Subject
Re: VN on Dickens, Jekyll & Hyde
From
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Dear Carolyn: will you marry me? We can leave SB to handle the dowry
details. Dificil sorte, Jansy, but that¹s how the biscoito crumbles.
I quote from VN¹s LoL page 183
³3. There are really three personalities -- Jekyll, Hyde, and a third, the
Jekyll residue when Hyde takes over.
[VN then draws the ccomplicated diagrams I mentioned. They boil down to
showing various shaded circles for J and H, with certain internal squares
for ³good² and slants for ³evil.² There are sequences of circles showing the
gradual, later accelerating, effect of the drug.]
VN continues: If you look closely you see that within this big, luminous,
pleasantly tweedy Jekyll there are scattered rudiments of evil. When the
magic drug starts to work, a dark concentration of this evil starts forming.
[VN draws another circle with a central core showing the slants of ³evil² --
it then gets more complex with one circle representing a ³smoke ring² or a
³halo.² And very VN, reminding me of his drawings of L Bloom¹s abode, he
sketches the Jekyll¹s house floor-plans which mirror the split J and H
personalities]
VN concludes, after all his diagrams:
³It follows that Jekyll¹s transformation implies a concentration of evil
that already inhabited him, rather than a complex metamorphosis. Jekyll is
not pure good, and Hyde (Jekyll¹s statement to the contrary) is not pure
evil, for just as parts of unacceptable Hyde dwell within acceptable Jekyll,
so over Hyde hovers a halo of Jekyll, horrified at his worser half¹s
iniquity.²
I suppose one could argue from this that the ³number of personalities²
exhibited by J&H depends on the definition of ³personalities² and in what
sense they can be ³counted.² I don¹t really mind, pace VN, if we just take
J¹s as the starting personality, with H¹s as the final extreme, giving a
count two as, I think, the average layperson digs the plot! That count of
two need not vitiate VN¹s analysis, in that we can count J¹s initial state
as one personality even if it is tainted with 1% (whatever) of H¹s. Likewise
when H has ³maxed out evilly² as far as the drug takes him, however much of
J survives, we can plausibly label that the second personality. (CK: this
agreement on two J&H personalities bodes well for our future marital bliss?)
As I recall from the movies, we are treated to the terrifying (I was young
at the time; now they would raise a laugh?) continuous transitions from J to
H, (Oscars for Make-up, surely!) but, again, we don¹t admit to an infinite
number, X%-J + (100 X)%-H, of personalities with X ranging from 99 to 1.
I¹m sure this is all useful in understanding RLS¹s novel with its
drug-induced, graduated personality changes in a single character. What I¹m
anxious to understand is its relevance to Pale Fire. For here we find, in
the text, Shade and Kinbote, as two distinct corporeal entities, two clearly
delineated characters, both, at various points in the ³surface plot,²
interacting side by side, and going about their separate ways. So, to what
extent are we justified in ³rewriting² Kinbote¹s ³narrative² on the grounds
that he¹s a proven liar and madman? Who wrote the Cantos? Who married Sybil?
Who shot Shade? Can we ³docment² how, when, why, how often the ³splits²
occurred as we can with J&H? In other VN novels/contexts, we accept
³fantastic² events and places as ³real² (suspension of disbelief)
My next ACM Queue col. (due out soon) is titled One Peut-Être, Two
Peut-Être, Three Peut-Être, More.
It attempts to get Computing Scientists interested in VN the scientist/poet,
and esp. in the possibility of applying graph theory to Pale Fire. I
suggest, rather boldly, that PF is a PORISM, i.e., there may not be a
soution, but once one is found, an infinity of solutions must exist. I won¹t
reveal too much until the ACM editor has completed her textual harassment
(only joking; she is most respectueuse, like Sartre¹s heroine)
CTaH
On 06/03/2009 01:48, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
>
> On Mar 5, 2009, at 12:28 PM, Nabokv-L wrote:
>
> Further, I wonder how VN¹s complex diagrams of the three personalities
> involved in J&H tie in with the Shade-Kinbote ³split-personality² theory. S
> K-B
>
> Dear Stan,
>
> I'm glad we are speaking to each other - - much nicer. Thank you for
> reminding me about the lecture on Bleak House - - I should have known that
> Nabokov would have the good sense to admire Dickens, who has been in declining
> favor with academics for fifty years or more.
>
> I'm not too sure that I understand what you mean about three personalities - -
> in Jekyll and Hyde there are only two. I think in his lecture Nabokov was
> showing that the two personalities Jekyll and Hyde share some areas in what?
> Jekyll's brain perhaps? But surely there are only two personalities?
>
> Carolyn
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details. Dificil sorte, Jansy, but that¹s how the biscoito crumbles.
I quote from VN¹s LoL page 183
³3. There are really three personalities -- Jekyll, Hyde, and a third, the
Jekyll residue when Hyde takes over.
[VN then draws the ccomplicated diagrams I mentioned. They boil down to
showing various shaded circles for J and H, with certain internal squares
for ³good² and slants for ³evil.² There are sequences of circles showing the
gradual, later accelerating, effect of the drug.]
VN continues: If you look closely you see that within this big, luminous,
pleasantly tweedy Jekyll there are scattered rudiments of evil. When the
magic drug starts to work, a dark concentration of this evil starts forming.
[VN draws another circle with a central core showing the slants of ³evil² --
it then gets more complex with one circle representing a ³smoke ring² or a
³halo.² And very VN, reminding me of his drawings of L Bloom¹s abode, he
sketches the Jekyll¹s house floor-plans which mirror the split J and H
personalities]
VN concludes, after all his diagrams:
³It follows that Jekyll¹s transformation implies a concentration of evil
that already inhabited him, rather than a complex metamorphosis. Jekyll is
not pure good, and Hyde (Jekyll¹s statement to the contrary) is not pure
evil, for just as parts of unacceptable Hyde dwell within acceptable Jekyll,
so over Hyde hovers a halo of Jekyll, horrified at his worser half¹s
iniquity.²
I suppose one could argue from this that the ³number of personalities²
exhibited by J&H depends on the definition of ³personalities² and in what
sense they can be ³counted.² I don¹t really mind, pace VN, if we just take
J¹s as the starting personality, with H¹s as the final extreme, giving a
count two as, I think, the average layperson digs the plot! That count of
two need not vitiate VN¹s analysis, in that we can count J¹s initial state
as one personality even if it is tainted with 1% (whatever) of H¹s. Likewise
when H has ³maxed out evilly² as far as the drug takes him, however much of
J survives, we can plausibly label that the second personality. (CK: this
agreement on two J&H personalities bodes well for our future marital bliss?)
As I recall from the movies, we are treated to the terrifying (I was young
at the time; now they would raise a laugh?) continuous transitions from J to
H, (Oscars for Make-up, surely!) but, again, we don¹t admit to an infinite
number, X%-J + (100 X)%-H, of personalities with X ranging from 99 to 1.
I¹m sure this is all useful in understanding RLS¹s novel with its
drug-induced, graduated personality changes in a single character. What I¹m
anxious to understand is its relevance to Pale Fire. For here we find, in
the text, Shade and Kinbote, as two distinct corporeal entities, two clearly
delineated characters, both, at various points in the ³surface plot,²
interacting side by side, and going about their separate ways. So, to what
extent are we justified in ³rewriting² Kinbote¹s ³narrative² on the grounds
that he¹s a proven liar and madman? Who wrote the Cantos? Who married Sybil?
Who shot Shade? Can we ³docment² how, when, why, how often the ³splits²
occurred as we can with J&H? In other VN novels/contexts, we accept
³fantastic² events and places as ³real² (suspension of disbelief)
My next ACM Queue col. (due out soon) is titled One Peut-Être, Two
Peut-Être, Three Peut-Être, More.
It attempts to get Computing Scientists interested in VN the scientist/poet,
and esp. in the possibility of applying graph theory to Pale Fire. I
suggest, rather boldly, that PF is a PORISM, i.e., there may not be a
soution, but once one is found, an infinity of solutions must exist. I won¹t
reveal too much until the ACM editor has completed her textual harassment
(only joking; she is most respectueuse, like Sartre¹s heroine)
CTaH
On 06/03/2009 01:48, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
>
> On Mar 5, 2009, at 12:28 PM, Nabokv-L wrote:
>
> Further, I wonder how VN¹s complex diagrams of the three personalities
> involved in J&H tie in with the Shade-Kinbote ³split-personality² theory. S
> K-B
>
> Dear Stan,
>
> I'm glad we are speaking to each other - - much nicer. Thank you for
> reminding me about the lecture on Bleak House - - I should have known that
> Nabokov would have the good sense to admire Dickens, who has been in declining
> favor with academics for fifty years or more.
>
> I'm not too sure that I understand what you mean about three personalities - -
> in Jekyll and Hyde there are only two. I think in his lecture Nabokov was
> showing that the two personalities Jekyll and Hyde share some areas in what?
> Jekyll's brain perhaps? But surely there are only two personalities?
>
> Carolyn
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/