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Fw: Fwd: Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
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EDNOTE. Alexey Sklyarenko has translated ADA into Russian and among its closest
readers.
----------------------------
----- Forwarded message from skylark05@mail.ru -----
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 19:53:19 +0400
From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark05@mail.ru>
Reply-To: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark05@mail.ru>
Subject: Fw: Fwd: Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
"I would venture to guess that the only "real" people in Ada are "Violet"
and "Oranger".
And maybe only one of them."
Dear Carolyn (and all),
There are no "real" people in ADA, or in any other book by Nabokov, with the
exception, perhaps, of "Speak, Memory"/Drugie Berega. Even the characters in
Chapter Four ("The Life of Chernyshevsky") of "The Gift" (the novel that you,
Carolyn, stubbornly refuse to read) were more or less invented by VN. Neither
is Khrushchyov (to cite another, more familiar to you, example), who toward the
end of Kinbote's commentary in "Pale Fire" is made to visit Zembla and deliver a
speach ("you call yourselves Zemblans..." as imagined by Kinbote), a real man.
On the other hand, some of Nabokov's characters can be more "real" than the
others. Contrary to your suggestion though, Ronald Oranger and Violet Knox turn
out to be even less "real" than Van and Ada. While the latter are but characters
in Nabokov's dream of Antiterra, both Violet and Mr. Oranger are characters of
the last in a series of dreams that Lucette sends to Van and Ada from Terra (I
know that you don't accept my theory, but you can't deny that it is logical,
fits the facts and explains nearly everything in the novel). Like Eric Veen and
his grandfather David van Veen in the floramor chapter, Violet and Oranger are
merely a "dream within a dream." Their "reality" has thus a doubly oneiric
origin and should be taken in double quotes, so to say (in a certain sense,
even Prince Ivan Tyomnosiniy, a fabulous ancestor of Van and Ada mentioned at
the beginning of the Family Chronicle, is more "real" than "Mr. and Ms. Ronald
Oranger"). Interestingly, while Lucette uses Blok's poem Nochnaia Fialka
(literally, "The Night Violet) to create for Van (and Ada) the charming vision
of Violet Knox, she seems to resort to certain images from Ibsen's play "The
Master Builder" (mentioned at the end of my essay on Blok's dreams in ADA) for
creating Mr. Oranger. I hope to speak of this in more detail some other time.
In the meantime, let me say that I expect a little more intelligent feed-back to
the expanded version of my essay on Dreams in ADA, which recently appeared on
Zembla, than I had received a few moths ago from Carolyn in response to the
initial version of the article published in the latest issue of The Nabokovian.
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald B. Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 8:27 AM
Subject: Fwd: Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
ednote. jESSAMYN wEST IS THE AUTHOR c IS THINKING OF. VN assigned her New
Yorker
story "The Mysteries of Life in an Orderly Manner" an A-; second only to the
A+
he gave "Collete."
-----------------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from chaiselongue@earthlink.net -----
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 12:15:11 -0800
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
I would venture to guess that the only "real" people in Ada are "Violet"
and "Oranger".
And maybe only one of them.
Reminds me of the Quaker joke:
"Sometimes I think the whole world is mad except thee and me. And sometimes
I wonder about thee."
Didn't someone on the list once mention that VN expressed fondness for "The
Friendly Persuasion"? Can't think of the author's name just now, but she
wrote a sequel called
"Except Thee and Me".
Carolyn
----- End forwarded message -----
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would venture to guess that the only "real" people in Ada are "Violet" and
"Oranger".
And maybe only one of them.
Reminds me of the Quaker joke:
"Sometimes I think the whole world is mad except thee and me. And sometimes
I wonder about thee."
Didn't someone on the list once mention that VN expressed fondness for "The
Friendly Persuasion"? Can't think of the author's name just now, but she wrote
a sequel called
"Except Thee and Me".
Carolyn
----- End forwarded message -----
readers.
----------------------------
----- Forwarded message from skylark05@mail.ru -----
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 19:53:19 +0400
From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark05@mail.ru>
Reply-To: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark05@mail.ru>
Subject: Fw: Fwd: Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
"I would venture to guess that the only "real" people in Ada are "Violet"
and "Oranger".
And maybe only one of them."
Dear Carolyn (and all),
There are no "real" people in ADA, or in any other book by Nabokov, with the
exception, perhaps, of "Speak, Memory"/Drugie Berega. Even the characters in
Chapter Four ("The Life of Chernyshevsky") of "The Gift" (the novel that you,
Carolyn, stubbornly refuse to read) were more or less invented by VN. Neither
is Khrushchyov (to cite another, more familiar to you, example), who toward the
end of Kinbote's commentary in "Pale Fire" is made to visit Zembla and deliver a
speach ("you call yourselves Zemblans..." as imagined by Kinbote), a real man.
On the other hand, some of Nabokov's characters can be more "real" than the
others. Contrary to your suggestion though, Ronald Oranger and Violet Knox turn
out to be even less "real" than Van and Ada. While the latter are but characters
in Nabokov's dream of Antiterra, both Violet and Mr. Oranger are characters of
the last in a series of dreams that Lucette sends to Van and Ada from Terra (I
know that you don't accept my theory, but you can't deny that it is logical,
fits the facts and explains nearly everything in the novel). Like Eric Veen and
his grandfather David van Veen in the floramor chapter, Violet and Oranger are
merely a "dream within a dream." Their "reality" has thus a doubly oneiric
origin and should be taken in double quotes, so to say (in a certain sense,
even Prince Ivan Tyomnosiniy, a fabulous ancestor of Van and Ada mentioned at
the beginning of the Family Chronicle, is more "real" than "Mr. and Ms. Ronald
Oranger"). Interestingly, while Lucette uses Blok's poem Nochnaia Fialka
(literally, "The Night Violet) to create for Van (and Ada) the charming vision
of Violet Knox, she seems to resort to certain images from Ibsen's play "The
Master Builder" (mentioned at the end of my essay on Blok's dreams in ADA) for
creating Mr. Oranger. I hope to speak of this in more detail some other time.
In the meantime, let me say that I expect a little more intelligent feed-back to
the expanded version of my essay on Dreams in ADA, which recently appeared on
Zembla, than I had received a few moths ago from Carolyn in response to the
initial version of the article published in the latest issue of The Nabokovian.
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald B. Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 8:27 AM
Subject: Fwd: Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
ednote. jESSAMYN wEST IS THE AUTHOR c IS THINKING OF. VN assigned her New
Yorker
story "The Mysteries of Life in an Orderly Manner" an A-; second only to the
A+
he gave "Collete."
-----------------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from chaiselongue@earthlink.net -----
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 12:15:11 -0800
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: VAn & ADA - further speculation & Quaker humor
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
I would venture to guess that the only "real" people in Ada are "Violet"
and "Oranger".
And maybe only one of them.
Reminds me of the Quaker joke:
"Sometimes I think the whole world is mad except thee and me. And sometimes
I wonder about thee."
Didn't someone on the list once mention that VN expressed fondness for "The
Friendly Persuasion"? Can't think of the author's name just now, but she
wrote a sequel called
"Except Thee and Me".
Carolyn
----- End forwarded message -----
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would venture to guess that the only "real" people in Ada are "Violet" and
"Oranger".
And maybe only one of them.
Reminds me of the Quaker joke:
"Sometimes I think the whole world is mad except thee and me. And sometimes
I wonder about thee."
Didn't someone on the list once mention that VN expressed fondness for "The
Friendly Persuasion"? Can't think of the author's name just now, but she wrote
a sequel called
"Except Thee and Me".
Carolyn
----- End forwarded message -----