Dear Don,
I extracted this from my note: Marina
Grishakova recognizes that “[t]he
Pascalean subtext and the fiction of the ‘invisible observer’ as the Author of
the World vs. the author of the text appears already in Nabokov's Russian
novels.” She quotes the French Mathematician: “What will we do then, but perceive the
appearance of the middle of things, in an eternal despair of knowing either
their beginning or their end. All things proceed from the Nothing, and are borne
towards the Infinite” (“V. Nabokov’s
“Bend Sinister”: A Social Message or an Experiment with Time?” Sign Systems Studies 28,
Tartu
University
Press, 2000, pp. 242-263).
There
is another author who introduced Pascal in connection with VN, but I must return
to search in my text later. This is what I found now and I´m in a
rush to the office...
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 12:59
AM
Subject: Fwd: Speak Memory
Dear Jansy-in-Rio,
Thanks for
cc-ing me Could you send me the Pascal reference? -for personal
use
only? Did I send you The Last Tango essay? The passing reference to Rio
is
in one version that I'm revising for publication. Best,
Don
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 21:18:03 +0100
From: Jansy Berndt
de Souza Mello
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
<jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Speak
Memory
To:
pennyparkerpark@hotmail.com
Dear Dane Gill,
I found your query
at the list, concerning Montaigne and Nabokov´s opening
chapter in Speak
Memory.
I have been researching about the image of the cradle and the abyss
and found
several other names linked to it. Boyd connects it with the
first lines of
Pale Fire in his book on the novel. Also Priscilla Meyer
studies it in her own
book on Pale Fire and refers to The Honorable Bede (
the image of a sparrow
crossing a lighted room while entering it from a
dark winter night and
returning to it again ). I found interesting
links also with Pascal.
I wrote a short note on this subject and I
submitted it to The Nabokovian.
Although I am not allowed to divulge the
text of note ( and I still don´t know
if it has been accepted for
publication ) I think that I can offer you more
bibliographic indications
if you should be interested in pursuing this matte
further, specially
the references to Pascal. In that case, please ask me off
list in a mail
and I´ll be glad to forward them to you.
Best,
Jansy
----- End
forwarded message -----
Dear Dane Gill,
I found your query at the list, concerning Montaigne and
Nabokov´s opening chapter in Speak Memory.
I have been researching
about the image of the cradle and the abyss and found several other names
linked to it. Boyd connects it with the first lines of Pale Fire in his
book on the novel. Also Priscilla Meyer studies it in her own book on
Pale Fire and refers to The Honorable Bede ( the image of a sparrow crossing a
lighted room while entering it from a dark winter night and
returning to it again ). I found interesting links also with
Pascal.
I wrote a short note on this subject and I submitted it to
The Nabokovian. Although I am not allowed to divulge the text of note (
and I still don´t know if it has been accepted for publication ) I
think that I can offer you more bibliographic indications if you should
be interested in pursuing this matte further, specially the references
to Pascal. In that case, please ask me off list in a mail and I´ll be
glad to forward them to you.
Best,
Jansy