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

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

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: 

-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.

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.

"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!

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."

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.

links

Some interesting reading I've done:

A Fictional Vehicle for Literary Debate:
On John Burt Foster's Reading of Nabokov's Pale Fire
by Jaimie Crawford

Synthesizing Artistic Delight:The Lesson of Pale Fire by Brian Walter

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.

Pale Fire and The Prisoner of Zenda: an exchange between Neil Hornick and Brian Boyd

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.