Subject
Re: QUERY: Mournful Monsters]
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LH [on :"Some of my characters are, no doubt, pretty beastly, but I really don't care, they are outside my inner self like the mournful monsters of a cathedral façade - demons placed there merely to show that they have been booted out."]
If they have been booted out, then it means that they used to be inside: VN admits that there is some relation between his inner self and his monstrous characters.
LH to M Roth: [MR:"...eliminated from his intrinsic self by the same forces of perfection which purified and chiseled his verse. He was his own cancellation." So was VN, artistically at least, his own cancellation?] The bringing together of the two metaphors indicates that it is the practice of his art which enabled VN to perfect and keep his inner self pure.
JM: Perhaps LH doesn't agree with my emphasis on VN's "demons placed there merely to show that they have been booted out". There were gargoyles outside, as well inside every cathedral I visited, they were a part of the entire construction. I'm almost sure VN considered that( but probably his spur-of-the-moment remark was not ellaborated upon).
Still, I believe that the monsters that were placed outside, in his image, represent "signs" for they were placed there "to show", to indicate something else. Anyway, I have no idea what the word "inner self" means: is it "soul"?
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If they have been booted out, then it means that they used to be inside: VN admits that there is some relation between his inner self and his monstrous characters.
LH to M Roth: [MR:"...eliminated from his intrinsic self by the same forces of perfection which purified and chiseled his verse. He was his own cancellation." So was VN, artistically at least, his own cancellation?] The bringing together of the two metaphors indicates that it is the practice of his art which enabled VN to perfect and keep his inner self pure.
JM: Perhaps LH doesn't agree with my emphasis on VN's "demons placed there merely to show that they have been booted out". There were gargoyles outside, as well inside every cathedral I visited, they were a part of the entire construction. I'm almost sure VN considered that( but probably his spur-of-the-moment remark was not ellaborated upon).
Still, I believe that the monsters that were placed outside, in his image, represent "signs" for they were placed there "to show", to indicate something else. Anyway, I have no idea what the word "inner self" means: is it "soul"?
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/