Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014379, Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:16:08 -0200

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Re: Soliloquies, American writers, Greek Gods
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CHW wrote: After much searching, I found that the “to be” topic is a currently a matter of great debate: eg here http://www.shaksper.net/archives/2003/0802.html. The idea that Hamlet’s apparently suicidal thoughts are deliberately deceptive fits pleasingly with what I’ve already said, and is attractive.

Nabokov in Bend Sinister( ch. 2) mentioned philistinism and Descartes' "Cogito Ergo Sum". An unintentional twist allowed me to create a deformed association with thoughtful Hamlet's lines:

"He remembered other imbeciles he and she had studied... Men who got drunk on beer in sloppy bars, the process of thought satisfactorily replaced by swine-toned radio music. Murderers. The respect a business magnate evokes in his home town. Literary critics praising the books of their friends or partisans. Flaubertian farceurs. Fraternities, mystic orders. People who are amused by trained animals. The members of reading clubs. All those who are because they do not think, thus refuting Cartesianism. The thrifty peasant. The booming politician..."

( the Flaubertian farceurs, also present in the above paragraph, led me to Homais, Hamlet and Homelette au lard...)

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