Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001805, Wed, 12 Mar 1997 11:47:17 -0800

Subject
Re: VN and Space (fwd)
Date
Body

>From: Thomas Bolt <bolt@spacelab.net>
> Is this the space through which Vadim has such trouble turning in LATH?
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>From tcr200z@mail

[Richardson's reply:] Yes, I think it is. Or at least it has something to
do with it. Of course, there is much in Nabokov's work concerning the
confusion of time and space (see much of Boyd's work for this), and this
is the answer Vadim is given at the end (this question has much to do with
Ada, too, which spurred my question). If space is not bound by time and
there is a space in which time has no meaning (Trans. Things, etc), then
what are the properties of this space?

I'm thinking this has something to do with what I'm calling "surfaces." By
this I mean the context, the ambience (like Brian Eno's ambient work which
tries to set a context for any(other) space). The extreme attention to
apparently "meaningless" detail in VN's work might function as a context for
another space (a space in which the turning in LATH might take place if he
were able to do it). This may also be the place "that other writer who was
and would always be incomparably greater, healthier, and crueler" resides
(and the other who allows Krug his escape, the editor of Ada, the patterner
of The Defense and Trans. Things, etc.).

Does this make sense?

Tim R.