Subject
More thoughts on plexed artistry
From
Date
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Jansy Mello sends this postscript:
Perhaps "The Original of Laura" inspite of the planned release of its
138 cards shall remain, as an "original", invisible and only accessible
to a certain kind of reader...( remember Keats and "heard melodies are
sweet, but those unheard are sweeter"?)
I just quoted John Shade on "plexed artistry"( lines 804/813, canto
Three), to show a similarity bt. his understanding and Freud's
concerning on how to interpret a complex text (its meaning, texture,
style, secret wishes,etc). Now, a colleague, Dr. Luiz Gallego, commented
on an artist's burning of his work ( Kafka's collection of stories,
Gogol's unfinished "Dead Souls" - because its last chapter was burnt -
Tolstoy's total rejection of (literaly unburnt) Anna Karenin, Hopkins
trust in Robert Bridges), to indicate the importance of chance and
contigencies related to the survival of verses or manuscripts.
In his words: "An artist's aim is not chiefly directed towards
posterity: he doesn't create a poem harboring the simple wish to leave
it as an inheritance: besides, he also depends on posterity to burn or
to keep it whole."
In Canto Four( lines 965/977), Shade develops something similar to the
verses on plexed artistry: I find it impossible to resist the impulse to
set an excerpt of these lines here, close to those in Canto Three:
Maybe my sensual love for the
consonne
D’appui, Echo’s fey child, is based
upon
A feeling of fantastically planned,
Richly rhymed life.
I feel I
understand
Existence, or at least a minute
part
Of my existence, only through my
art,
In terms of combinational delight;
And if my private universe scans
right,
So does the verse of galaxies
divine
Which I suspect is an iambic line.
An outstanding achievement: text and texture, meaning and rhyme, life
and art presented in a nutshell, by poetic scans, combinational delight
and faith!
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Perhaps "The Original of Laura" inspite of the planned release of its
138 cards shall remain, as an "original", invisible and only accessible
to a certain kind of reader...( remember Keats and "heard melodies are
sweet, but those unheard are sweeter"?)
I just quoted John Shade on "plexed artistry"( lines 804/813, canto
Three), to show a similarity bt. his understanding and Freud's
concerning on how to interpret a complex text (its meaning, texture,
style, secret wishes,etc). Now, a colleague, Dr. Luiz Gallego, commented
on an artist's burning of his work ( Kafka's collection of stories,
Gogol's unfinished "Dead Souls" - because its last chapter was burnt -
Tolstoy's total rejection of (literaly unburnt) Anna Karenin, Hopkins
trust in Robert Bridges), to indicate the importance of chance and
contigencies related to the survival of verses or manuscripts.
In his words: "An artist's aim is not chiefly directed towards
posterity: he doesn't create a poem harboring the simple wish to leave
it as an inheritance: besides, he also depends on posterity to burn or
to keep it whole."
In Canto Four( lines 965/977), Shade develops something similar to the
verses on plexed artistry: I find it impossible to resist the impulse to
set an excerpt of these lines here, close to those in Canto Three:
Maybe my sensual love for the
consonne
D’appui, Echo’s fey child, is based
upon
A feeling of fantastically planned,
Richly rhymed life.
I feel I
understand
Existence, or at least a minute
part
Of my existence, only through my
art,
In terms of combinational delight;
And if my private universe scans
right,
So does the verse of galaxies
divine
Which I suspect is an iambic line.
An outstanding achievement: text and texture, meaning and rhyme, life
and art presented in a nutshell, by poetic scans, combinational delight
and faith!
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/