes picked up the turtle with both hands and carried his lovely toy into the house. He turned her over and with a scoop of gray iron scraped the marrow from her mountain shell. And, just as a swift thought can fly through the heart of a person haunted with care, just as bright glances spin from the eyes, so, in one instant, Hermes knew what to do and did it. He cut stalks of reed to measure, fitted them through the shell, and fastened their ends across the back. Skillfully, he tightened a piece of cowhide, set the arms in place, fixed a yoke across them, and stretched seven sheep-gut strings to sound in harmony.
When he was finished, he took that lovely thing and tested each string in turn with a flat pick. It rang out wonderfully at the touch of his hand, and he sang along beautifully, improvising a few random snatches the way teenagers sing out insults at a fair. He sang the song of Zeus, the son of Kronos, and Maia with the wonderful shoes, how they used to chat in comradely love; he broadcast the story of his own famous conception. And he sang in praise of Maia's servant girls and stately rooms, of all the tripods and caldrons she had to her name.
[1] Hermaion: “a lucky find.”
HERMES STEALS APOLLO'S CATTLE
As he sang, however, his mind wandered to other matters. For Hermes longed to eat meat. So, taking the hollow lyre and tucking it in his sacred cradle, he sped from the sweet-smelling halls to a lookout point, a tricky scheme brewing in his heart, the kind that mischievous folk cook up in the middle of the night.
The chariot and horses of Helios were going down below the earth toward Ocean when Hermes came running to the shadowed mountains of Pieria. There the divine cattle of the blessed gods have their stable and graze in lovely, unmown meadows.
There and then, Maia's son, the keen-eyed slayer of Argus,[1] cut fifty loudly lowing cattle from the herd and drove them zigzag across the sandy place. He thought to drive them backward, too, another crafty trick, mixing up their footprints—the front behind and the hind before—while he himself walked straight ahead.
And right away on that sandy beach he wove himself fabulous sandals, such as no one ever thought or heard of. Tying together the newly sprouted myrtle twigs and tamarisk, he bound them, leaves and all, securely to his feet, a pair of shoes for those who travel light. (The glorious slayer of Argus had picked those shrubs in Pieria when getting ready for this trip, inventing on the spot as one will do when packing in a hurry.)
But as he was hurrying through the grassy fields of Onchestus, he was seen by an old man setting up his flowering vineyard.[2] The notorious son of Maia spoke first:
"Hey, old man stooping over the hoe, you're sure to have barrels of wine when all those vines bear fruit. If, that is, you listen to me and bear in mind that you haven't seen what you've seen, and you haven't heard what you've heard, and, in general, keep your mouth shut as long as nobody's bothering you personally."
Having said all this, Hermes gathered the excellent herd of cattle and drove them through many shadowy mountains and echoing gorges and fields in flower.
And now divine night, his dark helper, was almost over and the dawn, which forces mortals to work, was quickly coming on. Bright Selene—daughter of Pallas, lord Megamedes' son—had just climbed to her watch-post when the sturdy child of Zeus drove Apollo's wide-browed cattle to the river Alpheus. They arrived unwearied at a high-roofed barn and watering troughs standing before a remarkable meadow.
[1] Argus Panoptes (the bright one, all eyes) was a watchful giant. He had a hundred or more eyes all over his body; some of his eyes would sometimes close for sleep, but never all of them. I take him to be an image of the watchfulness of a shame society.
[2] From other versions of the story we know this man's name is Battus.
A SACRIFICE TO THE GODS
Then, having foddered the bellowing herd and packed them into the stable, chewing fresh lotus and sweet ginger, he gathered a pile of wood and set himself to seek the art of fire, for Hermes, you should know, is responsible for fire-sticks and fire.[1]
He took a stout laurel branch, trimmed it with a knife, and spun it on a block of wood held firmly in his hand until the hot smoke crept up. Then he piled thick bunches of dry sticks in a sunken trench. The flames caught and spread fiercely.
While the power of glorious Hephaestus kindled the fire, Hermes, full of his own power, dragged two lowing longhorns out of the stable and up to the flames. He threw them panting on their backs, rolled them over, bent their heads aside, and pierced their spinal cords.
Then Hermes set about his chores in turn. First he cut up the richly marbled flesh and skewered it on wooden spits; he roasted all of it—the muscle and the prized sirloin and the dark-blooded belly—and laid the spits out on the ground.
The skins he stretched over a rippling rock (still today, ages later, those hides are there, and they will be there for ages to come). Next he gladly drew the dripping chunks of meat from the spits, spread them on a stone, and divided them into twelve portions distributed by lot, making each one exactly right.[2]
And glorious Hermes longed to eat that sacrificial meat. The sweet smell weakened him, god though he was; and yet, much as his mouth watered, his proud heart[3] would not let him eat. Later he took the fat and all the flesh and stored them in that ample barn, setting them high up as a token[4] of his youthful theft. That done, he gathered dry sticks and let the fire devour, absolutely, the hooves of the cattle, and their heads.
And when the god had finished, he threw his sandals into the deep pooling Alpheus. He quenched the embers and spread sand over the black ashes. And so the night went by under the bright light of the moon.
[1] Hermes does not invent fire; he invents a method of making fire, a trick, a techne.
[2] The twelve portions are moíras or "lots," "allotments." Hermes makes one for each of the twelve Olympian gods (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, Athena, Hephaestus, and Hestia).
[3] Thymos: “heart,” “soul,” “breath,” “mind”—the Homeric Greeks located intelligence in the chest and the speaking voice, not in the silent brain.
[4] Sêma or "sign."
HERMES COMES HOME AT DAWN
APOLLO SEARCHES FOR THE THIEF
THE CONFRONTATION
THE ARGUMENT BEFORE ZEUS
HERMES AND APOLLO EXCHANGE GIFTS
APOLLO GIVES HERMES HIS OFFICES
Apollo then swore a serious oath: "For mortals and immortals alike, I would have this instrument be the sure and heartfelt token of our bond.
"Moreover, I now bestow on you the marvelous wand with three gold branches. It brings good fortune and wealth, and will protect you from harm as you effect the good words and deeds that I have learned from the mind of Zeus.
"But, noble child of Zeus, as for the other thing you have asked about, the art of prophecy, neither you nor any of the deathless gods may learn it. Only the mind of Zeus knows the future. I've made a pledge, I've vowed and sworn a great oath, that only I of all the undying gods might know his intricate plans. And so, dear brother, bearer of the golden wand, don't ask me to reveal the things all-seeing Zeus intends.
"As for me, I will sorely puzzle the unenviable race of men, destroying some and helping others. If a man comes to me guided by the call and flight of ominous birds, he will profit from my words; I won't deceive him. But the man who believes in birds that chatter idly, who invokes my prophetic art against my will, who tries to know more than the deathless gods, his journey will be useless, I swear. Still, I'd be happy to receive his offerings.
"I'll tell you one more thing, however, son of glorious Maia, son of Zeus who holds the shield, luck-bringing helper of the gods. There are certain sacred sisters, three virgins lifted on swift wings; their heads have been dusted with white meal; they live beneath a cliff on Parnassus.[1] They teach their own kind of fortune telling. I practiced it as a boy traipsing after cattle; my father doesn't care. The sisters fly back and forth from their home, feeding on waxy honeycombs and making things happen. They like to tell the truth when they have eaten honey and the spirit is on them; but if they've been deprived of that divine sweetness, they buzz about and mumble lies.
"I give them to you, then. Question them well and please your heart. And if mortal men you should instruct, they may have good fortune and follow you.
"And, son of Maia, tend, as well, the ranging, twisted-homed cattle, the horses, and the hard-working mules. May glorious Hermes be the lord of fire-eyed lions and white-toothed boars, and dogs; may he be lord of all the flocks and all the sheep the wide earth feeds. And Hermes alone shall be appointed messenger to the underworld, where Hades gives the ultimate gift and takes none in return."
In this way, with the blessing of the son of Kronos, lordly Apollo showed friendship and good will toward the son of Maia. So it is that Hermes moves among the gods, who do not die, and human beings, who must. And though he serves a few, most of the time, when night has fallen, he deceives the race whose time runs out.
And so farewell, son of Zeus and Maia; I will think of you often as I go on to other songs.
[1] These are called the Bee Maidens. Apollo gives Hermes a minor prophetic art.
THE HOMERIC HYMN TO HERMES
HERMES IS BORN
Muse, sing in honor of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, lord of Kyllene, lord of Arcadia with all its sheep, bringer of luck, messenger of the gods. His mother was Maia with the wonderful hair, a shy and shamefaced nymph who stayed in her shady cave, avoiding the company of the blessed gods. In the darkest night, when sweet sleep held white-armed Hera fast, Zeus, the son of Kronos, used to lie with the nymph with the fabulous hair. No one knew about it, neither the gods, who do not die, nor human beings, who do.
Now, when he had finished what he had in mind and when ten moons had risen in the sky, Zeus led his notorious child into the light. Maia gave birth to a wily[1] boy, flattering and cunning, a robber and cattle thief, a bringer of dreams, awake all night, waiting by the gates of the city—Hermes, who was soon to earn himself quite a reputation among the gods, who do not die.
As the sun rose on the fourth day of the month, lady Maia bore him; by noon he played the lyre and by evening he had stolen the cattle of Apollo, who shoots from afar.
[1] Or "cunning," "versatile," "much traveled," "polytropic": polútropon (literally, turning-many-ways). In all of Greek literature, three characters are polytropic: Hermes, Odysseus, and Alcibiades.
HERMES INVENTS THE LYRE
Indeed, he didn't lie around in his sacred cradle, no, the minute he slipped from his mother's immortal arms he leapt up and set out to find Apollo's herds. As he crossed the threshold of that roomy cave, he happened on a turtle and got himself an endless source of wealth. For you should know that it was Hermes who first made the turtle into something that could sing. Their paths crossed at the courtyard gate, where the turtle was waddling by, chewing the thick grass in front of the dwelling. Hermes, the bringer of luck, took a close look, laughed, and said:
"Here's a bit of luck[1] I can't ignore! Hello there, you shapely thing, dancing girl, life of the party. Lovely to see you. How'd a mountain girl with a shiny shell get so playful? Let me carry you inside! What a blessing! Do me a favor, come on, I'll respect you. It's safer inside, you could get in trouble out there. A living turtle, they say, keeps troublesome witchcraft away. And yet, if you were to die you'd sing most beautifully."
So saying, Hermes picked up the turtle with both hands and carried his lovely toy into the house. He turned her over and with a scoop of gray iron scraped the marrow from her mountain shell. And, just as a swift thought can fly through the heart of a person haunted with care, just as bright glances spin from the eyes, so, in one instant, Hermes knew what to do and did it. He cut stalks of reed to measure, fitted them through the shell, and fastened their ends across the back. Skillfully, he tightened a piece of cowhide, set the arms in place, fixed a yoke across them, and stretched seven sheep-gut strings to sound in harmony.
When he was finished, he took that lovely thing and tested each string in turn with a flat pick. It rang out wonderfully at the touch of his hand, and he sang along beautifully, improvising a few random snatches the way teenagers sing out insults at a fair. He sang the song of Zeus, the son of Kronos, and Maia with the wonderful shoes, how they used to chat in comradely love; he broadcast the story of his own famous conception. And he sang in praise of Maia's servant girls and stately rooms, of all the tripods and caldrons she had to her name.
[1] Hermaion: “a lucky find.”
HERMES STEALS APOLLO'S CATTLE
As he sang, however, his mind wandered to other matters. For Hermes longed to eat meat. So, taking the hollow lyre and tucking it in his sacred cradle, he sped from the sweet-smelling halls to a lookout point, a tricky scheme brewing in his heart, the kind that mischievous folk cook up in the middle of the night.
The chariot and horses of Helios were going down below the earth toward Ocean when Hermes came running to the shadowed mountains of Pieria. There the divine cattle of the blessed gods have their stable and graze in lovely, unmown meadows.
There and then, Maia's son, the keen-eyed slayer of Argus,[1] cut fifty loudly lowing cattle from the herd and drove them zigzag across the sandy place. He thought to drive them backward, too, another crafty trick, mixing up their footprints—the front behind and the hind before—while he himself walked straight ahead.
And right away on that sandy beach he wove himself fabulous sandals, such as no one ever thought or heard of. Tying together the newly sprouted myrtle twigs and tamarisk, he bound them, leaves and all, securely to his feet, a pair of shoes for those who travel light. (The glorious slayer of Argus had picked those shrubs in Pieria when getting ready for this trip, inventing on the spot as one will do when packing in a hurry.)
But as he was hurrying through the grassy fields of Onchestus, he was seen by an old man setting up his flowering vineyard.[2] The notorious son of Maia spoke first:
"Hey, old man stooping over the hoe, you're sure to have barrels of wine when all those vines bear fruit. If, that is, you listen to me and bear in mind that you haven't seen what you've seen, and you haven't heard what you've heard, and, in general, keep your mouth shut as long as nobody's bothering you personally."
Having said all this, Hermes gathered the excellent herd of cattle and drove them through many shadowy mountains and echoing gorges and fields in flower.
And now divine night, his dark helper, was almost over and the dawn, which forces mortals to work, was quickly coming on. Bright Selene—daughter of Pallas, lord Megamedes' son—had just climbed to her watch-post when the sturdy child of Zeus drove Apollo's wide-browed cattle to the river Alpheus. They arrived unwearied at a high-roofed barn and watering troughs standing before a remarkable meadow.
[1] Argus Panoptes (the bright one, all eyes) was a watchful giant. He had a hundred or more eyes all over his body; some of his eyes would sometimes close for sleep, but never all of them. I take him to be an image of the watchfulness of a shame society.
[2] From other versions of the story we know this man's name is Battus.
A SACRIFICE TO THE GODS
Then, having foddered the bellowing herd and packed them into the stable, chewing fresh lotus and sweet ginger, he gathered a pile of wood and set himself to seek the art of fire, for Hermes, you should know, is responsible for fire-sticks and fire.[1]
He took a stout laurel branch, trimmed it with a knife, and spun it on a block of wood held firmly in his hand until the hot smoke crept up. Then he piled thick bunches of dry sticks in a sunken trench. The flames caught and spread fiercely.
While the power of glorious Hephaestus kindled the fire, Hermes, full of his own power, dragged two lowing longhorns out of the stable and up to the flames. He threw them panting on their backs, rolled them over, bent their heads aside, and pierced their spinal cords.
Then Hermes set about his chores in turn. First he cut up the richly marbled flesh and skewered it on wooden spits; he roasted all of it—the muscle and the prized sirloin and the dark-blooded belly—and laid the spits out on the ground.
The skins he stretched over a rippling rock (still today, ages later, those hides are there, and they will be there for ages to come). Next he gladly drew the dripping chunks of meat from the spits, spread them on a stone, and divided them into twelve portions distributed by lot, making each one exactly right.[2]
And glorious Hermes longed to eat that sacrificial meat. The sweet smell weakened him, god though he was; and yet, much as his mouth watered, his proud heart[3] would not let him eat. Later he took the fat and all the flesh and stored them in that ample barn, setting them high up as a token[4] of his youthful theft. That done, he gathered dry sticks and let the fire devour, absolutely, the hooves of the cattle, and their heads.
And when the god had finished, he threw his sandals into the deep pooling Alpheus. He quenched the embers and spread sand over the black ashes. And so the night went by under the bright light of the moon.
[1] Hermes does not invent fire; he invents a method of making fire, a trick, a techne.
[2] The twelve portions are moíras or "lots," "allotments." Hermes makes one for each of the twelve Olympian gods (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, Athena, Hephaestus, and Hestia).
[3] Thymos: “heart,” “soul,” “breath,” “mind”—the Homeric Greeks located intelligence in the chest and the speaking voice, not in the silent brain.
[4] Sêma or "sign."
HERMES COMES HOME AT DAWN
APOLLO SEARCHES FOR THE THIEF
THE CONFRONTATION
THE ARGUMENT BEFORE ZEUS
HERMES AND APOLLO EXCHANGE GIFTS
APOLLO GIVES HERMES HIS OFFICES
Apollo then swore a serious oath: "For mortals and immortals alike, I would have this instrument be the sure and heartfelt token of our bond.
"Moreover, I now bestow on you the marvelous wand with three gold branches. It brings good fortune and wealth, and will protect you from harm as you effect the good words and deeds that I have learned from the mind of Zeus.
"But, noble child of Zeus, as for the other thing you have asked about, the art of prophecy, neither you nor any of the deathless gods may learn it. Only the mind of Zeus knows the future. I've made a pledge, I've vowed and sworn a great oath, that only I of all the undying gods might know his intricate plans. And so, dear brother, bearer of the golden wand, don't ask me to reveal the things all-seeing Zeus intends.
"As for me, I will sorely puzzle the unenviable race of men, destroying some and helping others. If a man comes to me guided by the call and flight of ominous birds, he will profit from my words; I won't deceive him. But the man who believes in birds that chatter idly, who invokes my prophetic art against my will, who tries to know more than the deathless gods, his journey will be useless, I swear. Still, I'd be happy to receive his offerings.
"I'll tell you one more thing, however, son of glorious Maia, son of Zeus who holds the shield, luck-bringing helper of the gods. There are certain sacred sisters, three virgins lifted on swift wings; their heads have been dusted with white meal; they live beneath a cliff on Parnassus.[1] They teach their own kind of fortune telling. I practiced it as a boy traipsing after cattle; my father doesn't care. The sisters fly back and forth from their home, feeding on waxy honeycombs and making things happen. They like to tell the truth when they have eaten honey and the spirit is on them; but if they've been deprived of that divine sweetness, they buzz about and mumble lies.
"I give them to you, then. Question them well and please your heart. And if mortal men you should instruct, they may have good fortune and follow you.
"And, son of Maia, tend, as well, the ranging, twisted-homed cattle, the horses, and the hard-working mules. May glorious Hermes be the lord of fire-eyed lions and white-toothed boars, and dogs; may he be lord of all the flocks and all the sheep the wide earth feeds. And Hermes alone shall be appointed messenger to the underworld, where Hades gives the ultimate gift and takes none in return."
In this way, with the blessing of the son of Kronos, lordly Apollo showed friendship and good will toward the son of Maia. So it is that Hermes moves among the gods, who do not die, and human beings, who must. And though he serves a few, most of the time, when night has fallen, he deceives the race whose time runs out.
And so farewell, son of Zeus and Maia; I will think of you often as I go on to other songs.
[1] These are called the Bee Maidens. Apollo gives Hermes a minor prophetic art.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Vegetable Dance
For the Vegetable Dance referred to in the last pages of Transparent Things go to this site Nabokov's Golliwoggs: Lodi Reads English 1899-1909 by D. Barton Johnson
OR
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dbjgo4.htm
OR
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dbjgo4.htm
You'll find the words and these pictures there:
Independent Blogging
Thig blog seems interesting enough to have a link, check this blog out. This one isn't even for a class!
http://nigeness.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-and-reviewing-and-rereading-and.html
http://nigeness.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-and-reviewing-and-rereading-and.html
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Robert Alter, Transparent Things, Mimesis, Metafiction
As I was searching for material written about Transparent Things I stumbled upon Motives for Fiction by Robert Alter. Several pages are devoted to Transparent Things and self-conscious writing. He also talks about mimesis (A term that causes flashbacks of my Literary Criticism class with Dr. Beehler) def. of mimesis:
Mimesis works very well for Transparent Things if Hugh Person is supposed to "imitate" YOU Person, like an Everyman character, who is supposed to represent us, the audience. Which is an imitation of an imitation of the ideal, if I'm not mistaken?
Alter also spends several pages talking about the self-conscious writing in Transparent Things and the relationship between reader and writer. As we said in class Alter mentions Baron R. the writer to be a "satirically distorted self-portrait" of Nabokov.
And Alter notices something I did not, Nabokov's annagrammic signature Adam von Labrikov, a minor character in Mr. R's novel (Alter 15).
**
Self-conscious writing is an interesting way to explore fiction writing, playing with the relationship between author and reader. This is a style of writing we could place in a subcategory, or rather a device of fiction which is: Metafiction, which I might describe as a sort of writing technique of the main genre of Fiction blurring the lines between reality and fiction through self-conscious writing. However my understanding of the term is not absolute.
**
I believe that through exploring the relationship between author and reader, Nabokov is exploring the relationship between fiction and "reality," while he explores the realm of consciousness versus the unconscious, art versus life, etc. Alter explores this theme thoroughly in part of his novel which you can read if you click the above link.
This is just a blog to explore some ideas. I feel as if I'm stumbling around in the dark a bit when I try to talk about Transparent Things, but hopefully a second reading and a second day of class will help. Too bad there is only one more day of discussion.
-The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
-basic theoretical principle in the creation of art. The word is Greek and means "imitation" (though in the sense of "re-presentation" rather than of "copying"). Plato and Aristotle spoke of mimesis as the re-presentation of nature. According to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation: that which really exists (in the "world of ideas") is a type created by God; the concrete things man perceives in his existence are shadowy representations of this ideal type.
Therefore, the painter, the tragedian, and the musician are imitators of an imitation, twice removed from the truth. Aristotle, speaking of tragedy, stressed the point that it was an "imitation of an action"-that of a man falling from a higher to a lower estate. Shakespeare, in Hamlet's speech to the actors, referred to the purpose of playing as being " . . . to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature." Thus, an artist, by skillfully selecting and presenting his material, may purposefully seek to "imitate" the action of life.
Mimesis works very well for Transparent Things if Hugh Person is supposed to "imitate" YOU Person, like an Everyman character, who is supposed to represent us, the audience. Which is an imitation of an imitation of the ideal, if I'm not mistaken?
Alter also spends several pages talking about the self-conscious writing in Transparent Things and the relationship between reader and writer. As we said in class Alter mentions Baron R. the writer to be a "satirically distorted self-portrait" of Nabokov.
And Alter notices something I did not, Nabokov's annagrammic signature Adam von Labrikov, a minor character in Mr. R's novel (Alter 15).
**
Self-conscious writing is an interesting way to explore fiction writing, playing with the relationship between author and reader. This is a style of writing we could place in a subcategory, or rather a device of fiction which is: Metafiction, which I might describe as a sort of writing technique of the main genre of Fiction blurring the lines between reality and fiction through self-conscious writing. However my understanding of the term is not absolute.
**
I believe that through exploring the relationship between author and reader, Nabokov is exploring the relationship between fiction and "reality," while he explores the realm of consciousness versus the unconscious, art versus life, etc. Alter explores this theme thoroughly in part of his novel which you can read if you click the above link.
This is just a blog to explore some ideas. I feel as if I'm stumbling around in the dark a bit when I try to talk about Transparent Things, but hopefully a second reading and a second day of class will help. Too bad there is only one more day of discussion.
Initial Reaction to Transparent Things
Just finished Transparent Things, and I loved it. Couldn't put it down.
Just a bit more:
-Hugh Person......You Person
-green is a common color throughout the novel
- Looked up Tralatitions and got suggestions for Tralatitious: passed along, handed down, or Metaphorical, figurative, not literal
-Cherubim, not a cute baby angel, actually a composite beast with wings, lion body. Ch. 21, pg 546.
It's late and I just wanted to get some initial thoughts down after my initial reading. Here are some short notes/thoughts/observations.
This was another novel where we have communication from beyond. The narrator is someone who has reached the realm of afterlife according to Annete Wiesner in her review on The International Fiction Review mentioned in a previous blog. I thought it was interesting that Person suffers from somnambulism, sleep walking. An interesting relationship between consciousness/"reality" and sleep/unconsciousness. See the beginning of Chapter 7, "the boy [Person] did not care 'to behave like a ghost' and begged to be locked up in his bedroom" (501). Hugh hated the common grave of sleep, sharing it with his father (494). End of Chapter 24,"We have shown our need for qutoation marks ("reality," "dream") Decidedly, signs with which Hugh Person sill peppers the margins of galleys have a metaphysical or zodiacal import! "Dust to dust" (the dead are good mixers, that's quite certain at least)" (554).Just a bit more:
-Hugh Person......You Person
-green is a common color throughout the novel
- Looked up Tralatitions and got suggestions for Tralatitious: passed along, handed down, or Metaphorical, figurative, not literal
-Cherubim, not a cute baby angel, actually a composite beast with wings, lion body. Ch. 21, pg 546.
Monday, November 16, 2009
"Nabokov Collection"
Marian Bantjes did the cover for Transparent Things. Her project website can be visited here where I got the above picture. The full show of covers and description can be seen at the link below at Design Observer.
Design Observer: John Gall: The Nabokov Collection -- A Slideshow
"The assignment [of this show]: redesign Vladimir Nabokov's book covers, all twenty-one of them. The solution: twenty-one specimen boxes, the kind used by butterfly collectors like Nabokov, each created by a different designer.
Each cover is a specimen box and the boxes are filled using paper and insect pins. John Gall, Art Director, Vintage and Anchor Books."
Go to the above link and see these beautiful book cover designs!
"The assignment [of this show]: redesign Vladimir Nabokov's book covers, all twenty-one of them. The solution: twenty-one specimen boxes, the kind used by butterfly collectors like Nabokov, each created by a different designer.
Each cover is a specimen box and the boxes are filled using paper and insect pins. John Gall, Art Director, Vintage and Anchor Books."
Go to the above link and see these beautiful book cover designs!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
This might help out with Transparent Things
Behind the Glass Pane: Vladimir Nabokov’s “Perfection” and Transcendence
Annette Wiesner, University of Stuttgart
"The protagonist of Transparent Things, Hugh Person, searching for an escape from the misery of his existence, tries to escape first through communion and love—much like the first attempts of Cincinnatus—and then seeks solace in his past. We are shown the distinct difference between the abilities of the still mortal consciousness of Hugh Person, who overlooks signs and patterns, and that of the transcended beings, R. and his companions, who are able to make sense of the patterns inherent in life, yet who are also limited in their own way. Nabokov once discarded a note for Pale Fire (1962) which read: “Time without consciousness—lower animal world; time with consciousness—man; consciousness without time—some still higher state.”[12] This last state is the one the narrators of Transparent Things inhabit, and one Cincinnatus and Hugh Person will reach after their deaths."
Annette Wiesner, University of Stuttgart
"The protagonist of Transparent Things, Hugh Person, searching for an escape from the misery of his existence, tries to escape first through communion and love—much like the first attempts of Cincinnatus—and then seeks solace in his past. We are shown the distinct difference between the abilities of the still mortal consciousness of Hugh Person, who overlooks signs and patterns, and that of the transcended beings, R. and his companions, who are able to make sense of the patterns inherent in life, yet who are also limited in their own way. Nabokov once discarded a note for Pale Fire (1962) which read: “Time without consciousness—lower animal world; time with consciousness—man; consciousness without time—some still higher state.”[12] This last state is the one the narrators of Transparent Things inhabit, and one Cincinnatus and Hugh Person will reach after their deaths."
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Review for Quiz
**go to Rachel's blog and read A Bolt from the Blue by Mary McCarthy, it is pretty much the study guide for this class.....almost.
1. When did Gradus first come into the story? When John Shade writes the first word of the poem, Gradus is born with the poem
2. According to Kinbote, who are the main characters? Kinbote, Shade, and Gradus
3. What did the royal Zemblan family and the daughters of Goldsworth have in common? in alphabetical order.
4. Beauty + Pity = Art
5. What type of butterfly lands on Shade before he was shot? Vanessa Atalanta
6. According to Kinbote what gives Shade's poem reality? Kinbote's commentary.
7. What two Shakespearean plays does the title Pale Fire derive from? Hamlet and Timon of Athens
8. In Zemblan, what does Kinbote mean? King Killer.....how does that fit Kinbote?
9. What is the password? pity. What does he mean by pity?
10. How does Shade predict his own death? Jana's blog, last refrain of the poem......the gardener.
11. Where in the poem does Hazel commit suicide? In the exact center of the poem.....butterfly
12. Who gives Gradus a ride to the assassination location? Gerald Emerald
13. Ultima thule = the ultimate land and the name of a short story by Nabokov
14. What was Kinbote's title for John Shade's poem? Solus Rex, Sun King, King Alone
15. Who translated Timon of Athens into Zemblan? Uncle Conmal - wrong translation though
16. According to the Index for Zembla: A distant northern land.
17. What word game does Shade have a predilection for? word golf
18. Who is the toilest? T.S. Eliot
19. What is the misprint on which Shade had based life everlasting? the typo that said white fountain instead of white mtn.
20. What does Kinbote think the last line of the poem is? the first line repeated.
21. Kinbote can forgive everything save one thing: treason
22. Just this. Not text, but texture.
23. Forever Amber, and The Prisoner of Zenda
24. Kinbote....identifies with Hazel......reversing words, redips/spider, redwop/powder
25. Bretwit means chess intelligence, pg 180
26. Zembla = resemblance
27. IPH = if = Institution of the Preparation for the Hereafter.
28. How many days does it take to write each canto? 3,7,7,3.......butterfly???
29. What is Kinbote's wife's name? Paradisa - Duchess of Pain and Moan
30. Draw an ampersand.....&.......the dropped rubber band.
** btw, our papers are due on the day of our presentation, and we are doing presentations in reverse alphabetical order if I understood that right.
1. When did Gradus first come into the story? When John Shade writes the first word of the poem, Gradus is born with the poem
2. According to Kinbote, who are the main characters? Kinbote, Shade, and Gradus
3. What did the royal Zemblan family and the daughters of Goldsworth have in common? in alphabetical order.
4. Beauty + Pity = Art
5. What type of butterfly lands on Shade before he was shot? Vanessa Atalanta
6. According to Kinbote what gives Shade's poem reality? Kinbote's commentary.
7. What two Shakespearean plays does the title Pale Fire derive from? Hamlet and Timon of Athens
8. In Zemblan, what does Kinbote mean? King Killer.....how does that fit Kinbote?
9. What is the password? pity. What does he mean by pity?
10. How does Shade predict his own death? Jana's blog, last refrain of the poem......the gardener.
11. Where in the poem does Hazel commit suicide? In the exact center of the poem.....butterfly
12. Who gives Gradus a ride to the assassination location? Gerald Emerald
13. Ultima thule = the ultimate land and the name of a short story by Nabokov
14. What was Kinbote's title for John Shade's poem? Solus Rex, Sun King, King Alone
15. Who translated Timon of Athens into Zemblan? Uncle Conmal - wrong translation though
16. According to the Index for Zembla: A distant northern land.
17. What word game does Shade have a predilection for? word golf
18. Who is the toilest? T.S. Eliot
19. What is the misprint on which Shade had based life everlasting? the typo that said white fountain instead of white mtn.
20. What does Kinbote think the last line of the poem is? the first line repeated.
21. Kinbote can forgive everything save one thing: treason
22. Just this. Not text, but texture.
23. Forever Amber, and The Prisoner of Zenda
24. Kinbote....identifies with Hazel......reversing words, redips/spider, redwop/powder
25. Bretwit means chess intelligence, pg 180
26. Zembla = resemblance
27. IPH = if = Institution of the Preparation for the Hereafter.
28. How many days does it take to write each canto? 3,7,7,3.......butterfly???
29. What is Kinbote's wife's name? Paradisa - Duchess of Pain and Moan
30. Draw an ampersand.....&.......the dropped rubber band.
** btw, our papers are due on the day of our presentation, and we are doing presentations in reverse alphabetical order if I understood that right.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Prisoner of Zenda
As I was recovering from an especially brutal migrain last night I watched The Prisoner of Zenda from 1937...yes it is in black and white. It is laugh out loud funny with lots of good action scenes. Rudolf Rassendyll, the hero, is so funny, I adore him. I know we already talked about the connection with Kinbote's Zembla story, but after watching it I have no doubt. There is a King Charles that is facing a revolt, he's captured, there is a passageway somewhere, a man 
from England...any of this sounding familiar? We could argue that Kinbote read all of the books on the shelf and was influenced by them, but that means he came up with the Zembla story after moving into Judge Goldsworth's house. Well, he had no friends, and he had to kill time when he was waiting to watch Shade.Click on the link above to read the exchange between Hornick and Boyd on this subject, it is interesting to follow the discourse. Specifically pay attention to The origins of Zembla section. But the whole conversation is interesting.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
John Shade Sketch
Here is my best sketch of John Shade. I'm not much of an artist. This took up most of my evening, sad to say. Reference pages, 20, 83, 267, 292 in Pale Fire for descriptions of John Shade's appearance. I put mittens on him because it was cold and I can't draw hands. And I wish I had left room for the snow boots, but I guess you get the idea. I kinda like him. He's supposed to be a large man, but I thought he might appreciate the slimming effect of the coat with the vicuna collar. I was hoping he might look a bit like Nabokov, but no.
*Blog Feed Updating Problem: I tried the solution offered by Kyle and it worked! Go to Kyle's blog for directions.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
http://www.leasttern.com/Haroun/harounques.htm
Dedication Poem
Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu:
All our dream-worlds may come true.
Fairy lands are fearsome too.
As I wander far from view
Read, and bring me home to you.
http://www.leasttern.com/Haroun/harounques.htm
Dedication Poem
Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu:
All our dream-worlds may come true.
Fairy lands are fearsome too.
As I wander far from view
Read, and bring me home to you.
Acrostics
Schwarzenegger Sticks It To Assemblyman, Acrostic Style
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/10/schwarzenegger_sticks_it_to_assemblyman_acrostic_style.php
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/10/schwarzenegger_sticks_it_to_assemblyman_acrostic_style.php
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
My dark Vanessa
Line 270: My dark Vanessa
The Red Admirable
Kinbote says, page 173, "I notice a whiff of Swift in some of my notes." Thief!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Amber to Zen
Pale Fire page 83, "Judging by the novels in Mrs. Goldsworth's boudoir, her intellectual interests were fully developed, going as they did from Amber to Zen."
We were told in class to find out what books these could be, Amber - Zen.....by some suggestion I've posted:
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
"In banning the book, the Massachusetts attorney general had listed 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, seven abortions, 10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men, and 49 miscellaneous objectionable passages." read more about Forever Amber here, or click for the wikipedia summary.
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
"In banning the book, the Massachusetts attorney general had listed 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, seven abortions, 10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men, and 49 miscellaneous objectionable passages." read more about Forever Amber here, or click for the wikipedia summary.
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope 
is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is abducted on the eve of his coronation, and the protagonist, an English gentleman on holiday who fortuitously resembles the monarch, is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an attempt to save the situation. (thank you wikipedia) Hmmmm.....I see this book is about an imposter of sorts.
is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is abducted on the eve of his coronation, and the protagonist, an English gentleman on holiday who fortuitously resembles the monarch, is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an attempt to save the situation. (thank you wikipedia) Hmmmm.....I see this book is about an imposter of sorts.
What do you think? Did Kinbote read them? Did they influence him?
Rosenbaum hits one out of the park!
Please, please read this article Dr. Sexson found. Go to the link and read the article in it's entirety. I just pulled some interesting snippets. It pertains to the lecture we had from Dr. Minton and of course to the class as a whole! Very cool stuff!
The Novel of the Century: Nabokov's Pale Fire by Ron Rosenbaum.
"Pale Fire is the most Shakespearean work of art the 20th century has produced, the only prose fiction that offers Shakespearean levels of depth and complexity, of beauty, tragedy and inexhaustible mystery. One of the achievements of Brian Boyd's book is that he makes explicit the profound way in which Pale Fire is a Shakespearean novel–not just in its global vision and the infinite local reflections in a global eye it offers, but also in the profound way in which Pale Fire is haunted by specific works of Shakespeare, and by Shakespeare himself as Creator."
"Scholars have argued for centuries over the identity and significance of "onlie begetter," but there can be little doubt that the only begetter passage in Pale Fire is one more instance of the way "the underside of the weave" of Pale Fire is shot through with a web of Shakespearean references, the way Pale Fire is dedicated to, haunted by, a work of Shakespeare–and not the most obvious one. The obvious one is Timon of Athens , since it seems at first that Pale Fire takes its title from this amazing passage in Timon , a bitter denunciation of a cosmos of Universal Theft: I'll example you with thievery: The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears. God is that great!... And, of course, the theme of theft, all Creation as theft from a greater Creator, is shot through the book and may reflect Nabokov's theft from–at the very least his debt to–Shakespeare"
"Pale Fire is as startling, as stunning, as life-changing as the sudden heart-stopping appearance of a real ghost. And the real ghost that inspires Pale Fire from beyond the grave, the real shade that haunts its reflected sky is not Hazel Shade's, but Shakespeare's Hamlet ."
The Novel of the Century: Nabokov's Pale Fire by Ron Rosenbaum.
"Pale Fire is the most Shakespearean work of art the 20th century has produced, the only prose fiction that offers Shakespearean levels of depth and complexity, of beauty, tragedy and inexhaustible mystery. One of the achievements of Brian Boyd's book is that he makes explicit the profound way in which Pale Fire is a Shakespearean novel–not just in its global vision and the infinite local reflections in a global eye it offers, but also in the profound way in which Pale Fire is haunted by specific works of Shakespeare, and by Shakespeare himself as Creator."
"Scholars have argued for centuries over the identity and significance of "onlie begetter," but there can be little doubt that the only begetter passage in Pale Fire is one more instance of the way "the underside of the weave" of Pale Fire is shot through with a web of Shakespearean references, the way Pale Fire is dedicated to, haunted by, a work of Shakespeare–and not the most obvious one. The obvious one is Timon of Athens , since it seems at first that Pale Fire takes its title from this amazing passage in Timon , a bitter denunciation of a cosmos of Universal Theft: I'll example you with thievery: The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears. God is that great!... And, of course, the theme of theft, all Creation as theft from a greater Creator, is shot through the book and may reflect Nabokov's theft from–at the very least his debt to–Shakespeare"
"Pale Fire is as startling, as stunning, as life-changing as the sudden heart-stopping appearance of a real ghost. And the real ghost that inspires Pale Fire from beyond the grave, the real shade that haunts its reflected sky is not Hazel Shade's, but Shakespeare's Hamlet ."
Thursday, October 22, 2009
he steals his silvery light from the sun
Today we will have the one and only, Dr. Gretchen Minton! Speaking to the class about Pale Fire and Timon of Athens. She is needless to say, an expert, or rather the expert, that I know of, on Shakespeare.
I have never read Timon of Athens, and due to limited time in my schedule I looked at the summary of the plot. Click HERE for the summary.
I found this passage while searching around fron Loving Dr. Johnson by Helen Deutsch. And it mentions this theme we talked about in class: theivery, theft, stealing: everybody is a theif. Check this out:
So theivery is a large part of Pale Fire. There is a problem of origins. Do I sense Harold Bloom.....anxiety of influence? It is my understanding that Timon is upset about universal theivery. While reading Brian Boyd's book, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, Boyd reveals many interesting things that I may never have discovered on my own. Although I underlined most every direct mention of Timon of Athens, I hardly thought of it.
In the Zembla story in the closet where the secret door to the tunnel is there is, "a thiry-twomo edition of Timon of Athens translated into Zemblan by his uncle Conmal..."(125). Page 126 there is a "Timon Alley". Then when the Red King readies the closet for his escape, he finds nothing left in the closet, "save for the tiny volume of Timon Afinsken still lying in the corner,"(128). Then when the King has duped the guard and returned to the closet and removes the shelves to get to the tunnel. "an object fell with a miniature thud; he guessed what it was and took it with him as a tailsman" (132). This object could only be the tiny volume of Timon Afinsken.
Boyd also traces Timon of Athens on page 437 of his book linked above. If you think you've missed something while reading Nabokov's Pale Fire, chances are that you have, Brian Boyd does an excellent job catching you up on all that you missed.
I feel a bit overwhelmed, but it is better than feeling underwhelmed. There is so much, and it is nice to know that I am not alone. Happy re-reading, because that is the thing to do. See everyone in class in 20 minutes!!!
I have never read Timon of Athens, and due to limited time in my schedule I looked at the summary of the plot. Click HERE for the summary.
I found this passage while searching around fron Loving Dr. Johnson by Helen Deutsch. And it mentions this theme we talked about in class: theivery, theft, stealing: everybody is a theif. Check this out:
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction / Robs the vast sea; the moon's an
arrant thief, / And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; / The sea's a thief whose
liquid surge resolves / The moon into salt tears. -Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
"This motif of resemblence as both theft and transformation (staged by Nabokov/Shade's self-conscious borrowing of the passage in the poem with which the novel begins) is rendered deathly by the first lines of the poem "Pale Fire":
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane.
To repeat an image, to borrow its "pale fire," is notonly to
steal but to decieve, with potentially deathly consequences. But while art's
resemblences can kill, they can also transform death." (215).
So theivery is a large part of Pale Fire. There is a problem of origins. Do I sense Harold Bloom.....anxiety of influence? It is my understanding that Timon is upset about universal theivery. While reading Brian Boyd's book, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, Boyd reveals many interesting things that I may never have discovered on my own. Although I underlined most every direct mention of Timon of Athens, I hardly thought of it.
In the Zembla story in the closet where the secret door to the tunnel is there is, "a thiry-twomo edition of Timon of Athens translated into Zemblan by his uncle Conmal..."(125). Page 126 there is a "Timon Alley". Then when the Red King readies the closet for his escape, he finds nothing left in the closet, "save for the tiny volume of Timon Afinsken still lying in the corner,"(128). Then when the King has duped the guard and returned to the closet and removes the shelves to get to the tunnel. "an object fell with a miniature thud; he guessed what it was and took it with him as a tailsman" (132). This object could only be the tiny volume of Timon Afinsken.
Boyd also traces Timon of Athens on page 437 of his book linked above. If you think you've missed something while reading Nabokov's Pale Fire, chances are that you have, Brian Boyd does an excellent job catching you up on all that you missed.
I feel a bit overwhelmed, but it is better than feeling underwhelmed. There is so much, and it is nice to know that I am not alone. Happy re-reading, because that is the thing to do. See everyone in class in 20 minutes!!!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Class Notes 10/13
10/13/2009 marked the first day devoted to the discussion of Pale Fire.Recommended book: Generosity by Richard Powers
Nabokov's idea of art: beauty + pity = art
see page 225 of Pale Fire, the conversation about original sin, the password is pity.
pity can be linked to the word generosity
Blogging Homework: read everyone's 2 pg papers that should be posted on their blogs. Then choose the best one, and write a paragraph or commentary. Don't be offended if yours does not get chosen. Often people choose things because they can relate to it. (My previous blog is my commentary on Jennie Lynn's paper, The Blue Hotel).
many ways to go about reading a text. what do you bring to the text? to illuminate the text.
ALSO, Blog the 6 most annoying things about Kinbote, and we say most annoying because most of Kinbote is annoying.
We began by talking about Pale Fire at a basic level, identifying the parts of the novel.
-the Foreword by Kinbote
-Pale Fire a poem by John Shade, 999 lines, 4 cantos, heroic rhyming couplets.
-Commentary by Kinbote, undertakes to explicate line by line
-Index, A-Z. Last index entry is Zembla, a distant northern land. The commentator truly has the last word.
both John Shade and Nabokov work with note cards.
Another Blog topic suggestion in class was to come to the defence of Kinbote. Poor, misunderstood Kinbote.
Parker called him a pompous dick. Which is not at all an exaggeration. Kinbote seems to have no self awareness.
T.S. Eliot
Talked about theft and stealing. Everybody is a thief, nothing is original.
Waxwing bird has a black mask, suggests thievery....(speaking about waxwing, see my Ode to the Waxwing blog. this guy did a funny youtube video I posted it, also see the picture of the waxwing Joan posted on her blog. Breathtaking).
Themes? -the notion of living on - how do mortals become immortal? - the cage
I think the idea is to have Pale Fire done by Thursday, but I realize, myself included, we might not get it done. I'm a little over halfway done. Happy reading.
Commentary on The Blue Hotel
Jennie Lynn's astute short paper, The Blue Hotel, is about the color blue, that's what you might think, but let me explain what she meant. In fact, I suggest that if you haven't read her paper yet, you should start with reading my commentary here to gain better insight to what she has to say. The last sentence of her first paragraph states,
"In Lolita, red alludes to everything Quilty, everything unhappy; blue toThis is true, and I thought this sounded familiar, and then I remembered writing something similar to that in my blog, however I deleted that blog because it didn't work with the other things I was talking about. But I'm sure it was something I said in that blog that triggered her paper. I mean blue is my favorite color. According to Wikipedia, "Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory (RYB), the complementary colour to blue is considered to be orange (based on the Munsell colour wheel).[2] The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any colour from navy blue to cyan. The word itself is derived from the Old French word bleu." I was just looking through my closet the other day and found that more than half of my clothes are of some shade of blue. I even painted my room blue when I was in high school. I nice deep dark blue that would make me want to sleep in, however I don't sleep in anymore because of school and work. I think I may have mentioned that story to her. And in about the second paragraph Jennie Lynn says,
everything happy, everything Lolita."
"Lolita wears blue jeans often. I realize that jeans are common casual wear andBlue jeans really are comfortable and if you refer to what I wrote about the first quote from Jennie Lynn's paper you'll know that my favorite color is blue. She must know too, having written a paper about blue. I think I've seen her wear a blue jean jacket. Blue does happen to be a color choice for my blog color. Perhaps she had been reading my blue blog so much that it helped her to think of the color blue in relation to Lolita. Anyway, blue jeans were such a huge part of my life in high school particularly because they were only cool jeans if they were from the Buckle. And one of the songs I was listening to in high school was More Than a Feeling by Boston. I think I shared this with her after class one day which may have gotten her to think about the feelings one, like Humbert, might have in relation to blue jeans, or the color blue. After re-reading my commentary, and not without pleasure, do I really believe that reading this blog will aide in any first, second, or third reading of Jennie Lynn's insightful paper on the color blue in Lolita.
that they are normally blue in color, but Humbert Humbert assigns Lolita’s jeans
a blue with a very different feeling."
Ode to Waxwing
I found this on you tube, thought it was good. You'll get it if you've read Pale Fire. The more I look online for Nabokov material, the more I realize how much material is out there. Our Nabokov class blogs are just part of the many many many other blogs dedicated to him. Pretty cool.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Waterproof
Short Paper
Waterproof, the word and moment where the reader realizes they have missed something if they still do not know the name of Lolita’s abductor, Quilty. Waterproof, the word that brings a flash of Hourglass Lake to Humbert’s consciousness. Waterproof, the word that takes the befuddled reader flipping back through the pages to discover that the ordinary passage doesn’t serve up Quilty’s name on a silver platter; the word that reminds Humbert that he “had known it [Quilty’s identity], without knowing it, all along” (272). Through exploring the ways in which the word waterproof functions in Nabokov’s novel, Lolita, the reader will further understand the intentions behind Lolita masquerading as a novel about pedophilia.
Waterproof is a very appropriate word to be a trigger word for Humbert and the reader because waterproof implies something airtight and sealed, like the deceit of Quilty, or perhaps the ploys of Nabokov. Both Quilty and Nabokov hoodwink their intended so thoroughly that there is little room to breathe. Quilty does so by eluding Humbert, but leaving clues. Nabokov does this by ensnaring the reader into the novel and toying with their expectations. The way Quilty and Nabokov trick both Humbert and reader is simply, waterproof.
Another way of looking at waterproof is by looking at the reader’s expectations and how Nabokov plays with them. The reader has urgently flipped through the pages to find the clue at Hourglass Lake on page 89, but is perplexed (unless they are an astute and extremely observant reader). ““Waterproof,” said Charlotte softly, making a fish mouth” (89). Nabokov is simply refusing to conform to what the reader would expect as a conventional mystery puzzle. Nabokov, like Quilty, has left clues, and instead of revealing the information, like Humbert, we are left searching, and then later, left to make the connections. The reader is supposed to be an active participatory reader in order to play the game; otherwise the book is nothing, but an erotic story about pedophilia.
Waterproof is the word that leads Humbert and the reader to the first reference to a tangible Quilty. Notice that Nabokov, true to his indirectness, leads the reader next to the clue, not straight to it. The third paragraph down from “Waterproof” Jean is talking and says, “Next time I expect to see fat old Ivor in the ivory. He is really a freak, that man. Last time he told me a completely indecent story about his nephew. It appears-” and she is interrupted by John, “Hullo there” (89). Ivor Quilty’s inappropriate nephew happens to be the Clare Quilty that torments Humbert. Waterproof leads Humbert and the reader to the setting of Hourglass Lake where Quilty is in the action, but we just don’t know it yet.
Nabokov leaves little treats for the reader to eat up if the reader is astute. Quilty leaves enough clues, seemingly obvious, once Humbert realizes the identity of his adversary. Nabokov and Quilty seem to be playing a game, at which the reader and poor Humbert are subjected to without much of a choice. And through looking at one single word in the novel, the reader can learn much more about the type of novel they are reading and what to expect, than through blundering through the novel and thinking it is only about a pedophile. Waterproof, might in fact, say it all.
Waterproof, the word and moment where the reader realizes they have missed something if they still do not know the name of Lolita’s abductor, Quilty. Waterproof, the word that brings a flash of Hourglass Lake to Humbert’s consciousness. Waterproof, the word that takes the befuddled reader flipping back through the pages to discover that the ordinary passage doesn’t serve up Quilty’s name on a silver platter; the word that reminds Humbert that he “had known it [Quilty’s identity], without knowing it, all along” (272). Through exploring the ways in which the word waterproof functions in Nabokov’s novel, Lolita, the reader will further understand the intentions behind Lolita masquerading as a novel about pedophilia.
Waterproof is a very appropriate word to be a trigger word for Humbert and the reader because waterproof implies something airtight and sealed, like the deceit of Quilty, or perhaps the ploys of Nabokov. Both Quilty and Nabokov hoodwink their intended so thoroughly that there is little room to breathe. Quilty does so by eluding Humbert, but leaving clues. Nabokov does this by ensnaring the reader into the novel and toying with their expectations. The way Quilty and Nabokov trick both Humbert and reader is simply, waterproof.
Another way of looking at waterproof is by looking at the reader’s expectations and how Nabokov plays with them. The reader has urgently flipped through the pages to find the clue at Hourglass Lake on page 89, but is perplexed (unless they are an astute and extremely observant reader). ““Waterproof,” said Charlotte softly, making a fish mouth” (89). Nabokov is simply refusing to conform to what the reader would expect as a conventional mystery puzzle. Nabokov, like Quilty, has left clues, and instead of revealing the information, like Humbert, we are left searching, and then later, left to make the connections. The reader is supposed to be an active participatory reader in order to play the game; otherwise the book is nothing, but an erotic story about pedophilia.
Waterproof is the word that leads Humbert and the reader to the first reference to a tangible Quilty. Notice that Nabokov, true to his indirectness, leads the reader next to the clue, not straight to it. The third paragraph down from “Waterproof” Jean is talking and says, “Next time I expect to see fat old Ivor in the ivory. He is really a freak, that man. Last time he told me a completely indecent story about his nephew. It appears-” and she is interrupted by John, “Hullo there” (89). Ivor Quilty’s inappropriate nephew happens to be the Clare Quilty that torments Humbert. Waterproof leads Humbert and the reader to the setting of Hourglass Lake where Quilty is in the action, but we just don’t know it yet.
Nabokov leaves little treats for the reader to eat up if the reader is astute. Quilty leaves enough clues, seemingly obvious, once Humbert realizes the identity of his adversary. Nabokov and Quilty seem to be playing a game, at which the reader and poor Humbert are subjected to without much of a choice. And through looking at one single word in the novel, the reader can learn much more about the type of novel they are reading and what to expect, than through blundering through the novel and thinking it is only about a pedophile. Waterproof, might in fact, say it all.
First Thoughts on Pale Fire
I spent most of my Sunday reading Pale Fire. Sutter and I spent two hours reading the poem out loud to each other after we each finished the Foreword on our own, taking turns for every verse, and also pausing for discussion or underlining or looking up a word we don't know....wishing we had the annotated text. We were both able to point out different things, catching things the other missed, "what did you underline?"......"definitely should circle that."....."what does that mean?"......"I don't know"..... "look it up". If you haven't read the poem out loud I suggest you do so, we found things we might not have found simply reading it to ourselves. I was also able to notice and appreciate the rhyme and rhythm of the poem. I only had one class this morning so again I devote my day to Pale Fire. (Not a bad thing). Sutter noticed some similarities between Eliot's The Wasteland, and Shade's deceased daughter with Leopold Bloom's deceased son Rudy in Joyce's Ulysses. See note below regarding James Joyce.
Emily Donahoe, in her blog, asks if anyone noticed the color purple and other images that evoke that color in the poem. I laughed because I didn't notice purple, I noticed the color blue everywhere, blue, blue-green, blue gray, hazy blue. But I went back and noticed the purple afterwards. Shade's first words of the commentary are mentioned when he and Kinbote talk about the "purple passages" of Hamlet and King Lear on pg 155. Then on pg 156 Shade is quoted as listing some things that bother him about students' papers, "Not having read the required book. Having read it like an idiot. Looking in it for symbols" then he gives an example (Emily I know you weren't looking for meaning in the color, this is just interesting). So there is probably no "meaning" in your notice of purple or my notice of blue. Does that mean we should not pay attention to the color? Probably not, but we can't think about it too much I guess. Dr. Sexson mentioned this when the class was discussing the color red in relation to Lolita. It is interesting what sticks with individuals after reading something. I wanted desperately for there to be some meaning in the color blue, but i might just be for effect, or to further ensnare readers in the trap of reading.
And I agree Emily....Nabokov is damn funny. I laughed out loud several times because Kinbote just begs to be laughed at. For example, Kinbote says,
Sorry about this enormous blog, but I have so much that I underlined and so much that begs discussion. Nabokov tends to do this do his readers, drive them off the deep end in a good way. I hope I'm going in the right direction here. AND I'm only on page 87!!! actually further because I keep updating this blog post. I don't even know what is going on.
*****
Another Dr. Sexson addition:
Amazing Camouflage Animals
How cool would it be to blend into the background sometimes? These animals use their powers of camouflage to catch prey, to hide from predators, and to catch a moment of peace and quiet.Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/11/amazing-camouflage-animal_n_316008.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image
This made me think of all the camouflaged things in Nabokov's novels that I miss, like when I miss cool things when I'm hiking that are right next to me. But the most intriguing part of the camouflaged animals for me was the animals that use their camouflage to catch prey.....why do I always feel like Nabokov is a predator, and I am the oblivious prey fooled by the camouflage.
This picture to the right is from this website I am sending you to and made me think of the predetor/prey with Nabokov. Pile of leaves? or deadly snake?
Emily Donahoe, in her blog, asks if anyone noticed the color purple and other images that evoke that color in the poem. I laughed because I didn't notice purple, I noticed the color blue everywhere, blue, blue-green, blue gray, hazy blue. But I went back and noticed the purple afterwards. Shade's first words of the commentary are mentioned when he and Kinbote talk about the "purple passages" of Hamlet and King Lear on pg 155. Then on pg 156 Shade is quoted as listing some things that bother him about students' papers, "Not having read the required book. Having read it like an idiot. Looking in it for symbols" then he gives an example (Emily I know you weren't looking for meaning in the color, this is just interesting). So there is probably no "meaning" in your notice of purple or my notice of blue. Does that mean we should not pay attention to the color? Probably not, but we can't think about it too much I guess. Dr. Sexson mentioned this when the class was discussing the color red in relation to Lolita. It is interesting what sticks with individuals after reading something. I wanted desperately for there to be some meaning in the color blue, but i might just be for effect, or to further ensnare readers in the trap of reading.
And I agree Emily....Nabokov is damn funny. I laughed out loud several times because Kinbote just begs to be laughed at. For example, Kinbote says,
"Although those notes, in the conformity with custom, come after the poem, the
reader is advised to consult them first and then study the poem with their help,
rereading them of course as he goes through the text, and perhaps, after having
done with the poem, consulting them a third time so as to complete the picture"
(28).
This guy Kinbote thinks pretty highly of himself, his work, and his relation to both the poet and the poem. Also another 'laugh out loud' moment was when Kinbote suggests "purchasing two copies of the same work which can then be placed in adjacent positions on a comfortable table" (28). C'mon.
Kinbote strikes me as the guy who thinks he is really close and friendly with someone, but isn't. Or is desperately trying to make more of a connection with John Shade than what Shade offered in the way of a friendship. I was suspicious numerous times of their "friendship" but I thought it was weird when Kinbote said, "Our close friendship was on that higher, exclusively intellectual level where one can rest from emotional troubles, not share them" (27). The point I'm trying to make is that I am skeptical. I mean John Shade nearly ran over him the first time Kinbote ever saw him, and Kinbote watches Shade through the window like a creeper. He is looking into the living room of Shade, he's not hanging out in it. Nabokov makes Kinbote unreliable in many ways, one way I found was on page 76 when Kinbote spells Finnegans Wake incorrectly as Finnigan's Wake, (complete with an apostrophe) and isn't Kinbote supposed to be a scholar?!
Kinbote leaves the reader with a statement at the end of the Foreword saying, "for better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word" (29) and also says that without his notes "Shade's text simply has no human reality at all..."(28). My question then is, can we only know Shade through Kinbote? Probably not, we have the poem to read.
Pale Fire, the poem: Line 516, "...And yet/It missed the gist of the whole thing; it missed/What
mostly interests the preterist;" so what this might be saying is that the gist of the whole thing is what interests the preterist.... Line 79, "A preterist: one who collects cold nests./Here was my bedroom, now reserved for guests." His old bedroom is a cold nest, maybe, like his Aunt's preserved room, like his deceased daughter's room. Just thinking about this theme or idea, of birds. I can't stop underlining and 
circling references to BIRDS!
Kinbote strikes me as the guy who thinks he is really close and friendly with someone, but isn't. Or is desperately trying to make more of a connection with John Shade than what Shade offered in the way of a friendship. I was suspicious numerous times of their "friendship" but I thought it was weird when Kinbote said, "Our close friendship was on that higher, exclusively intellectual level where one can rest from emotional troubles, not share them" (27). The point I'm trying to make is that I am skeptical. I mean John Shade nearly ran over him the first time Kinbote ever saw him, and Kinbote watches Shade through the window like a creeper. He is looking into the living room of Shade, he's not hanging out in it. Nabokov makes Kinbote unreliable in many ways, one way I found was on page 76 when Kinbote spells Finnegans Wake incorrectly as Finnigan's Wake, (complete with an apostrophe) and isn't Kinbote supposed to be a scholar?!
Kinbote leaves the reader with a statement at the end of the Foreword saying, "for better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word" (29) and also says that without his notes "Shade's text simply has no human reality at all..."(28). My question then is, can we only know Shade through Kinbote? Probably not, we have the poem to read.
Pale Fire, the poem: Line 516, "...And yet/It missed the gist of the whole thing; it missed/What
mostly interests the preterist;" so what this might be saying is that the gist of the whole thing is what interests the preterist.... Line 79, "A preterist: one who collects cold nests./Here was my bedroom, now reserved for guests." His old bedroom is a cold nest, maybe, like his Aunt's preserved room, like his deceased daughter's room. Just thinking about this theme or idea, of birds. I can't stop underlining and 
circling references to BIRDS!The bird on the left is a Cedar Waxwing and I would say it is one of the most elegant looking birds. There is also the Bohemian Waxwing (not pictured) The upper right picture of a bird is a mockingbird which Shade seems to use the mockingbird image in several verses, Pale Fire.
Sorry about this enormous blog, but I have so much that I underlined and so much that begs discussion. Nabokov tends to do this do his readers, drive them off the deep end in a good way. I hope I'm going in the right direction here. AND I'm only on page 87!!! actually further because I keep updating this blog post. I don't even know what is going on.
*****
Another Dr. Sexson addition:
Amazing Camouflage Animals
How cool would it be to blend into the background sometimes? These animals use their powers of camouflage to catch prey, to hide from predators, and to catch a moment of peace and quiet.Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/11/amazing-camouflage-animal_n_316008.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image
This made me think of all the camouflaged things in Nabokov's novels that I miss, like when I miss cool things when I'm hiking that are right next to me. But the most intriguing part of the camouflaged animals for me was the animals that use their camouflage to catch prey.....why do I always feel like Nabokov is a predator, and I am the oblivious prey fooled by the camouflage.
This picture to the right is from this website I am sending you to and made me think of the predetor/prey with Nabokov. Pile of leaves? or deadly snake?
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Complete and Utter Nonsense
Today, Sunday, as we are all reading Pale Fire (and/or writing the two page paper) check out these websites to aide or supplement or distract you from your reading.
**
Here is an article introduced to me by Dr. Sexson, "How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect" by Benedict Carey in The New York Times, online is an interesting article that discussed research about how when we read or see something nonsensical we look for a pattern or something that makes sense. The article gives some examples of research and some interesting ideas, that we can notice and enjoy in our literary adventures saying,
**
Also, another website for you folks interested in Pale Fire and it's many connections, including Zembla, Shakespeare and more, check out this blog called A Kiadic Pilgrimage. (Particulary exciting for me because I never caught the connection with The Golden Compass books by Phillip Pullman, which happens to be a favorite of mine.) See what this person has done collecting quotes from different places, most all referenceing Zembla, the distant northern land. Just thinking back to Lolita, Where is Humbert's Zembla? He does travel to the arctic early on in the novel before he met Lolita. Food for thought.
**
Back to the pages of Pale Fire......
**
Here is an article introduced to me by Dr. Sexson, "How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect" by Benedict Carey in The New York Times, online is an interesting article that discussed research about how when we read or see something nonsensical we look for a pattern or something that makes sense. The article gives some examples of research and some interesting ideas, that we can notice and enjoy in our literary adventures saying,
What is it that a good reader must have? imagination and creative thinking. And what better way to stimulate creativity that to be bewildered (by an author perhaps) and then find patterns of meaning in a text we wouldn't have otherwise found. Pretty cool!"Still, the new research supports what many experimental artists, habitual
travelers and other novel seekers have always insisted: at least some of the
time, disorientation begets creative thinking."
**
Also, another website for you folks interested in Pale Fire and it's many connections, including Zembla, Shakespeare and more, check out this blog called A Kiadic Pilgrimage. (Particulary exciting for me because I never caught the connection with The Golden Compass books by Phillip Pullman, which happens to be a favorite of mine.) See what this person has done collecting quotes from different places, most all referenceing Zembla, the distant northern land. Just thinking back to Lolita, Where is Humbert's Zembla? He does travel to the arctic early on in the novel before he met Lolita. Food for thought.
**
Back to the pages of Pale Fire......
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Examination Domination
Quick reminder: Short 2 page (only) paper. Double space. 12 pt font. Times New Roman. Dealing with a very specific topic. DUE: Oct. 13th
Test Questions from class:
1. What is the name of the only hotel that Humbert and Lolita stay in in Part 1? Enchanted Hunters
2. Know why the number 342 is significant to Lolita: Haze address 342 Lawn Street, # of hotel room at the Enchanted Hunters, and the # of hotels stayed in by Humbert and Lolita
3.page 31 "one of those dazzling coincidences that logicians loathe and poets love."
4. count on murder for what kind of prose style? fancy prose style
5. MEMORIZE the last line of the book: I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality the you or I may share, my Lolita.
6. page 437 What does Nabokov think he was really born as? A landscape painter.
7. Who can recognize a nymphet? an artist and a mad man
8. Speak Memory, Synesthesia, In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored.
9. What man with a mustache does Quilty resemble? Charlie Chapman (or Hitler)
10. Humbert:Quilty::Reader: Nabokov......what i mean by this is Humbert is tricked by Quilty as the reader is tricked by Nabokov.
11. Why do Nabokov and Humbert detest sleep? Parting with consciousness is unspeakably repulsive.....they have no control.
12. Dolores - mater dolorosa - the mother of sorrows
13. Names of Jean Farlow's dogs: Cavall and Melampus from the story about Actaeon and Diana. And how is the story of Actaeon and Diana related to Lolita? The hunter becomes the hunted.......or rather the Enchanted Hunter.......OR the Hunted Enchanter!!!!! Like the hotel name.....or like Humbert? or like Quilty?
14. What are the four things all good readers should have? -memory -imagination -artistic sense -a dictionary
15. Three things that go into building an artist: -teacher -storyteller -enchanter
Which one is most important? enchanter!.........see question 13
16. Read the blog of James the rat (I feel left out not having an epithet) on Speak Memory
17. What is the color of the ball that the cocker spaniel at The Enchanted Hunters? RED
18. Humbert's forearms....(hairy, masculine)
19. When Humbert finds Lolita pregnant and Lo tells him Quilty was the one who took her away, H.H. think of one word: Waterproof
20. Plays written by Quilty: The Little Nymph, The Lady Who Loved Lightening, Dark Age, The Strange Mushroom, Fatherly Love...
21. How did Charlotte die? Who was driving the car? Frederick Beale Jr.
22. anytime we use the word "reality", according to Nabokov it should always be in quotes.....or rather claws.
23. How did Humbert's mother die? (picnic, lightening)
24. What is the difference between parody and satire? Parody is to imitate in a way to mock or poke fun at something, but not in a mean way. A satire is usually an attack or used with derision. Nabokov loved parody, and Lolita is a parody of America.
25. In speak memory what did Nabokov's mother like to collect in the woods? Strange mushrooms.
26. Lolita's favorite types of movies: Musicals, Underworlders, Westerners - pg 170
27. Who is jutting Jaw? Dick Tracy, Nabokov parodied language from 1940-50's movies, Dick Tracy, comics, etc
28. Jana had a baby boy named Eugene!!! Congratulations!!!!
29. French Lieutenant's Woman, Lolita, Don Quixote are all examples of METAFICTION - self-conscious literature
30. What type of car did Maxonovich, the man who stole Valeria drive? A TAXI
31. Nabokov proud of passages: -the Kasbeam barber -class list -taxonovich -Lolita playing tennis
32. The very geometry of reality is what Lolita seemed to represent when she was playing tennis.
34. Imitative behavior of butterflies pg 95
35. Age regulations for nymphets, 9 - 14 and NYMPHETS ARE NOT FOUND IN POLAR REGIONS!
Test Questions from class:
1. What is the name of the only hotel that Humbert and Lolita stay in in Part 1? Enchanted Hunters
2. Know why the number 342 is significant to Lolita: Haze address 342 Lawn Street, # of hotel room at the Enchanted Hunters, and the # of hotels stayed in by Humbert and Lolita
3.page 31 "one of those dazzling coincidences that logicians loathe and poets love."
4. count on murder for what kind of prose style? fancy prose style
5. MEMORIZE the last line of the book: I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality the you or I may share, my Lolita.
6. page 437 What does Nabokov think he was really born as? A landscape painter.
7. Who can recognize a nymphet? an artist and a mad man
8. Speak Memory, Synesthesia, In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored.
9. What man with a mustache does Quilty resemble? Charlie Chapman (or Hitler)
10. Humbert:Quilty::Reader: Nabokov......what i mean by this is Humbert is tricked by Quilty as the reader is tricked by Nabokov.
11. Why do Nabokov and Humbert detest sleep? Parting with consciousness is unspeakably repulsive.....they have no control.
12. Dolores - mater dolorosa - the mother of sorrows
13. Names of Jean Farlow's dogs: Cavall and Melampus from the story about Actaeon and Diana. And how is the story of Actaeon and Diana related to Lolita? The hunter becomes the hunted.......or rather the Enchanted Hunter.......OR the Hunted Enchanter!!!!! Like the hotel name.....or like Humbert? or like Quilty?
14. What are the four things all good readers should have? -memory -imagination -artistic sense -a dictionary
15. Three things that go into building an artist: -teacher -storyteller -enchanter
Which one is most important? enchanter!.........see question 13
16. Read the blog of James the rat (I feel left out not having an epithet) on Speak Memory
17. What is the color of the ball that the cocker spaniel at The Enchanted Hunters? RED
18. Humbert's forearms....(hairy, masculine)
19. When Humbert finds Lolita pregnant and Lo tells him Quilty was the one who took her away, H.H. think of one word: Waterproof
20. Plays written by Quilty: The Little Nymph, The Lady Who Loved Lightening, Dark Age, The Strange Mushroom, Fatherly Love...
21. How did Charlotte die? Who was driving the car? Frederick Beale Jr.
22. anytime we use the word "reality", according to Nabokov it should always be in quotes.....or rather claws.
23. How did Humbert's mother die? (picnic, lightening)
24. What is the difference between parody and satire? Parody is to imitate in a way to mock or poke fun at something, but not in a mean way. A satire is usually an attack or used with derision. Nabokov loved parody, and Lolita is a parody of America.
25. In speak memory what did Nabokov's mother like to collect in the woods? Strange mushrooms.
26. Lolita's favorite types of movies: Musicals, Underworlders, Westerners - pg 170
27. Who is jutting Jaw? Dick Tracy, Nabokov parodied language from 1940-50's movies, Dick Tracy, comics, etc
28. Jana had a baby boy named Eugene!!! Congratulations!!!!
29. French Lieutenant's Woman, Lolita, Don Quixote are all examples of METAFICTION - self-conscious literature
30. What type of car did Maxonovich, the man who stole Valeria drive? A TAXI
31. Nabokov proud of passages: -the Kasbeam barber -class list -taxonovich -Lolita playing tennis
32. The very geometry of reality is what Lolita seemed to represent when she was playing tennis.
34. Imitative behavior of butterflies pg 95
35. Age regulations for nymphets, 9 - 14 and NYMPHETS ARE NOT FOUND IN POLAR REGIONS!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Lamenting Lolita
I am sad that this week marks the end of our focused discussion on Lolita, so here are some things I meant to blog about, or just snippets of interesting material from class, reading, discussion. (but I'm excited for Pale Fire)......
In class Dr. Sexson brought to our attention the references to spiders and insect imagery in Lolita. I enjoyed reading about H.H. spinning his own web that fails every time, in comparison to Quilty and Nabokov spinning successful webs and traps. Humbert spins a beautiful web on page 49 and on page 50, "What I thought was a prismatic weave turns out to be but an old gray cobweb..." Another time H.H. refers to himself "Humbert the Wounded Spider" (54).
Also, like (picnic, lightening) that quick blip says so much like a complete story in two words, as discussed in class, and on page 35 we get the parenthesis again, "...sleepy small town (elms, white church)..." Very much like a snapshot. Nabokov liked photography because it is a frozen segment of remembered time.....and "(elms, white church)" reminds me of a photograph.
Here is the link to the Zembla website devoted to Vladimir Nabokov, artist, translator, lepidopterist. Check it out!
Humbert:Quilty::Reader:Nabokov
At the beginning of the novel I felt the major theme about (lost) time stood out when H.H. talked about Annabel. "...there was a snapshot taken be my aunt which showed Annabel..." (13). And "...amid the sunny blur into which her lost loveliness graded..." (13). "...miserable memories..." (13). And many more phrases like these. Again, the snapshot is mearly a frozen segment of remembered time to Nabokov.
On page 32 it says, "Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!" and even though it is implied that H.H. is talking here.....I can't help but think that Nabokov is the one saying this too.
Humbert, page 73, "I loathe dogs," although it happens to be a dog that is helpful in the dispatching of Charlotte so that H.H. doesn't have to worry about being found out.
Check out Humbert Humdrum & Lullita, a Time article about the Kubrick film.
An annotated page is soon to follow, I just can't decide on one. Also a blog to follow concerning the Intro XXVII. And another blog concerning where I learned to appreciate literature, I think.
In class Dr. Sexson brought to our attention the references to spiders and insect imagery in Lolita. I enjoyed reading about H.H. spinning his own web that fails every time, in comparison to Quilty and Nabokov spinning successful webs and traps. Humbert spins a beautiful web on page 49 and on page 50, "What I thought was a prismatic weave turns out to be but an old gray cobweb..." Another time H.H. refers to himself "Humbert the Wounded Spider" (54).
Also, like (picnic, lightening) that quick blip says so much like a complete story in two words, as discussed in class, and on page 35 we get the parenthesis again, "...sleepy small town (elms, white church)..." Very much like a snapshot. Nabokov liked photography because it is a frozen segment of remembered time.....and "(elms, white church)" reminds me of a photograph.
Here is the link to the Zembla website devoted to Vladimir Nabokov, artist, translator, lepidopterist. Check it out!
Humbert:Quilty::Reader:Nabokov
At the beginning of the novel I felt the major theme about (lost) time stood out when H.H. talked about Annabel. "...there was a snapshot taken be my aunt which showed Annabel..." (13). And "...amid the sunny blur into which her lost loveliness graded..." (13). "...miserable memories..." (13). And many more phrases like these. Again, the snapshot is mearly a frozen segment of remembered time to Nabokov.
On page 32 it says, "Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!" and even though it is implied that H.H. is talking here.....I can't help but think that Nabokov is the one saying this too.
Humbert, page 73, "I loathe dogs," although it happens to be a dog that is helpful in the dispatching of Charlotte so that H.H. doesn't have to worry about being found out.
Check out Humbert Humdrum & Lullita, a Time article about the Kubrick film.
An annotated page is soon to follow, I just can't decide on one. Also a blog to follow concerning the Intro XXVII. And another blog concerning where I learned to appreciate literature, I think.
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