Subject
Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3393 PALE FIRE
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----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:21:21 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: re: Poe and N on Composition
>
> Monroe pushed the stone on Pym, preface, tale, notes and all that.
>
>
> POE, THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION
>
>
> http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/poe/composition.html
>
> OK, N's comments on reading and composition can be found in Lecture one.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 10:51:19 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> >>> (And, it gives pause
> to wonder which actual footnote from Boswell's _Life_ he might have
written
> down in that pocketbook of his.) <<<
>
> 3 I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnson confirmed it.
> Bramston, in his "Man of Taste," has the same thought:
>
> "Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst."
>
> [Johnson's meaning however, is, that a scholar who is a blockhead, must be
> the worst of all blockheads, because he is without excuse. But Bramston,
in
> the assumed character of an ignorant coxcomb, maintains, that all scholars
> are blockheads, on account of their scholarship. -- J. BOSWELL.]
>
> ------------------------------
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:19:01 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Correction from the N-list
>
> Dmitri Nabokov offers the following note to you all.
>
> Don Johnson, Editor NABOKV-L
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: DMITRI NABOKOV
> To: D. Barton Johnson
> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 4:08 PM
> Subject: pynchon list correction
>
> In Digest V2 installment #3379 on PF, a 7 July posting by David Monroe
asserts
> that "VИra," as in VИra Nabokov, means "truth" in Russian. Wrong. The
word, and
> the name, mean "faith." Mr. Monroe may have been thinking of Italian,
where
> "vera" is a feminine singular adjectival form of "true." The feminine noun
> "vera," by extension, means "wedding ring." A dose of "speranza" ("hope")
> helps.
>
> It is entertaining to look in on a forum conducted in, shall we say, a
lighter
> tone, and to see such interest in Pale Fire.
>
> With my best wishes to all,
>
> DN
>
> __________________________________
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> SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
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> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 10:16:36 -0400
> From: "davemarc" <davemarc@panix.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF&VLVL2 Preliminaries: The Epigraphs
>
> From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
> >
> > 747.21 "I had my Boswell, once," Mason tells Boswell, "Dixon and I. We
> > had a joint Boswell. Preacher nam'd Cherrycoke. Scribbling
everything
> > down, just like you, Sir. Have you," twirling his Hand in
Ellipses,--
> > "you know, ever...had one yourself? If I'm not prying."
> > "Had one what?"
> > "Hum...a Boswell, Sir,-- I mean, of your own. Well you couldn't
> > very well call him that, being one yourself,-- say, a sort of Shadow
> > ever in the Room who has haunted you, preserving your ev'ry spoken
> > remark,-- "
> >
> Kudos to jbor for this find!
>
> d.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:09:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: NPPF book of possible interest
>
> I've posted this to the P-list before, but it seems
> appropriate again:
>
> Faulkner and Postmodernism
>
> Edited by John N. Duvall and Ann J. Abadie
>
> With essays by John Barth, Philip Cohen, John N.
> Duvall, Doreen Fowler, Ihab Hassan, Molly Hite, Martin
> Kreiswirth, Cheryl Lester, Terrell L. Tebbetts, Joseph
> R. Urgo, and Philip Weinstein
>
> Where William Faulkner's fiction stands in relation to
> that of Ellison, Pynchon, Nabokov, and other post-
> modern greats
>
> Since the 1960s, William Faulkner, Mississippi's most
> famous author, has been recognized as a central figure
> of international modernism. But might Faulkner's
> fiction be understood in relation to Thomas Pynchon's
> Gravity's Rainbow as well as James Joyce's Ulysses?
>
> In eleven essays from the 1999 Faulkner and
> Yoknapatawpha Conference, held at the University of
> Mississippi, Faulkner and Postmodernism examines
> William Faulkner and his fiction in light of
> postmodern literature, culture, and theory. The volume
> explores the variety of ways Faulkner's art can be
> used to measure similarities and differences between
> modernism and postmodernism.
>
> Essays in the collection fall into three categories:
> those that use Faulkner's novels as a way to mark a
> period distinction between modernism and
> postmodernism, those that see postmodern tendencies in
> Faulkner's fiction, and those that read Faulkner
> through the lens of postmodern theory's contemporary
> legacy, the field of cultural studies.
>
> In order to make their particular arguments, essays in
> the collection compare Faulkner to more contemporary
> novelists such as Ralph Ellison, Vladimir Nabokov,
> Thomas Pynchon, Walker Percy, Richard Ford, Toni
> Morrison, and Kathy Acker. But not all of the
> comparisons are to high culture artists, since even
> Elvis Presley becomes Faulkner's foil in one of the
> essays.
>
> A variety of theoretical perspectives frame the work
> in this volume, from Fredric Jameson's pessimistic
> sense of postmodernism's possibilities to Linda
> Hutcheon's conviction that cultural critique can
> continue in postmodernism through innovative new forms
> such as metafiction. Despite the different theoretical
> premises and distinct conclusions of the individual
> authors of these essays, Faulkner and Postmodernism
> proves once again that in the key debates surrounding
> twentieth-century fiction, Faulkner is a crucial
> figure.
>
> John N. Duvall, an associate professor of English at
> Purdue University, is the editor of Modern Fiction
> Studies.
>
> Ann J. Abadie is associate director of the Center for
> the Study of Southern Culture at the University of
> Mississippi.
>
>
<http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/spring2002/faulkner_and_postmodernism
.html>
>
>
> __________________________________
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:14:17 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: NPPF: JS re P & N
>
> No way to know if JS is reporting accurately, but some
> of you may wish to use this as ammo in future P-list
> wars of attrition:
>
> [...] Jules Siegel, in his article for Playboy,
> remembers Pynchon informing him that Nabokov's Russian
> accent was so thick it was hard to understand anything
> he said. Also, when asked about the complexity of V. ,
> Pynchon replied, "Why should things be easy to
> understand?" [...]
>
> <http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/bio/facts.html>
>
> This web page also offers:
> [...] Vladimir Nabokov didn't remember Pynchon very
> well, but his wife recalled Pynchon's "unusual
> handwriting: half printing, half script." [...]
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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> SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:19:01 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: for pete's sake
>
> > On Behalf Of Kevin Troy
> >
> > "Man, what happened to you? We used to be _beautiful_ together."
> > --Sam Jackson's character in _Jackie Brown_
> >
> > I've been taking notes and doing research for several short notes -- or
> > maybe it will turn out to be one or two mid-length papers -- on PF and
> > Pynchon. For example, I'd like to examine the connections between
> > paranoia and gnosticism in PF, Lot 49, and GR. I guess my approach is
> > similar to the "short paper" thing Dave Marc proposed, but I don't know,
> > really, because I haven't actually done it yet....
> >
> > But maybe I won't bother, now that the list has gone to hell.
> >
> > Did Nabokov influence Pynchon? You bet your sweet bippy he did. Did
PF,
> > specifically, influence Pynchon, in a way that is evident in his works?
> > Gee, I'd like to find out. If that question is the general hypothosis
of
> > the NPPF (it is for me, at least, your mileage may vary) then obviously
> > the first phase of the NPPF should be exploratory: before demonstrating
> > or proving any PF-Pynch connection, one has to get a sense of PF and the
> > criticism surrounding it.
> >
> > What Doug and (I'm surprised to find) Tim have been doing in the last
few
> > days is the e-mail of equivalent of poking someone on the shoulder every
> > five minutes, asking "are we there yet? Have we reached the Radiant
Hour?
> > Huh? Huh?" This, Tim, alienates me, your friendly neighborhood
> > semi-lurker, far more than the prospect of an NP book being seriously
and
> > systematically analyzed on pynchon-l.
> >
> > Pynchon-l has the opportunity to do something really great. We (by
which
> > I mean "you suckers") have a choice of either
> >
> > a) Taking up the challenge and conducting simultaneous group reads of
two
> > well-crafted and difficult books, each of which has different merits, or
> > b) Kicking and screaming like a bunch of infants.
> >
> > Your choice, kids.
> >
> > Bye,
> > Kevin T.
>
> I would be very interested in seeing this; my thoughts have been heading
in
> similar directions. Don't stoop to the level of the "kids" and take your
> toys home.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:18:19 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: NPPF: P & N in NYT review of GR
>
> [...] For a literary standard by which we can measure
> Pynchon in this book we must turn to Nabokov, the
> master of fictional chess, magus of Anti-Terra, mirror
> world to our own, the realist-surrealist of fabulous
> skills. The operative emotion in Nabokov's work is
> nostalgia, a melting sentimental remembrance of
> Russian things past, which is converted into the total
> intellectual possession of a compensatory (and
> grander) verbal world, combining past, present and
> future, ruled by its only creator, the omnipotent
> author. (In its more grandiose and querulous
> manifestations, such as "Ada" and the recent gray
> conceit "Transparent Things," Nabokov's
> self-preservative and self- celebrating elaborations
> are repellently narcissistic.)
>
> The operative emotion behind Pynchon's literary
> creations is not Nabokovia nostalgia but a fear of the
> void, which Pynchon converts into the very semblance
> of megalomaniac paranoia, the construction of plots
> and counterplots, epic catalogues, unifying symbols
> and metaphors, intense verbal energy, detailed
> descriptions of natural and man-made environments,
> local life styles, manic good times, college humor and
> rowdiness leading to drunken and drugged orgies,
> sexual perversions and reversals of role, and finally
> to an obsession with the sado-masochistic conversion
> of human flesh to mechanical contrivance, dead
> matter.[...]
>
> from:
> New York Times Review
>
> March 11, 1973
>
> One of the Longest, Most Difficult, Most Ambitious
> Novels in Years
> By Richard Locke
>
> Gravity's Rainbow By Thomas Pynchon
>
> at Tim Ware's site,
> <http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/reviews.html>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:19:30 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> > On Behalf Of s~Z
> >
> > >>> (And, it gives pause
> > to wonder which actual footnote from Boswell's _Life_ he might have
> > written
> > down in that pocketbook of his.) <<<
> >
> > 3 I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnson confirmed it.
> > Bramston, in his "Man of Taste," has the same thought:
> >
> > "Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst."
> >
> > [Johnson's meaning however, is, that a scholar who is a blockhead, must
be
> > the worst of all blockheads, because he is without excuse. But Bramston,
> > in
> > the assumed character of an ignorant coxcomb, maintains, that all
scholars
> > are blockheads, on account of their scholarship. -- J. BOSWELL.]
>
>
> Kinbote refers to death as a time "when the world of timorous fools and
trim
> blockheads has fallen away far behind." (237)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:41:44 -0400
> From: "davemarc" <davemarc@panix.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> From: Malignd <malignd@yahoo.com>
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 11:32 AM
> Subject: RE: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
>
> > VN didn't disavow the rumor; he said he didn't recall
> > Pynchon. Vera, however, said she did.
> >
> Perhaps it would be accurate to say "Allegedly/Reportedly, Vera said she
> did."
>
> Statements like that have turned up in various place -- but is there more
> than one reference source? Has it yet to be confirmed?
>
> d.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:52:22 -0400
> From: "davemarc" <davemarc@panix.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF -- no need to relate to Pynchon . . . .?
> - --- davemarc <davemarc@panix.com> wrote:
> > From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> > >
> > > OK, let's try again: There's no good reason NOT to discuss it here.
> >
> > Reasons to have an extended Nabokov-centered discussion elsewhere:
> > 1. This is a Pynchon-centered discussion, not a Nabokov-centered one.
>
> These are Pynchon fans on the Pynchon list discussing Nabokov, who just
> happened to have one of the hottest American novels ever published in 1955
> (Lolita):
>
> >>>He [TRP] graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1953 at the age of
> sixteen, salutatorian of his class and winner of the Julia L. Thurston
award
> for "the senior attaining the highest average in the study of English." A
> scholarship to Cornell University and enrollment in the division of
Engineering
> Physics followed. At the end of his sophomore year [1955 - the year Lolita
was
> pulblished when Pynchon was then 18 years old] he left Cornell for service
in
> the Navy.
> He returned to Cornell in the fall of 1957 transferring to the College
of
> Arts an Sciences [where at that time Nabokov was a "celebrity" professor
> because of Lolita's success] from which he would attain his degree in
English.
> During this time, he was on the editorial staff of the The Cornell Writer
, and
> also published his first short story: "The Small Rain" (The Cornell
Writer,
> March 1959). He received his B.A. in June of 1959 with "distinction in all
> subjects." <<<
> http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/bio/facts.html
>
> If you can't see the Pynchon relevance then I won't try to explain
further.
>
> > 2. A Nabokov-centered discussion here might be interpreted by some as a
> rationale for other non-Pynchon focused discussions, such as one that
revolves
> around George Bush. That would further erode the identity of this
discussion.
>
> This complaint about Pynchon-focus here is moot because of the defacto
reality.
> Literary discussion of Pale Fire is superior to the standard fare here.
>
> David Morris
>
> __________________________________
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:01:45 EDT
> From: Elainemmbell@aol.com
> Subject: Re: Pynchon in Nabokov's class
>
> - --part1_4a.1f8c5628.2c4071a9_boundary
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> Just dropping in to say I'm amused by the double entendre in the title of
> this thread. And clever not to have ended it in a question mark.
Especially
> amusing in light of the raging debate over why/how/whether/who re: reading
PF on
> P-L...
>
> Elaine M.M. Bell, Writer
> (860) 523-9225
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:07:33 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF -- no need to relate to Pynchon . . . .?
>
> >>>This complaint about Pynchon-focus here is moot because of the defacto
> reality.<<<
>
> That the discussion already includes Pynchon-related discussion and
fulfills
> the expectations suggested by those of us who wish to discuss Pale Fire
and
> relate it to Pynchon. It is happening just as we promised. And quite
> enjoyably so.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> >
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:29:35 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Fw: Fw: Pynchon Digest Discussions of PF
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 1:00 PM
> Subject: Fw: Pynchon Digest Discussions of PF
>
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Roach" <dcwr@travelin.com>
> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (33
> lines) ------------------
> > I sent this tidbit regarding the epigraph of *Pale Fire* to the Pynchon
> list
> > a few days ago, but it never appeared there. Since they're debating this
> > very topic presently (see digests numbered 3389-3391), I can't resist
> > posting it here:
> >
> > ....where does the "story world" of PF begin? I think the title and
> copyright
> > pages are beyond the story world, as VN is listed as the author on the
> title
> > page, and Putnam's holds the copyright on VN's work (and it is VN who
> > dedicates the novel "to Vera"; Shade would have dedicated the poem "to
> > Sybil"). The story world certainly begins on the table-of-contents page.
> But
> > here's the rub: in the first edition of PF [Putnam's, 1962, and in the
> > current "standard," the Vintage International paperback, published in
> 1989,
> > which was apparently reset from the first edition], the epigraph (the
> > quotation from Boswell) appears *before* the table of contents, whereas
in
> > later editions [such as the Berkley Medallion paperback, published in
> 1963,
> > and the Wideview/Perigee paperback, published in 1980], it appears
*after*
> > the table of contents. The raises the question, who chose the epigraph?
Is
> > it VN acting as the author of the novel PF, or is it someone within the
> > story world (i.e., Kinbote or Shade)?
> >
> > Whoever chose the epigraph, it would seem to equate Kinbote with Hodge,
> the
> > "favorite cat," as it's Kinbote who isn't shot. But if Shade or Kinbote
> > chose it (that is, if it is part of the story world), then it sheds a
far
> > different light on our understanding of PF than if VN had chosen it.
> >
> > In an interview conducted in 1966 by Alfred Appel, VN listed
typographical
> > corrections to the first edition of PF. He did not mention the movement
of
> > the epigraph. Whether it was inadvertent or purposeful, I think he must
> have
> > liked it.
> >
> > David Roach
> >
> >
>
> Yes it's generating lots of discussion, but very
> little of it (and nothing from Keith or fq, it's
> outspoken defenders this morning) has anything to do
> with Pynchon, even in the most tangential sense.
> Unless we want to explore in depth the conjunction of
> Pynchon's juvenilia with the publication date of
> _Lolita_ as fq has suggested (as near as I can
> understand his jabber) but declines to discuss.
>
> This remains an unmoderated list, and you've
> demonstrated, as predicted, that a choreographed
> effort can impose its will and dominate Pynchon-l with
> whatever topic it wishes.
>
> Looking forward to more Pynchon-related Pale Fire
> discussion,
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:03:12 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Like Bush And His Cronies
>
> fqmorris@yahoo.com:
> > I'm surly missing some...
>
> brains.
>
> No wonder you're surly.
>
>
>
> > Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:09:31 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: amusing literary quests
>
> "The World Will Be TlЖn": Mapping the Fantastic onto
> the Virtual
> Darren Tofts
> Swinburne University of Technology
>
> [...] Borges defiantly teases the readers' desire to
> believe in the reality of the discovered world,
> secure, as they are, in their assured, known world
> outside-text. He tests, in other words, the extent to
> which readers are prepared to forestall their exit
> strategy, to explore the outer limits of credulity to
> do with this previously unknown world. After all, all
> the reference points in the story are verifiably
> factual, such as the Brazilian hotel, Las Delicias, in
> which Herbert Ashe is sent the mysterious First
> Encylopaedia of TlЖn, or the narrator's companion,
> Adolfo Bioy Cesares, the person who brings the
> troubling issue of Uqbar to his attention, in reality
> one of Borges's closest friends and literary
> collaborators. Borges's style is clearly
> documentary-like in approach: prudent, well
> researched, and sound, with very few literary
> flourishes or overt metafictional moments. Indeed, it
> is more accurate to call "TlЖn, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"
> an essay rather than a fiction, reading, as it does,
> with the impersonal, measured factuality of the
> encyclopedia entry. In the hands of an essayist
> documenting the conceit of TlЖn, Borges's methods of
> persuasion--or are they in fact forms of
> evidence?--are compelling. In reflecting on one of the
> theories of time subscribed to by the inhabitants of
> TlЖn, for example, he notes that "it reasons that the
> present is indefinite, that the future has no reality
> other than as a present hope, that the past has no
> reality other than as a present memory" (34).
> Furthermore, he notes, in a footnote, that this
> question had detained the attention of the great
> Bertrand Russell, who supposed "that the planet has
> been created a few minutes ago, furnished with a
> humanity that 'remembers' an illusory past" (34). He
> identifies the reference as The Analysis of Mind,
> 1921, page 159. You can pursue the citation if you
> like, but take it from me, it is not bogus.
>
> 21. This is one of the many troubling moments in which
> information from outside-text corroborates the
> collaborative, invented world of Borges's fiction.
> That is, facets of this grand guignol can be chased
> down as referential points in our own world. We can
> confirm these references from scholarly sources, such
> as The Analysis of Mind, or volume 13 of the writings
> of Thomas De Quincey. [...]
>
> 22. Events became more intense as I moved deeper into
> the vertigo of writing about TlЖn. On reading the
> Melbourne The Age Saturday Extra on the 20th of April
> 2002, it was with a mixture of fascination and alarm
> that I came across an account of a little-known visit
> to Melbourne by Borges in the late Autumn of 1938.
> [...]
>
> continues:
> <http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/current.issue/13.2tofts.html>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3393
> ********************************
>
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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:21:21 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: re: Poe and N on Composition
>
> Monroe pushed the stone on Pym, preface, tale, notes and all that.
>
>
> POE, THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION
>
>
> http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/poe/composition.html
>
> OK, N's comments on reading and composition can be found in Lecture one.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 10:51:19 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> >>> (And, it gives pause
> to wonder which actual footnote from Boswell's _Life_ he might have
written
> down in that pocketbook of his.) <<<
>
> 3 I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnson confirmed it.
> Bramston, in his "Man of Taste," has the same thought:
>
> "Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst."
>
> [Johnson's meaning however, is, that a scholar who is a blockhead, must be
> the worst of all blockheads, because he is without excuse. But Bramston,
in
> the assumed character of an ignorant coxcomb, maintains, that all scholars
> are blockheads, on account of their scholarship. -- J. BOSWELL.]
>
> ------------------------------
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:19:01 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Correction from the N-list
>
> Dmitri Nabokov offers the following note to you all.
>
> Don Johnson, Editor NABOKV-L
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: DMITRI NABOKOV
> To: D. Barton Johnson
> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 4:08 PM
> Subject: pynchon list correction
>
> In Digest V2 installment #3379 on PF, a 7 July posting by David Monroe
asserts
> that "VИra," as in VИra Nabokov, means "truth" in Russian. Wrong. The
word, and
> the name, mean "faith." Mr. Monroe may have been thinking of Italian,
where
> "vera" is a feminine singular adjectival form of "true." The feminine noun
> "vera," by extension, means "wedding ring." A dose of "speranza" ("hope")
> helps.
>
> It is entertaining to look in on a forum conducted in, shall we say, a
lighter
> tone, and to see such interest in Pale Fire.
>
> With my best wishes to all,
>
> DN
>
> __________________________________
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> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 10:16:36 -0400
> From: "davemarc" <davemarc@panix.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF&VLVL2 Preliminaries: The Epigraphs
>
> From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
> >
> > 747.21 "I had my Boswell, once," Mason tells Boswell, "Dixon and I. We
> > had a joint Boswell. Preacher nam'd Cherrycoke. Scribbling
everything
> > down, just like you, Sir. Have you," twirling his Hand in
Ellipses,--
> > "you know, ever...had one yourself? If I'm not prying."
> > "Had one what?"
> > "Hum...a Boswell, Sir,-- I mean, of your own. Well you couldn't
> > very well call him that, being one yourself,-- say, a sort of Shadow
> > ever in the Room who has haunted you, preserving your ev'ry spoken
> > remark,-- "
> >
> Kudos to jbor for this find!
>
> d.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:09:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: NPPF book of possible interest
>
> I've posted this to the P-list before, but it seems
> appropriate again:
>
> Faulkner and Postmodernism
>
> Edited by John N. Duvall and Ann J. Abadie
>
> With essays by John Barth, Philip Cohen, John N.
> Duvall, Doreen Fowler, Ihab Hassan, Molly Hite, Martin
> Kreiswirth, Cheryl Lester, Terrell L. Tebbetts, Joseph
> R. Urgo, and Philip Weinstein
>
> Where William Faulkner's fiction stands in relation to
> that of Ellison, Pynchon, Nabokov, and other post-
> modern greats
>
> Since the 1960s, William Faulkner, Mississippi's most
> famous author, has been recognized as a central figure
> of international modernism. But might Faulkner's
> fiction be understood in relation to Thomas Pynchon's
> Gravity's Rainbow as well as James Joyce's Ulysses?
>
> In eleven essays from the 1999 Faulkner and
> Yoknapatawpha Conference, held at the University of
> Mississippi, Faulkner and Postmodernism examines
> William Faulkner and his fiction in light of
> postmodern literature, culture, and theory. The volume
> explores the variety of ways Faulkner's art can be
> used to measure similarities and differences between
> modernism and postmodernism.
>
> Essays in the collection fall into three categories:
> those that use Faulkner's novels as a way to mark a
> period distinction between modernism and
> postmodernism, those that see postmodern tendencies in
> Faulkner's fiction, and those that read Faulkner
> through the lens of postmodern theory's contemporary
> legacy, the field of cultural studies.
>
> In order to make their particular arguments, essays in
> the collection compare Faulkner to more contemporary
> novelists such as Ralph Ellison, Vladimir Nabokov,
> Thomas Pynchon, Walker Percy, Richard Ford, Toni
> Morrison, and Kathy Acker. But not all of the
> comparisons are to high culture artists, since even
> Elvis Presley becomes Faulkner's foil in one of the
> essays.
>
> A variety of theoretical perspectives frame the work
> in this volume, from Fredric Jameson's pessimistic
> sense of postmodernism's possibilities to Linda
> Hutcheon's conviction that cultural critique can
> continue in postmodernism through innovative new forms
> such as metafiction. Despite the different theoretical
> premises and distinct conclusions of the individual
> authors of these essays, Faulkner and Postmodernism
> proves once again that in the key debates surrounding
> twentieth-century fiction, Faulkner is a crucial
> figure.
>
> John N. Duvall, an associate professor of English at
> Purdue University, is the editor of Modern Fiction
> Studies.
>
> Ann J. Abadie is associate director of the Center for
> the Study of Southern Culture at the University of
> Mississippi.
>
>
<http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/spring2002/faulkner_and_postmodernism
.html>
>
>
> __________________________________
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:14:17 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: NPPF: JS re P & N
>
> No way to know if JS is reporting accurately, but some
> of you may wish to use this as ammo in future P-list
> wars of attrition:
>
> [...] Jules Siegel, in his article for Playboy,
> remembers Pynchon informing him that Nabokov's Russian
> accent was so thick it was hard to understand anything
> he said. Also, when asked about the complexity of V. ,
> Pynchon replied, "Why should things be easy to
> understand?" [...]
>
> <http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/bio/facts.html>
>
> This web page also offers:
> [...] Vladimir Nabokov didn't remember Pynchon very
> well, but his wife recalled Pynchon's "unusual
> handwriting: half printing, half script." [...]
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:19:01 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: for pete's sake
>
> > On Behalf Of Kevin Troy
> >
> > "Man, what happened to you? We used to be _beautiful_ together."
> > --Sam Jackson's character in _Jackie Brown_
> >
> > I've been taking notes and doing research for several short notes -- or
> > maybe it will turn out to be one or two mid-length papers -- on PF and
> > Pynchon. For example, I'd like to examine the connections between
> > paranoia and gnosticism in PF, Lot 49, and GR. I guess my approach is
> > similar to the "short paper" thing Dave Marc proposed, but I don't know,
> > really, because I haven't actually done it yet....
> >
> > But maybe I won't bother, now that the list has gone to hell.
> >
> > Did Nabokov influence Pynchon? You bet your sweet bippy he did. Did
PF,
> > specifically, influence Pynchon, in a way that is evident in his works?
> > Gee, I'd like to find out. If that question is the general hypothosis
of
> > the NPPF (it is for me, at least, your mileage may vary) then obviously
> > the first phase of the NPPF should be exploratory: before demonstrating
> > or proving any PF-Pynch connection, one has to get a sense of PF and the
> > criticism surrounding it.
> >
> > What Doug and (I'm surprised to find) Tim have been doing in the last
few
> > days is the e-mail of equivalent of poking someone on the shoulder every
> > five minutes, asking "are we there yet? Have we reached the Radiant
Hour?
> > Huh? Huh?" This, Tim, alienates me, your friendly neighborhood
> > semi-lurker, far more than the prospect of an NP book being seriously
and
> > systematically analyzed on pynchon-l.
> >
> > Pynchon-l has the opportunity to do something really great. We (by
which
> > I mean "you suckers") have a choice of either
> >
> > a) Taking up the challenge and conducting simultaneous group reads of
two
> > well-crafted and difficult books, each of which has different merits, or
> > b) Kicking and screaming like a bunch of infants.
> >
> > Your choice, kids.
> >
> > Bye,
> > Kevin T.
>
> I would be very interested in seeing this; my thoughts have been heading
in
> similar directions. Don't stoop to the level of the "kids" and take your
> toys home.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:18:19 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: NPPF: P & N in NYT review of GR
>
> [...] For a literary standard by which we can measure
> Pynchon in this book we must turn to Nabokov, the
> master of fictional chess, magus of Anti-Terra, mirror
> world to our own, the realist-surrealist of fabulous
> skills. The operative emotion in Nabokov's work is
> nostalgia, a melting sentimental remembrance of
> Russian things past, which is converted into the total
> intellectual possession of a compensatory (and
> grander) verbal world, combining past, present and
> future, ruled by its only creator, the omnipotent
> author. (In its more grandiose and querulous
> manifestations, such as "Ada" and the recent gray
> conceit "Transparent Things," Nabokov's
> self-preservative and self- celebrating elaborations
> are repellently narcissistic.)
>
> The operative emotion behind Pynchon's literary
> creations is not Nabokovia nostalgia but a fear of the
> void, which Pynchon converts into the very semblance
> of megalomaniac paranoia, the construction of plots
> and counterplots, epic catalogues, unifying symbols
> and metaphors, intense verbal energy, detailed
> descriptions of natural and man-made environments,
> local life styles, manic good times, college humor and
> rowdiness leading to drunken and drugged orgies,
> sexual perversions and reversals of role, and finally
> to an obsession with the sado-masochistic conversion
> of human flesh to mechanical contrivance, dead
> matter.[...]
>
> from:
> New York Times Review
>
> March 11, 1973
>
> One of the Longest, Most Difficult, Most Ambitious
> Novels in Years
> By Richard Locke
>
> Gravity's Rainbow By Thomas Pynchon
>
> at Tim Ware's site,
> <http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/reviews.html>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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> SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:19:30 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> > On Behalf Of s~Z
> >
> > >>> (And, it gives pause
> > to wonder which actual footnote from Boswell's _Life_ he might have
> > written
> > down in that pocketbook of his.) <<<
> >
> > 3 I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnson confirmed it.
> > Bramston, in his "Man of Taste," has the same thought:
> >
> > "Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst."
> >
> > [Johnson's meaning however, is, that a scholar who is a blockhead, must
be
> > the worst of all blockheads, because he is without excuse. But Bramston,
> > in
> > the assumed character of an ignorant coxcomb, maintains, that all
scholars
> > are blockheads, on account of their scholarship. -- J. BOSWELL.]
>
>
> Kinbote refers to death as a time "when the world of timorous fools and
trim
> blockheads has fallen away far behind." (237)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:41:44 -0400
> From: "davemarc" <davemarc@panix.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> From: Malignd <malignd@yahoo.com>
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 11:32 AM
> Subject: RE: NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
>
> > VN didn't disavow the rumor; he said he didn't recall
> > Pynchon. Vera, however, said she did.
> >
> Perhaps it would be accurate to say "Allegedly/Reportedly, Vera said she
> did."
>
> Statements like that have turned up in various place -- but is there more
> than one reference source? Has it yet to be confirmed?
>
> d.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:52:22 -0400
> From: "davemarc" <davemarc@panix.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF -- no need to relate to Pynchon . . . .?
> - --- davemarc <davemarc@panix.com> wrote:
> > From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> > >
> > > OK, let's try again: There's no good reason NOT to discuss it here.
> >
> > Reasons to have an extended Nabokov-centered discussion elsewhere:
> > 1. This is a Pynchon-centered discussion, not a Nabokov-centered one.
>
> These are Pynchon fans on the Pynchon list discussing Nabokov, who just
> happened to have one of the hottest American novels ever published in 1955
> (Lolita):
>
> >>>He [TRP] graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1953 at the age of
> sixteen, salutatorian of his class and winner of the Julia L. Thurston
award
> for "the senior attaining the highest average in the study of English." A
> scholarship to Cornell University and enrollment in the division of
Engineering
> Physics followed. At the end of his sophomore year [1955 - the year Lolita
was
> pulblished when Pynchon was then 18 years old] he left Cornell for service
in
> the Navy.
> He returned to Cornell in the fall of 1957 transferring to the College
of
> Arts an Sciences [where at that time Nabokov was a "celebrity" professor
> because of Lolita's success] from which he would attain his degree in
English.
> During this time, he was on the editorial staff of the The Cornell Writer
, and
> also published his first short story: "The Small Rain" (The Cornell
Writer,
> March 1959). He received his B.A. in June of 1959 with "distinction in all
> subjects." <<<
> http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/bio/facts.html
>
> If you can't see the Pynchon relevance then I won't try to explain
further.
>
> > 2. A Nabokov-centered discussion here might be interpreted by some as a
> rationale for other non-Pynchon focused discussions, such as one that
revolves
> around George Bush. That would further erode the identity of this
discussion.
>
> This complaint about Pynchon-focus here is moot because of the defacto
reality.
> Literary discussion of Pale Fire is superior to the standard fare here.
>
> David Morris
>
> __________________________________
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:01:45 EDT
> From: Elainemmbell@aol.com
> Subject: Re: Pynchon in Nabokov's class
>
> - --part1_4a.1f8c5628.2c4071a9_boundary
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> Just dropping in to say I'm amused by the double entendre in the title of
> this thread. And clever not to have ended it in a question mark.
Especially
> amusing in light of the raging debate over why/how/whether/who re: reading
PF on
> P-L...
>
> Elaine M.M. Bell, Writer
> (860) 523-9225
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:07:33 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF -- no need to relate to Pynchon . . . .?
>
> >>>This complaint about Pynchon-focus here is moot because of the defacto
> reality.<<<
>
> That the discussion already includes Pynchon-related discussion and
fulfills
> the expectations suggested by those of us who wish to discuss Pale Fire
and
> relate it to Pynchon. It is happening just as we promised. And quite
> enjoyably so.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> >
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:29:35 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Fw: Fw: Pynchon Digest Discussions of PF
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 1:00 PM
> Subject: Fw: Pynchon Digest Discussions of PF
>
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Roach" <dcwr@travelin.com>
> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (33
> lines) ------------------
> > I sent this tidbit regarding the epigraph of *Pale Fire* to the Pynchon
> list
> > a few days ago, but it never appeared there. Since they're debating this
> > very topic presently (see digests numbered 3389-3391), I can't resist
> > posting it here:
> >
> > ....where does the "story world" of PF begin? I think the title and
> copyright
> > pages are beyond the story world, as VN is listed as the author on the
> title
> > page, and Putnam's holds the copyright on VN's work (and it is VN who
> > dedicates the novel "to Vera"; Shade would have dedicated the poem "to
> > Sybil"). The story world certainly begins on the table-of-contents page.
> But
> > here's the rub: in the first edition of PF [Putnam's, 1962, and in the
> > current "standard," the Vintage International paperback, published in
> 1989,
> > which was apparently reset from the first edition], the epigraph (the
> > quotation from Boswell) appears *before* the table of contents, whereas
in
> > later editions [such as the Berkley Medallion paperback, published in
> 1963,
> > and the Wideview/Perigee paperback, published in 1980], it appears
*after*
> > the table of contents. The raises the question, who chose the epigraph?
Is
> > it VN acting as the author of the novel PF, or is it someone within the
> > story world (i.e., Kinbote or Shade)?
> >
> > Whoever chose the epigraph, it would seem to equate Kinbote with Hodge,
> the
> > "favorite cat," as it's Kinbote who isn't shot. But if Shade or Kinbote
> > chose it (that is, if it is part of the story world), then it sheds a
far
> > different light on our understanding of PF than if VN had chosen it.
> >
> > In an interview conducted in 1966 by Alfred Appel, VN listed
typographical
> > corrections to the first edition of PF. He did not mention the movement
of
> > the epigraph. Whether it was inadvertent or purposeful, I think he must
> have
> > liked it.
> >
> > David Roach
> >
> >
>
> Yes it's generating lots of discussion, but very
> little of it (and nothing from Keith or fq, it's
> outspoken defenders this morning) has anything to do
> with Pynchon, even in the most tangential sense.
> Unless we want to explore in depth the conjunction of
> Pynchon's juvenilia with the publication date of
> _Lolita_ as fq has suggested (as near as I can
> understand his jabber) but declines to discuss.
>
> This remains an unmoderated list, and you've
> demonstrated, as predicted, that a choreographed
> effort can impose its will and dominate Pynchon-l with
> whatever topic it wishes.
>
> Looking forward to more Pynchon-related Pale Fire
> discussion,
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:03:12 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Like Bush And His Cronies
>
> fqmorris@yahoo.com:
> > I'm surly missing some...
>
> brains.
>
> No wonder you're surly.
>
>
>
> > Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:09:31 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: amusing literary quests
>
> "The World Will Be TlЖn": Mapping the Fantastic onto
> the Virtual
> Darren Tofts
> Swinburne University of Technology
>
> [...] Borges defiantly teases the readers' desire to
> believe in the reality of the discovered world,
> secure, as they are, in their assured, known world
> outside-text. He tests, in other words, the extent to
> which readers are prepared to forestall their exit
> strategy, to explore the outer limits of credulity to
> do with this previously unknown world. After all, all
> the reference points in the story are verifiably
> factual, such as the Brazilian hotel, Las Delicias, in
> which Herbert Ashe is sent the mysterious First
> Encylopaedia of TlЖn, or the narrator's companion,
> Adolfo Bioy Cesares, the person who brings the
> troubling issue of Uqbar to his attention, in reality
> one of Borges's closest friends and literary
> collaborators. Borges's style is clearly
> documentary-like in approach: prudent, well
> researched, and sound, with very few literary
> flourishes or overt metafictional moments. Indeed, it
> is more accurate to call "TlЖn, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"
> an essay rather than a fiction, reading, as it does,
> with the impersonal, measured factuality of the
> encyclopedia entry. In the hands of an essayist
> documenting the conceit of TlЖn, Borges's methods of
> persuasion--or are they in fact forms of
> evidence?--are compelling. In reflecting on one of the
> theories of time subscribed to by the inhabitants of
> TlЖn, for example, he notes that "it reasons that the
> present is indefinite, that the future has no reality
> other than as a present hope, that the past has no
> reality other than as a present memory" (34).
> Furthermore, he notes, in a footnote, that this
> question had detained the attention of the great
> Bertrand Russell, who supposed "that the planet has
> been created a few minutes ago, furnished with a
> humanity that 'remembers' an illusory past" (34). He
> identifies the reference as The Analysis of Mind,
> 1921, page 159. You can pursue the citation if you
> like, but take it from me, it is not bogus.
>
> 21. This is one of the many troubling moments in which
> information from outside-text corroborates the
> collaborative, invented world of Borges's fiction.
> That is, facets of this grand guignol can be chased
> down as referential points in our own world. We can
> confirm these references from scholarly sources, such
> as The Analysis of Mind, or volume 13 of the writings
> of Thomas De Quincey. [...]
>
> 22. Events became more intense as I moved deeper into
> the vertigo of writing about TlЖn. On reading the
> Melbourne The Age Saturday Extra on the 20th of April
> 2002, it was with a mixture of fascination and alarm
> that I came across an account of a little-known visit
> to Melbourne by Borges in the late Autumn of 1938.
> [...]
>
> continues:
> <http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/current.issue/13.2tofts.html>
>
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3393
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