[EDNOTE. Mary Bellino wins the contest, although regrettably no tangible reward (aside from boasting rights) has been established. Edward Belsky wins honorable mention. The excerpts certainly provide clear evidence of the Nabokovian influence that Updike himself often acknowledged. - SES]
I identify this excerpt through textual clues as a specimen of early John Updike -- his post-Harvard period. It comes from a story called IRC "Checkout" about an eponymous male checkout counter worker who is also a theology student and, on the side, scopes women who bring groceries to him for pricing and payment.
---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:28:42 -0400
>From: NABOKV-L <
NABOKV-L@HOLYCROSS.EDU>
>Subject: [NABOKV-L] QUIZ: Identifying an Anonymous Textual Excerpt
>To:
NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU >
>QUIZ: Wherefrom were these lines extracted?
>
>"An acrobat, I swing from wisp to wisp. Newman's iridescent cobwebs crush in my hands. Pascal's blackboard mathematics are erased by a passing shoulder. The cave drawings, astoudingly vital by candlelight, of those aboriginal magicians, Paul and Augustine, in daylight fade...Each of our bodies is a clock that loses time...I wake and ..feel my death rushing towards me like an express train... A girl... wearing a knit suit striped horizontally with green, purple and brown, walks slowly, carefully, puzzled by the dawn enveloping her... a trio of flat-stomached nymphs parades...The vivacious redhead, freckled and white-footed...the solemn brunette, transporting the vase of herself with held breath; the dimpled blonde..."
>
>(a) V. Nabokov : "Lolita";
>(b) V. Nabokov: "Speak Memory"
>(c) V. Nabokov :"Dar"
>(d) V.Nabokov: Collected Stories
>(e) None of the choices listed above. The correct answer is ....
>
>- Jansy Mello