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[Thoughts] Lolita, Bend Sinister and the Moebius Bamd
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John Ray Jr.'s Foreword (Preamble) in Lolita is, in fact, an important element of "Lolita."* Historical dates and chronologies only hinder the reader to conclude that Humbert Humbert's "Confessions..." is actually comfortably wedged between JR Jr's pages and Vladimir Nabokov's own. Not only Humbert Humbert has been shoved aside (it's Nabokov who authored "On a book entitled Lolita") but there's a new twist when he discusses his authorial "ontologicval status": "After doing my impersonation of suave John Ray, the character in Lolita who pens the Foreword, any comments coming straight from me may strike one - may strike me, in fact - as an impersonation of Vladimir Nabokov talking about his own book. A few points, however, have to be discussed; and the autobiographic device may induce mimic and model to blend." Vladimir Nabokov's published name acquires the same reality as successful writer Vivian Darkbloom's!
The reflexions and torsions, this time, don't remind me of a topological anamorphosis (although there is still a chance to discover a special perspective that solves this Penrose-like impossible geometry) but, mainly, of the "Moebius band" (Escher again!). Now, the complexities of the metafictional intromissions are solved by creating a space along which someone may amble at leisure without ever being either "in" nor "out" of it.
However, there's always an observer's watching eyes and those remain external (have the English readers been shoved aside, like H.H., too?**).
This topological representation is more clearly demonstrated in Bend Sinister: (a "bend" indeed)
"He saw the Toad crouching at the foot of the wall, shaking, dissolving...with his transparent arm, and Krug...just a fraction of an instant before another and better bullet hit him, he shouted again: You, you - and the wall vanished, like a rapidly withdrawn slide, and I stretched myself and got up from among the chaos of written and rewritten pages, to investigate the sudden twang that something had made in striking the wire netting of my window." Nevertheless, in this case, the reader seems to be invited to walk alongside the author on the Moebius's narrow strip.
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* - I hadn't realized, until now, that JR Jr most probably has never even met or seen HH. He was invited to edit the manuscript by his lawyer-cousin only after HH's and Lolita's deaths.
** - "My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatuses - the baffling mirror, the black velvet backdrop, the implied associations and traditions - which the native illusionist, frac-tails flying, can magically use to transcend the heritage in his own way."
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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The reflexions and torsions, this time, don't remind me of a topological anamorphosis (although there is still a chance to discover a special perspective that solves this Penrose-like impossible geometry) but, mainly, of the "Moebius band" (Escher again!). Now, the complexities of the metafictional intromissions are solved by creating a space along which someone may amble at leisure without ever being either "in" nor "out" of it.
However, there's always an observer's watching eyes and those remain external (have the English readers been shoved aside, like H.H., too?**).
This topological representation is more clearly demonstrated in Bend Sinister: (a "bend" indeed)
"He saw the Toad crouching at the foot of the wall, shaking, dissolving...with his transparent arm, and Krug...just a fraction of an instant before another and better bullet hit him, he shouted again: You, you - and the wall vanished, like a rapidly withdrawn slide, and I stretched myself and got up from among the chaos of written and rewritten pages, to investigate the sudden twang that something had made in striking the wire netting of my window." Nevertheless, in this case, the reader seems to be invited to walk alongside the author on the Moebius's narrow strip.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................
* - I hadn't realized, until now, that JR Jr most probably has never even met or seen HH. He was invited to edit the manuscript by his lawyer-cousin only after HH's and Lolita's deaths.
** - "My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatuses - the baffling mirror, the black velvet backdrop, the implied associations and traditions - which the native illusionist, frac-tails flying, can magically use to transcend the heritage in his own way."
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/