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Fw: [NABOKV-L] SIGHTING: Nabokov's Color Field
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Fulmerford via Google Reader: Nabokov's Color Field: Carrie Frye contrasts Nabokov's color field to Muriel Spark's.
Extracts: "Lane notes (on)...the Nabokov first sentences ...'their lack of preamble or introduction. The reader is almost always set down at some mid point of the narrative.'
Writes Lane: 'Again and again, with polite indifference, the stories drop us in media res, and leave us to work out what on earth the res might be'." *
"The Wood-Sprite" (Nabokov's first published story, written while he was a student at Cambridge): "I was pensively penning the outline of the inkstand's circular, quivering shadow."
"Wingstroke": "When the curved tip of one ski crosses the other, you tumble forward."
"Gods": "Here is what I see in your eyes right now: rainy night, narrow street, streetlamps gliding away into the distance."
"Details of a Sunset": "The last streetcar was disappearing in the mirrorlike murk of the street and, along the wire above it, a spark of Bengal light, crackling and quivering, sped into the distance like a blue star."
"La Veneziana": "In front of the red-hued castle, amid luxuriant elms, there was a vividly green grass court."
"A Letter That Never Reached Russia": "My charming, dear distant one, I presume you cannot have forgotten anything in the more than eight years of our separation, if you manage to remember even the gray-haired, azure liveried watchman who did not bother us in the least when we would meet, skipping school, on a frosty Petersburg morning, in the Suvurov museum, so dusty, so small, so similar to a glorified snuffbox."
"The Potato Elf": "Actually his name was Frederick Dobson."
"The Circle": "In the second place, because he was possessed by a sudden mad hankering after Russia."
"Tyrants Destroyed": "The growth of his power and fame was matched, in my imagination, by the degree of the punishment I would have liked to inflict on him."
"Ultima Thule": "Do you remember the day you and I were lunching (partaking of nourishment) a couple of years before your death?"
"That In Aleppo Once": "Dear V.--Among other things, this is to tell you that at last I am here, in the country whither so many sunsets have led."
"Signs and Symbols": "For the fourth time in as many years they were confronted with the problem of what birthday present to bring a young man who was incurably deranged in his mind."
JM: Fascinating collection of first sentences and the embedded revelation about one aspect of Nabokov's style when these first lines are put together.
The idea reminded me of Amós Oz: "The Story Begins," which I read with surprise and delight.
I selected a review that sumarized my own impressions: "Amos Oz's essay collection is an insightful study of the significance of opening passages in selected fictional works of literature. The author demonstrates how the beginnings of fictional works serve as contracts that bind together writer and reader. Although Oz analyzes but one story in each chapter, he cleverly makes connections between the stories -- e.g., the birth metaphor in "The Nose" and "A Country Doctor" -- in order to establish paradigms that support his thesis." - Eric Sterling, World Literature Today
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* CAAF: Portraits in first sentences: A collection of first sentences from Nabokov's short stories. Selection cribbed from Anthony Lane's terrific New Yorker essay about the collected stories, with a couple additions..The rest here. (Via Maud Newton).
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Extracts: "Lane notes (on)...the Nabokov first sentences ...'their lack of preamble or introduction. The reader is almost always set down at some mid point of the narrative.'
Writes Lane: 'Again and again, with polite indifference, the stories drop us in media res, and leave us to work out what on earth the res might be'." *
"The Wood-Sprite" (Nabokov's first published story, written while he was a student at Cambridge): "I was pensively penning the outline of the inkstand's circular, quivering shadow."
"Wingstroke": "When the curved tip of one ski crosses the other, you tumble forward."
"Gods": "Here is what I see in your eyes right now: rainy night, narrow street, streetlamps gliding away into the distance."
"Details of a Sunset": "The last streetcar was disappearing in the mirrorlike murk of the street and, along the wire above it, a spark of Bengal light, crackling and quivering, sped into the distance like a blue star."
"La Veneziana": "In front of the red-hued castle, amid luxuriant elms, there was a vividly green grass court."
"A Letter That Never Reached Russia": "My charming, dear distant one, I presume you cannot have forgotten anything in the more than eight years of our separation, if you manage to remember even the gray-haired, azure liveried watchman who did not bother us in the least when we would meet, skipping school, on a frosty Petersburg morning, in the Suvurov museum, so dusty, so small, so similar to a glorified snuffbox."
"The Potato Elf": "Actually his name was Frederick Dobson."
"The Circle": "In the second place, because he was possessed by a sudden mad hankering after Russia."
"Tyrants Destroyed": "The growth of his power and fame was matched, in my imagination, by the degree of the punishment I would have liked to inflict on him."
"Ultima Thule": "Do you remember the day you and I were lunching (partaking of nourishment) a couple of years before your death?"
"That In Aleppo Once": "Dear V.--Among other things, this is to tell you that at last I am here, in the country whither so many sunsets have led."
"Signs and Symbols": "For the fourth time in as many years they were confronted with the problem of what birthday present to bring a young man who was incurably deranged in his mind."
JM: Fascinating collection of first sentences and the embedded revelation about one aspect of Nabokov's style when these first lines are put together.
The idea reminded me of Amós Oz: "The Story Begins," which I read with surprise and delight.
I selected a review that sumarized my own impressions: "Amos Oz's essay collection is an insightful study of the significance of opening passages in selected fictional works of literature. The author demonstrates how the beginnings of fictional works serve as contracts that bind together writer and reader. Although Oz analyzes but one story in each chapter, he cleverly makes connections between the stories -- e.g., the birth metaphor in "The Nose" and "A Country Doctor" -- in order to establish paradigms that support his thesis." - Eric Sterling, World Literature Today
....................................................................................................................................
* CAAF: Portraits in first sentences: A collection of first sentences from Nabokov's short stories. Selection cribbed from Anthony Lane's terrific New Yorker essay about the collected stories, with a couple additions..The rest here. (Via Maud Newton).
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/