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Fw: Fw: Why Precursors Matter
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexander Drescher" <bunsan@direcway.com>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (70
lines) ------------------
>
> Precursors definitely matter; their multitidue best explained by
> Borges who noted that every writer creates his/her own.
-Sandy Drescher
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thursday, May 13, 2004, at 12:21 PM, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>
> > 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.
> >
>
From: "Alexander Drescher" <bunsan@direcway.com>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (70
lines) ------------------
>
> Precursors definitely matter; their multitidue best explained by
> Borges who noted that every writer creates his/her own.
-Sandy Drescher
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thursday, May 13, 2004, at 12:21 PM, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>
> > 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.
> >
>