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TT: narration issues in Ch. 1 (fwd)
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------------------ As long as we're still discussing the first chapter, I
thought I might as well resend the message below, which I sent in two days
ago but which for some reason was never posted.
Jamie Olson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jamie L. Olson" <olsonjl@umich.edu>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
> We seem to be making the assumption that there is only one narrator, later
> identified as Mr. R., but is this really the case? Perhaps I'm mistaken,
> but I think I am "hearing" at least two voices as I read this chapter.
This
> is most evident in the fourth paragraph:
>
> "Hullo, person! What's the matter, don't pull me. I'm not bothering him.
> Oh, all right. Hullo, person . . . (last time, in a very small voice)."
>
> Obviously, there are two personae involved in the action of this
paragraph:
> the one who we've (prematurely) identified as Mr. R., who is attempting to
> hail the "person," and someone else who is interested in preventing him
from doing so.
> But this is not my reason for drawing attention to this paragraph. What
> interests me is the parenthetical comment. Whose voice is that? The
> "Hullo, person" belongs to one narrator, but the parenthetical "last
> time..." appears to be spoken by a voice that is filtering the hailer (Mr.
R.), and
> can thus tell the reader that the hailer is hailing one "last time, in a
> very small voice." To clarify, the parenthetical comment does not
directly
> represent speech, but rather describes the quality of that speech. So it
> seems to me that there are multiple levels of narration, at least in this
> paragraph.
>
> I am also curious whether others detect variations of tone between the
> paragraphs of this chapter. Is the narrator who kicks off the first
> paragraph ("Hullo, person!") the same as the narrator who begins the
second
> paragraph ("Perhaps if the future existed, concretely and
individually...")?
>
> Jamie Olson
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
thought I might as well resend the message below, which I sent in two days
ago but which for some reason was never posted.
Jamie Olson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jamie L. Olson" <olsonjl@umich.edu>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
> We seem to be making the assumption that there is only one narrator, later
> identified as Mr. R., but is this really the case? Perhaps I'm mistaken,
> but I think I am "hearing" at least two voices as I read this chapter.
This
> is most evident in the fourth paragraph:
>
> "Hullo, person! What's the matter, don't pull me. I'm not bothering him.
> Oh, all right. Hullo, person . . . (last time, in a very small voice)."
>
> Obviously, there are two personae involved in the action of this
paragraph:
> the one who we've (prematurely) identified as Mr. R., who is attempting to
> hail the "person," and someone else who is interested in preventing him
from doing so.
> But this is not my reason for drawing attention to this paragraph. What
> interests me is the parenthetical comment. Whose voice is that? The
> "Hullo, person" belongs to one narrator, but the parenthetical "last
> time..." appears to be spoken by a voice that is filtering the hailer (Mr.
R.), and
> can thus tell the reader that the hailer is hailing one "last time, in a
> very small voice." To clarify, the parenthetical comment does not
directly
> represent speech, but rather describes the quality of that speech. So it
> seems to me that there are multiple levels of narration, at least in this
> paragraph.
>
> I am also curious whether others detect variations of tone between the
> paragraphs of this chapter. Is the narrator who kicks off the first
> paragraph ("Hullo, person!") the same as the narrator who begins the
second
> paragraph ("Perhaps if the future existed, concretely and
individually...")?
>
> Jamie Olson
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L