JA: They
comprise worlds [...] whose totality can only be appreciated outside the
rectangular world of the book (Nabokov was wrong about the spherical shape of
life)... My own view is that this design stuff is interesting only as it relates
to understanding the author's work, as for the universe of my life, Designers no
matter how univocal or democratic are the real
fairytales.
JM: Where does Nabokov describe the
"spherical shape of life"? He wrote about a transparent marble with a
spiral inside, of loose spirals evolving here and there. I think
Van also wrote something about spherical space ( or was it
spherical time?)
Why transform "ID" into an anthropoid "Designer"?
It is still unclear to me if Fyodor's father
believed that concepts, in fact, express "the original of a
being".
If he did... how could he
then accept "evolution" as taking place
and thereby disturbing those perfectly designed originals?
(Henri Poincaré wrote that perfect
worlds, by their very perfection, have to be static,
motionless)
Would VN's spiraling and evolving world be
encased, indeed, inside a crystal sphere that is observed by its
Designer? I don't think that answers to
such questions shall clarify anything important on what concerns
VN's fiction:. even arguments, such as those voiced by
Fyodor, must belong to VN's
fictional ploys.