Subject
Fw: Why Precursors Matter
From
Date
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EDNOTE. See at bottom.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Nicol" <ejnicol@isugw.indstate.edu>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (25
lines) ------------------
> Finding out that someone else has been there before Nabokov is relevant
> for all of us, including Nabokov himself. The Foreword to King, Queen,
> Knave pseudo-worries that Balzac and Dreiser "will accuse me of gross
> parody," referring in the Dreiser instance (and in the Balzac one as
> well?) to murder by rowboat. Nabokov proclaims his ignorance of his
> precursors at the time of the book's composition, yet I think his
> statement suggests that he's a bit embarrassed to be found in such
> company. I think we should squeeze all the juice we can out of such
> information.
>
> I have rarely looked for accidental similarities, although I have
> certainly dug for hidden references to other authors. But I remember
> Don pointing out that a robotic mannequin with a leaky pen in one
> suitcoat pocket and a tight-nibbed one in the other, again in KQKn could
> also be found in a German novel of the time. This suggested to him--and
> surely he was correct--not plagiarism but the likely actual existence of
> that automaton in an actual store window in Berlin. Similarities may
> suggest many other things than plagiarism. Isn't it curious that both
> Nabokov's Falter and the protagonist of Nausee, written by his
> archenemy-in-passing Sartre and eventually reviewed by VN in English,
> are stunned to madness by a glimpse of reality? I wouldn't not know
> this for the world. Yet it surely has nothing to do with plagiarism.
> Bring on the precursors!
>
> Chaz
---------------------------------------
EDNOTE. Re paragraph I. It is my hazy recollection that Brian Boyd learned
that VN had used Dreiser's "American Tragedy" (1928) as a reading text with
one of his Berlin students.
Paragraph II. The store window mannikin did exist. Dieter Zimmer in his
splendid book NABOKOVS BERLIN provides evidence that VN did not borrow
maankin image in THE DEFENSE from Leonhard Frank's BRUDER UND SCHWESTER (a
novel of sibling incest) as I had earlier suggested. See pages 140-141. By
the way, Zimmer's lushly illustrated book is a beautiful specimen of the
printer's art and well worth buying for the photographs, even if you know
no German.
Lastly, in re Sartre's NAUSEA and VN. Chaz's observation is certainly true
but the strongest case of "coincident" themes (glimpse of reality causing
madness) is between Sarte's N and VN story "Terror" (Uzhas). I wrote a piece
about this in the first issue of NABOKOV STUDIES.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Nicol" <ejnicol@isugw.indstate.edu>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (25
lines) ------------------
> Finding out that someone else has been there before Nabokov is relevant
> for all of us, including Nabokov himself. The Foreword to King, Queen,
> Knave pseudo-worries that Balzac and Dreiser "will accuse me of gross
> parody," referring in the Dreiser instance (and in the Balzac one as
> well?) to murder by rowboat. Nabokov proclaims his ignorance of his
> precursors at the time of the book's composition, yet I think his
> statement suggests that he's a bit embarrassed to be found in such
> company. I think we should squeeze all the juice we can out of such
> information.
>
> I have rarely looked for accidental similarities, although I have
> certainly dug for hidden references to other authors. But I remember
> Don pointing out that a robotic mannequin with a leaky pen in one
> suitcoat pocket and a tight-nibbed one in the other, again in KQKn could
> also be found in a German novel of the time. This suggested to him--and
> surely he was correct--not plagiarism but the likely actual existence of
> that automaton in an actual store window in Berlin. Similarities may
> suggest many other things than plagiarism. Isn't it curious that both
> Nabokov's Falter and the protagonist of Nausee, written by his
> archenemy-in-passing Sartre and eventually reviewed by VN in English,
> are stunned to madness by a glimpse of reality? I wouldn't not know
> this for the world. Yet it surely has nothing to do with plagiarism.
> Bring on the precursors!
>
> Chaz
---------------------------------------
EDNOTE. Re paragraph I. It is my hazy recollection that Brian Boyd learned
that VN had used Dreiser's "American Tragedy" (1928) as a reading text with
one of his Berlin students.
Paragraph II. The store window mannikin did exist. Dieter Zimmer in his
splendid book NABOKOVS BERLIN provides evidence that VN did not borrow
maankin image in THE DEFENSE from Leonhard Frank's BRUDER UND SCHWESTER (a
novel of sibling incest) as I had earlier suggested. See pages 140-141. By
the way, Zimmer's lushly illustrated book is a beautiful specimen of the
printer's art and well worth buying for the photographs, even if you know
no German.
Lastly, in re Sartre's NAUSEA and VN. Chaz's observation is certainly true
but the strongest case of "coincident" themes (glimpse of reality causing
madness) is between Sarte's N and VN story "Terror" (Uzhas). I wrote a piece
about this in the first issue of NABOKOV STUDIES.