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Re: balsam - Balsamo - Cagliostro
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On 30/05/2008 05:41, "Anthony Stadlen" <STADLEN@AOL.COM> wrote:
> In a message dated 29/05/2008 23:54:41 GMT Standard Time, jansy@AETERN.US
> writes:
>> Anthony Stadlen [answering "A real scientist would search for other
>> numerical references ( twelve, fourteen, twenty, ninety-two...) ... A
>> terrible woman aged forty, or a man? Forty diamonds, forty lies, forty
>> thieves?] added another example of "forty" from "Signs and Symbols" and
>> promised a feed-back about the meeting held in London with the final
>> disclosure about this short-story: Yes, brother Isaac was "a real American
>> of almost forty years standing." This is one of the peculiarities of
>> Nabokov's style. It plays with what in Gestalt theory is called "closure
>> effect": when people tend to remember information that remains incomplete,
>> vague, expecting it to "close". In VN it almost never closes
> I swear that I am not trying to tantalise. Jennifer Coates, my new-found
> neighbour who was the "mystery" speaker at the seminar of 11 May, certainly
> did not claim to have a "final disclosure" or "closure". She did make a
> contribution to a possible answwer to the question of what Nabokov meant by
> the "inside" story of "Signs and Symbols". She asks readers to be patient
> while she works on her idea and writes it up. I shall be writing a little
> about the seminar soon, when I have dealt with some unexpected difficulties
> that have occurred elsewhere. But please do not expect anything remotely like
> "closure".
>
> Anthony Stadlen
> -------
> Jansy/Anthony: surely the "almost forty years" here is not a matter of
> "incomplete" or "vague" data. Isaac's "standing" as a "real American" is not
> something that can be dated more precisely. Rather, one envisages periods of
> gradual "acculturation" that vary from émigré to émigré. All VN is projecting,
> I suggest, is that Isaac's assimilation progressed earlier and more
> successfully than that of his brother and sistet-in-law.
>
> Stan Kelly-Bootle
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> In a message dated 29/05/2008 23:54:41 GMT Standard Time, jansy@AETERN.US
> writes:
>> Anthony Stadlen [answering "A real scientist would search for other
>> numerical references ( twelve, fourteen, twenty, ninety-two...) ... A
>> terrible woman aged forty, or a man? Forty diamonds, forty lies, forty
>> thieves?] added another example of "forty" from "Signs and Symbols" and
>> promised a feed-back about the meeting held in London with the final
>> disclosure about this short-story: Yes, brother Isaac was "a real American
>> of almost forty years standing." This is one of the peculiarities of
>> Nabokov's style. It plays with what in Gestalt theory is called "closure
>> effect": when people tend to remember information that remains incomplete,
>> vague, expecting it to "close". In VN it almost never closes
> I swear that I am not trying to tantalise. Jennifer Coates, my new-found
> neighbour who was the "mystery" speaker at the seminar of 11 May, certainly
> did not claim to have a "final disclosure" or "closure". She did make a
> contribution to a possible answwer to the question of what Nabokov meant by
> the "inside" story of "Signs and Symbols". She asks readers to be patient
> while she works on her idea and writes it up. I shall be writing a little
> about the seminar soon, when I have dealt with some unexpected difficulties
> that have occurred elsewhere. But please do not expect anything remotely like
> "closure".
>
> Anthony Stadlen
> -------
> Jansy/Anthony: surely the "almost forty years" here is not a matter of
> "incomplete" or "vague" data. Isaac's "standing" as a "real American" is not
> something that can be dated more precisely. Rather, one envisages periods of
> gradual "acculturation" that vary from émigré to émigré. All VN is projecting,
> I suggest, is that Isaac's assimilation progressed earlier and more
> successfully than that of his brother and sistet-in-law.
>
> Stan Kelly-Bootle
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/