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Re: NABOKV-L Digest - 21 Jan 2015 to 22 Jan 2015 (#2015-18)
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As a longtime "lurker" on this list, I think BB's succinct summary of Ada's readability is some of the best written about this book EVER and wish it could be shared more broadly!
I read Ada around age 15 when it first came out, and I had read a random mix of VN's other books already. This one I read obsessively in as close to one pass as it was possible to do while still showing up for high school every day. And had read all of Joyce except the Wake not long after. Still no Wake for me either.
--Rob Schmieder
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:00:01 -0800
From: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: NABOKV-L Digest - 21 Jan 2015 to 22 Jan 2015 (#2015-18)
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
NABOKV-L Digest - 21 Jan 2015 to 22 Jan 2015 (#2015-18)
NABOKV-L Digest - 21 Jan 2015 to 22 Jan 2015 (#2015-18)
Table of contents:
Ada and Finnegans Wake
solution of The Waltz Invention
RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake
solution of The Waltz Invention (full version)
Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Ada and Finnegans Wake
Re: Ada and Finnegans Wake (01/21)
From: Brian Boyd <b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ>
solution of The Waltz Invention
solution of The Waltz Invention (01/21)
From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark1970@MAIL.RU>
RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada (01/21)
From: Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM>
RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake
RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake (01/22)
From: Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM>
solution of The Waltz Invention (full version)
solution of The Waltz Invention (full version) (01/22)
From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark1970@MAIL.RU>
Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada (01/22)
From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
Browse the NABOKV-L online archives.
--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:04:41 +0000
From: b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ
Subject: Re: Ada and Finnegans Wake
I might take about forty years to finish my Annotations to ADA / AdaOnline, although I could have completed it in two or three years had I chosen to do it continuously. But I protest at Robert's comparison with Finnegans Wake. I wrote my first published article
on Joyce, was considering a PhD on him—even one on the Wake—but have never managed to read more than a fraction of the book. I read
Ada avidly at 17, and happened to leave the book down at the home of my sister--who never finished high school, had a shotgun marriage, already had two children, now runs a pub in a depressed area—while I goofed around with her kids. She read the first
chapter—surely the densest part of Ada and of Nabokov’s oeuvre--and thought it “a scream.” The book is funny and accessible. Sure, it
also includes riddles no one person will be able to master, but so does life, and we can enjoy both.
Brian Boyd
On 21/01/2015, at 1:33 pm, Robert Boyle <allocapnia@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
VN dismissed Finnegans Wake as "one of the greatest failures in literature,'' yet he seems to have set the board
with a similar scrambled word game in Ada. Asked why he had written the Wake the way he did, Joyce replied, "To keep the critics busy for three hundred years." How long do Nabokovians expect to be busy with Ada?
On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 3:56 PM, Nabokv-L
<nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
Subject: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 13:55:06 +0000
From: Fet, Victor <fet@marshall.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
I am attempting to explore importance of Darwin in Ada and other VN writings (beyond Podvig/Glory).
I am not specifically interested in "Scrabble approach", but noticed that both Demon and Dan Veen have nicknames starting with R, and thus abbreviate to D. "R". Veen, or in Russian transliteration, D. R. Vin. (English "R" is read as "ar"). Note hard "v" with
which we Russians customarily replace "w" in spoken English (e.g. I live in Vest Wirginia).
Their grandfather is Erasmus Veen, who is easily interpreted as Erasmus [Dar]vin.
I wonder if anybody noticed this word play before. I welcome any advice on the subject.
Van and Ada thus are not just "children of Demon" but also descendants of Darwin.
"Descent with modification" is Darwin's original formula of evolutionary change. Anybody would agree that, in the case of Van and Ada, such modification, compared to direct ancestors, is profound. It will not be inherited, I am afraid.
Victor Fet
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:07:10 +0300
From: skylark1970@MAIL.RU
Subject: solution of The Waltz Invention
...Suvorin's first wife was assassinated by her lover (who
committed suicide). Tolstoy learned the details of the murder from Kramskoy,
the artist who made a portrait (two portraits, to be precise) of the
writer. Lyubov's husband Aleksey Maksimovich Troshcheykin (whose name and
patronymic hint at Chekhov's and Tolstoy's friend Gorky) is a portrait
painter. Gorky is the author of Mat' ("The Mother," 1906).
Barbashin and Barboshin seem to be two incarnations of the devil. The
solution of The Event is the saying Ne tak strashen chyort kak ego
malyuyut (the devil is not as terrible as he is painted). The solution of
The Waltz Invention seems to be our national Oedipean oath,
ebyona mat' (fuck your mother).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:57:24 -0200
From: jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM
Subject: RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in AdaJansy Mello: For the first time I saw a clue about VN's insistence on Van's (biological) sterility. What are the “profound modifications” you find in them, probably enhanced by their parents close family ties?
Victor Fet: “Sterility is a possible biological consequence of consanguineous inbreeding. See e.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19367331”
Dear Victor, I hope I’ll not inconvenience you by preferring to continue my questions at the VN-List, one of my most valued forums because it allows us to voice not only candid, humoristic and informal opinions but also to engage in more strict academic exchanges related to Nabokov which are often inaccessible to some of the Nablers. Your contributions are always a joy to read – and to know that they are shared by many of your admirers is, for me, an added bonus. Here is a quote from your review of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters”: “Anton Chekhov died of tuberculosis, aged 44, in 1904—the time of a rare, precarious peaceful spell in European history. Ten years since, officers and soldiers leaving town in the final scene of The Three Sisters will march onto the fields of the senseless, bloodiest Great War. Those who survive will see their dreams ruined again by the Russian revolution, civil war, and communist terror and slavery for three generations. After we have lived through the 20th century well into the 21st, there is less and less hope that the humankind will heed the dreams of Colonel Vershinin (first played by the great Stanislavsky himself). // Still, I value dreams as much as Chekhov did, so I repeat after Vershinin: “In two or three hundred years life on earth will be unimaginably beautiful, amazing, astonishing. Man has need of that life and if it doesn't yet exist, he must sense it, wait for it and dream of it, prepare to receive it, and to achieve that he must see and know more than our grandfathers and fathers saw or knew.” At a time when we witness different kinds of wars expanding their destructiveness all over our vulnerable planet and spirit, it is bracing to hear of your dreams, some of them shared with Chekhov and with V.Nabokov. When I decided to bring together your generous and heartening sentence and one of Nabokov’s, I refreshed my memory using a search machine that led me to various articles and books ( several of which I wasn’t familiar with). I’d like to bring up the name of two: Ethics, Evil and Fiction (where the author offers an elaboration about the phrase I’d been looking for and connects it to the content of your message about Darwin indirectly), by Colin McGinnsear, and the more familiar article by Richard Rorty on Cruelty (available on line eb.princeton.edu/sites/english/NEH/RORTY.HTM ) The quote: “Lolita has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only in so far as if affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.” Just as a mathematical formula can be considered “beautiful”, there are many works of art that now question the standard parameters of “beauty” (without the revolutionary excesses defended by, say, Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, when the road to beauty - the correct word now fails me - demands a passage that progresses through various degrees of horror). Your article about Chekhov’s art and play emphasized the importance of individual emotions over strategic action in a succinct manner. And, as I see it, the beauty and ethics of V.Nabokov’s art lies in the promise (the dream) hidden in the lines quoted above because, for me they represent, among other things, an exercise in the dangers and advantages in the emotions related to “empathy” (can we connect them to Darwin at this point, without the need of invoking religion?) Going back to the original subject. You were advocating the inclusion of Darwin and evolution in “ADA”* before you noted that: Nabokov is both writer and a natural scientist; he may not agree with mechanisms suggested by Darwin entirely, but he never denies evolution and human nature,” but it’s not clear to me if, by evolution, you mean a directionless rotation and change, or if the concept of “progress” and an advance in complexity is implied therein. You seem to value Van’s and Ada’s evolutionary acquisitions relying on Darwin’s evolutionary theory and based on “human nature” ( judging from: “not inherited, I’m afraid”) – but your reference to an article about “sterility” mainly offers examples of decadence and illness resulting in the death of a lineage, as was the case of the Veens. I fear I’m confusing different issues (art, beauty, cruelty, empathy, evolution, progress) for I lack the necessary background to coherently express the radiating associations you stimulated in me: perhaps you could enlighten me, without silencing your vision at the VN-List? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..* “Van and Ada thus are not just "children of Demon" but also descendants of Darwin. "Descent with modification" is Darwin's original formula of evolutionary change. Anybody would agree that, in the case of Van and Ada, such modification, compared to direct ancestors, is profound. It will not be inherited, I am afraid.”
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:38:20 -0200
From: jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM
Subject: RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake
B.Boyd: I might take about forty years to finish my Annotations to ADA / AdaOnline, although I could have completed it in two or three years had I chosen to do it continuously. But I protest at Robert's comparison with Finnegans Wake. I wrote my first published article on Joyce, was considering a PhD on him—even one on the Wake—but have never managed to read more than a fraction of the book. I read Ada avidly at 17, and happened to leave the book down at the home of my sister--who never finished high school, had a shotgun marriage, already had two children, now runs a pub in a depressed area—while I goofed around with her kids. She read the first chapter—surely the densest part of Ada and of Nabokov’s oeuvre--and thought it “a scream.” The book is funny and accessible. Sure, it also includes riddles no one person will be able to master, but so does life, and we can enjoy both. Hello, Brian.I hadn’t realized that the first chapter was “the densest part of Ada”, but I agree with your sister also on that it’s “a scream”. I keep returning to it over and over. But that’s not the reason I decided to write this comment…I was an avid Nabokov reader long before I began to correspond with Nablers at the List, or was able to discuss anything VN-related with anyone close to me.* It was a lonely and silent experience with a gigantic oeuvre and, for two times, like you, when you “happened to leave the book down at the home of…” , I abandoned the novel in a niche at my hosts’s homes as a mischievous gesture: I wanted “ADA” to be found one day and provoke a surprise (I didn’t think “ADA” would be a spontaneous acquisition by my American friends). The editions were cheap (one of them I bought at a used-books fair in New Hampshire) and my own copy was safe at home… Whenever I remember the impulse I feel puzzled by what could have prompted me to do it – it must have been related to the attic trouvailles and the herbarium. Jansy * ADA was translated and published in Brazil only in 2005.
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 22:04:01 +0300
From: skylark1970@MAIL.RU
Subject: solution of The Waltz Invention (full version)
...Suvorin's first wife was assassinated by her
lover (who committed suicide). Tolstoy learned the details of the murder from
Kramskoy, the artist who made a portrait (two portraits, to be
precise) of the writer. Lyubov's husband Troshcheykin is a portrait
painter. Troshcheykin's name and patronymic, Aleksey
Maksimovich, hints at Gorky, the author of Mat' ("The
Mother," 1906) whose panname means "bitter."
Barbashin and Barboshin (the private detective hired by Troshcheykin to
protect himself from Barbashin) seem to be two incarnations of the
devil. The solution of The Event is the saying Ne tak strashen
chyort kak ego malyuyut (the devil is not as terrible as he is painted).
The solution of The Waltz Invention seems to be our national
Oedipean oath. In a letter of the end of January, 1830, to Vyazemski
Pushkin writes:
Я напечатал твоё "К ним" противу воли Жуковского.
Конечно, я бы не допустил к печати ничего слишком горького, слишком
озлобленного. Но элегическую <ебёну-мать> позволено сказать, когда
невтерпёж приходится благородному человеку.
I published your [poem] To Them against Zhukovski's will. Of
course, I would have never admitted for publication anything
too bitter (nichego slishkom gor'kogo), too embittered
(slishkom ozloblennogo). But when a noble man can not stand it any
longer, one is allowed to say an elegiac ebyona mat' ("f...
your mother").
Nevterpyozh ("unbearable," the adverb used by Pushkin) and
neterpelivyi (impatient) are related words. According to Waltz, he
is a very neterpelivyi person:
Вальс. Я вообще крайне нетерпеливый человек, как
правильно заметил ваш секретарь. Но сейчас я запасся терпением, и кое-какие
запасы у меня ещё остались. Повторяю ещё раз: моя машина способна путем
повторных взрывов изничтожить, обратить в блестящую ровную пыль целый
город, целую страну,
целый материк. (Act One)
The Minister of War persistantly calls Waltz "Silvio:"
Министр. Я хочу, чтобы тотчас, тотчас был доставлен
сюда этот Сильвио!
Полковник. Какой Сильвио?
Министр. Не
переспрашивать! Не играть скулами! Изобра... изобру... изобри...
Полковник.
А, вы хотите опять видеть этого горе-изобретателя? Слушаюсь.
(Уходит.) (ibid.)
Silvio is the main character in Pushkin's story Vystrel ("The
Shot," 1830).
Uzh (already), zamuzh (part of the phrase vyiti
zamuzh, "to marry") and nevterpyozh are the three adverbs that end
in ж (zh) and have no terminal soft sign (the letter ь).
Because Troshcheykin insists that his ancestor wrote his name with
yat' (the letter ѣ canceled by the
reform of 1918) and asks his sister-in-law Vera to write his name with
yat' (instead of "e"), Lyubov' complains that she has married the
letter yat'. The characters of Chekhov's one-act
play Svad'ba ("The Wedding," 1889) based on his earlier story
Svad'ba s generalom ("The Wedding with a General," 1883) include the
telegraphist Yat'. Barboshin intercepts a telegram from Antonina Pavlovna's son
Mikhail. Troshcheykin compares Lyubov's brother Mikhail to medved' (a
bear). Medved' (1888) is another one-act play by Chaekhov.
Troshcheykin accuses his wife of confronting the danger with the
carelessness of a bird:
Любовь. Вот ещё! Напротив: я сейчас распоряжусь насчёт
торта. Это мамин праздник, и я ни в коем случае не собираюсь портить ей
удовольствие ради каких-то призраков.
Трощейкин. Милая моя, эти
призраки убивают. Ты это понимаешь или нет? Если вообще ты относишься к
опасности с такой птичьей беспечностью, то я... не знаю. (Act
Two)
In a letter of Jan. 7, 1831, to Pletnyov Pushkin compares the critics to
parrots and general Inzov's magpies that repeat ebyona mat', the only
phrase they were taught to speak:
Любопытно будет видеть отзыв наших Шлегелей, из коих
один Катенин знает своё дело. Прочие попугаи или сороки Инзовские, которые
картавят одну им натверженную <ебёну мать>.
In the same letter to Pletnyov Pushkin speaks of the unexpected
success by readers of his drama Boris Godunov (1826):
Пишут мне, что Борис мой имеет большой успех: Странная
вещь, непонятная вещь! по крайней мере я того никак не ожидал. Что тому
причиною? Чтение Вальт. Скотта? голос знатоков, коих избранных так мало? крик
друзей моих? мнение двора? — Как бы то ни было — я успеха трагедии моей у вас не
понимаю.
In a letter of March 7, 1826, to Pletnyov (the Professor of Literature at
the Aleksandrovski boarding school for girls) Pushkin says that his
tragedy Boris Godunov is not for fair sex, because its characters of
different nationalities use foul language:
Какого вам Бориса, и на какие лекции? в моём
Борисе бранятся по-матерну на всех языках. Это трагедия не для прекрасного
полу.
Nobody uses foul language in The Waltz Invention, but its solution
turns out to be an unprintable oath (despite the fact that the action of the
play seems to take place in a young woman's dream). Interestingly, in
the same letter of beginning of May, 1889, to Suvorin, in which he says
that his play Leshiy ("The Wood Demon") vytantsovyvaetsya (is
coming off), Chekhov informs his friend and editor that last night he
dreamt of mlle Emily (whoever that were).
Мой «Леший» вытанцовывается.
Анне Ивановне, Насте и Боре мой сердечный
привет. В эту ночь мне снилась m-lle Эмили. Почему? Не знаю.
In a letter of Sept. 14, 1835, Pushkin asks his wife if she has
success as a rival of her namesake, Countess Emilia Musin-Pushkin (a famous
beauty, sister of Avrora Demidov, born Shernval):
Счастливо ли ты воюешь со своей
однофамилицей?
In a famous madrigal Lermontov compares Emilia's heart to the
Bastille. Barbashin (who turns into Waltz in Lyubov's dream) spent five
years and a half in prison.
The maiden name of Pushkin's wife was Goncharov. In the same
letter to Suvorin Chekhov speaks of Ivan Goncharov (the writer who was in no way
related to the family of Pushkin's wife) and his novel Oblomov
(1859):
Между прочим, читаю Гончарова и удивляюсь. Удивляюсь
себе: за что я до сих пор считал Гончарова первоклассным писателем? Его
«Обломов» совсем неважная штука. Сам Илья Ильич, утрированная фигура, не так уж
крупен, чтобы из-за него стоило писать целую книгу. Обрюзглый лентяй, каких
много, натура не сложная, дюжинная, мелкая; возводить сию персону в общественный
тип — это дань не по чину. Я спрашиваю себя: если бы Обломов не был лентяем, то
чем бы он был? И отвечаю: ничем. А коли так, то и пусть себе дрыхнет. Остальные
лица мелкие, пахнут лейковщиной, взяты небрежно и наполовину сочинены. Эпохи они
не характеризуют и нового ничего не дают. Штольц не внушает мне никакого
доверия. Автор говорит, что это великолепный малый, а я не верю. Это продувная
бестия, думающая о себе очень хорошо и собою довольная. Наполовину он сочинён,
на три четверти ходулен. Ольга сочинена и притянута за хвост. А главная беда —
во всем романе холод, холод, холод... Вычёркиваю Гончарова из списка моих
полубогов.
Among other things I am reading Goncharov and wondering. I wonder how I
could have considered Goncharov a first-rate writer. His "Oblomov" is not really
good. Oblomov himself is exaggerated and is not so striking as to make it worth
while to write a whole book about him. A flabby sluggard like so many, a
commonplace, petty nature without any complexity in it: to raise this person to
the rank of a social type is to make too much of him. I ask myself, what would
Oblomov be if he had not been a sluggard? And I answer that he would not have
been anything. And if so, let him snore in peace. The other characters are
trivial, with a flavour of Leikin about them; they are taken at random, and are
half unreal. They are not characteristic of the epoch and give one nothing new.
Stoltz does not inspire me with any confidence. The author says he is a splendid
fellow, but I don't believe him. He is a sly brute, who thinks very well of
himself and is very complacent. He is half unreal, and three-quarters on stilts.
Olga is unreal and is dragged in by the tail. And the chief trouble is that the
whole novel is cold, cold, cold. I scratch out Gontcharov from the list of my
demi-gods.
Goncharov is the author of Obryv ("The Precipice," 1869). As she
speaks to Meshaev the Second (the palmist who reads her palm), Lyubov' mentions
obryv (the precipice):
Любовь. Ну, вы не много мне сказали. Я
думала, что вы предскажете мне что-нибудь необыкновенное, потрясающее...
например, что в жизни у меня сейчас обрыв, что меня ждёт удивительное,
страшное, волшебное счастье... (Act Three)
"I thought that you would predict to me something extraordinary,
stupendous... for example, that I now have a precipice in my life, that a
wondrous, terrifying, magical happinness awaits me..."
Alexey Sklyarenko
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 22:24:18 -0500
From: nabokv-l@UTK.EDU
Subject: Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:18:14 +0000
From: Fet, Victor <fet@marshall.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Dear Jansy:
I thank you for your kind words, for reiterating Colonel Vershinin who
is always nice to listen to, and for unexpected reposting of my "Three
Sisters" review on this list.
All these are wonderful questions, which I would be happy to discuss.
However, NABOKOV-L must stay focused on Nabokov, and I think we cannot
really open a broad discussion on natural sciences, evolution, Darwin
and Chekhov here.
It might belong on another forum or blog - if you or anyone else are
willing to launch one (I do not, since I do not like blogging, LJ and
especially Facebook).
One word on evolution. In my humble opinion, naturalistic (biological)
definition of evolution is inherited change (of anything an organism
has) over time (generations). Darwin defined this in old-fashioned words
as "descent with modification", clear enough to understand for us today.
"Progress" may be included, depending on definition and situation.
"Improvement" (of function and structure) is often observed, but again
depends on viewpoint.
adaptation"
Worm does not always strive to be a man: from human position, tapeworm's
evolution is degradation compared even to its free-living worm
ancestors. Yes, it lost guts completely--but why do you need guts if you
live inside someone's ?
Very often terms are confused, and they have many meanings.
There is no denying wonderful evolution of human sentience, although I
have seen opinions that primates are a dead-end due to their herd/leader
mentality (cf. Russia).
And other species (not only closest primates but especially birds and
octopi; don't count out your dog and my cat) have glimpses of sentience,
or alternative path to it (ants!!). Evolution tends to acquire
complexity over time. But be careful with shallow time we live in
(thrones and kings and powers): a living cell is 2 billion year old, and
more complex than any novel.
I stop here, lest I be preaching or spamming :)
Thank you (Rus. spasibo) to all listening,
Victor Fet
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I read Ada around age 15 when it first came out, and I had read a random mix of VN's other books already. This one I read obsessively in as close to one pass as it was possible to do while still showing up for high school every day. And had read all of Joyce except the Wake not long after. Still no Wake for me either.
--Rob Schmieder
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:00:01 -0800
From: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: NABOKV-L Digest - 21 Jan 2015 to 22 Jan 2015 (#2015-18)
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
NABOKV-L Digest - 21 Jan 2015 to 22 Jan 2015 (#2015-18)
NABOKV-L Digest - 21 Jan 2015 to 22 Jan 2015 (#2015-18)
Table of contents:
Ada and Finnegans Wake
solution of The Waltz Invention
RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake
solution of The Waltz Invention (full version)
Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Ada and Finnegans Wake
Re: Ada and Finnegans Wake (01/21)
From: Brian Boyd <b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ>
solution of The Waltz Invention
solution of The Waltz Invention (01/21)
From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark1970@MAIL.RU>
RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada (01/21)
From: Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM>
RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake
RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake (01/22)
From: Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM>
solution of The Waltz Invention (full version)
solution of The Waltz Invention (full version) (01/22)
From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark1970@MAIL.RU>
Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada (01/22)
From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
Browse the NABOKV-L online archives.
--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:04:41 +0000
From: b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ
Subject: Re: Ada and Finnegans Wake
I might take about forty years to finish my Annotations to ADA / AdaOnline, although I could have completed it in two or three years had I chosen to do it continuously. But I protest at Robert's comparison with Finnegans Wake. I wrote my first published article
on Joyce, was considering a PhD on him—even one on the Wake—but have never managed to read more than a fraction of the book. I read
Ada avidly at 17, and happened to leave the book down at the home of my sister--who never finished high school, had a shotgun marriage, already had two children, now runs a pub in a depressed area—while I goofed around with her kids. She read the first
chapter—surely the densest part of Ada and of Nabokov’s oeuvre--and thought it “a scream.” The book is funny and accessible. Sure, it
also includes riddles no one person will be able to master, but so does life, and we can enjoy both.
Brian Boyd
On 21/01/2015, at 1:33 pm, Robert Boyle <allocapnia@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
VN dismissed Finnegans Wake as "one of the greatest failures in literature,'' yet he seems to have set the board
with a similar scrambled word game in Ada. Asked why he had written the Wake the way he did, Joyce replied, "To keep the critics busy for three hundred years." How long do Nabokovians expect to be busy with Ada?
On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 3:56 PM, Nabokv-L
<nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
Subject: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 13:55:06 +0000
From: Fet, Victor <fet@marshall.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
I am attempting to explore importance of Darwin in Ada and other VN writings (beyond Podvig/Glory).
I am not specifically interested in "Scrabble approach", but noticed that both Demon and Dan Veen have nicknames starting with R, and thus abbreviate to D. "R". Veen, or in Russian transliteration, D. R. Vin. (English "R" is read as "ar"). Note hard "v" with
which we Russians customarily replace "w" in spoken English (e.g. I live in Vest Wirginia).
Their grandfather is Erasmus Veen, who is easily interpreted as Erasmus [Dar]vin.
I wonder if anybody noticed this word play before. I welcome any advice on the subject.
Van and Ada thus are not just "children of Demon" but also descendants of Darwin.
"Descent with modification" is Darwin's original formula of evolutionary change. Anybody would agree that, in the case of Van and Ada, such modification, compared to direct ancestors, is profound. It will not be inherited, I am afraid.
Victor Fet
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:07:10 +0300
From: skylark1970@MAIL.RU
Subject: solution of The Waltz Invention
...Suvorin's first wife was assassinated by her lover (who
committed suicide). Tolstoy learned the details of the murder from Kramskoy,
the artist who made a portrait (two portraits, to be precise) of the
writer. Lyubov's husband Aleksey Maksimovich Troshcheykin (whose name and
patronymic hint at Chekhov's and Tolstoy's friend Gorky) is a portrait
painter. Gorky is the author of Mat' ("The Mother," 1906).
Barbashin and Barboshin seem to be two incarnations of the devil. The
solution of The Event is the saying Ne tak strashen chyort kak ego
malyuyut (the devil is not as terrible as he is painted). The solution of
The Waltz Invention seems to be our national Oedipean oath,
ebyona mat' (fuck your mother).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:57:24 -0200
From: jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM
Subject: RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in AdaJansy Mello: For the first time I saw a clue about VN's insistence on Van's (biological) sterility. What are the “profound modifications” you find in them, probably enhanced by their parents close family ties?
Victor Fet: “Sterility is a possible biological consequence of consanguineous inbreeding. See e.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19367331”
Dear Victor, I hope I’ll not inconvenience you by preferring to continue my questions at the VN-List, one of my most valued forums because it allows us to voice not only candid, humoristic and informal opinions but also to engage in more strict academic exchanges related to Nabokov which are often inaccessible to some of the Nablers. Your contributions are always a joy to read – and to know that they are shared by many of your admirers is, for me, an added bonus. Here is a quote from your review of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters”: “Anton Chekhov died of tuberculosis, aged 44, in 1904—the time of a rare, precarious peaceful spell in European history. Ten years since, officers and soldiers leaving town in the final scene of The Three Sisters will march onto the fields of the senseless, bloodiest Great War. Those who survive will see their dreams ruined again by the Russian revolution, civil war, and communist terror and slavery for three generations. After we have lived through the 20th century well into the 21st, there is less and less hope that the humankind will heed the dreams of Colonel Vershinin (first played by the great Stanislavsky himself). // Still, I value dreams as much as Chekhov did, so I repeat after Vershinin: “In two or three hundred years life on earth will be unimaginably beautiful, amazing, astonishing. Man has need of that life and if it doesn't yet exist, he must sense it, wait for it and dream of it, prepare to receive it, and to achieve that he must see and know more than our grandfathers and fathers saw or knew.” At a time when we witness different kinds of wars expanding their destructiveness all over our vulnerable planet and spirit, it is bracing to hear of your dreams, some of them shared with Chekhov and with V.Nabokov. When I decided to bring together your generous and heartening sentence and one of Nabokov’s, I refreshed my memory using a search machine that led me to various articles and books ( several of which I wasn’t familiar with). I’d like to bring up the name of two: Ethics, Evil and Fiction (where the author offers an elaboration about the phrase I’d been looking for and connects it to the content of your message about Darwin indirectly), by Colin McGinnsear, and the more familiar article by Richard Rorty on Cruelty (available on line eb.princeton.edu/sites/english/NEH/RORTY.HTM ) The quote: “Lolita has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only in so far as if affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.” Just as a mathematical formula can be considered “beautiful”, there are many works of art that now question the standard parameters of “beauty” (without the revolutionary excesses defended by, say, Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, when the road to beauty - the correct word now fails me - demands a passage that progresses through various degrees of horror). Your article about Chekhov’s art and play emphasized the importance of individual emotions over strategic action in a succinct manner. And, as I see it, the beauty and ethics of V.Nabokov’s art lies in the promise (the dream) hidden in the lines quoted above because, for me they represent, among other things, an exercise in the dangers and advantages in the emotions related to “empathy” (can we connect them to Darwin at this point, without the need of invoking religion?) Going back to the original subject. You were advocating the inclusion of Darwin and evolution in “ADA”* before you noted that: Nabokov is both writer and a natural scientist; he may not agree with mechanisms suggested by Darwin entirely, but he never denies evolution and human nature,” but it’s not clear to me if, by evolution, you mean a directionless rotation and change, or if the concept of “progress” and an advance in complexity is implied therein. You seem to value Van’s and Ada’s evolutionary acquisitions relying on Darwin’s evolutionary theory and based on “human nature” ( judging from: “not inherited, I’m afraid”) – but your reference to an article about “sterility” mainly offers examples of decadence and illness resulting in the death of a lineage, as was the case of the Veens. I fear I’m confusing different issues (art, beauty, cruelty, empathy, evolution, progress) for I lack the necessary background to coherently express the radiating associations you stimulated in me: perhaps you could enlighten me, without silencing your vision at the VN-List? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..* “Van and Ada thus are not just "children of Demon" but also descendants of Darwin. "Descent with modification" is Darwin's original formula of evolutionary change. Anybody would agree that, in the case of Van and Ada, such modification, compared to direct ancestors, is profound. It will not be inherited, I am afraid.”
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:38:20 -0200
From: jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM
Subject: RES: [NABOKV-L] Ada and Finnegans Wake
B.Boyd: I might take about forty years to finish my Annotations to ADA / AdaOnline, although I could have completed it in two or three years had I chosen to do it continuously. But I protest at Robert's comparison with Finnegans Wake. I wrote my first published article on Joyce, was considering a PhD on him—even one on the Wake—but have never managed to read more than a fraction of the book. I read Ada avidly at 17, and happened to leave the book down at the home of my sister--who never finished high school, had a shotgun marriage, already had two children, now runs a pub in a depressed area—while I goofed around with her kids. She read the first chapter—surely the densest part of Ada and of Nabokov’s oeuvre--and thought it “a scream.” The book is funny and accessible. Sure, it also includes riddles no one person will be able to master, but so does life, and we can enjoy both. Hello, Brian.I hadn’t realized that the first chapter was “the densest part of Ada”, but I agree with your sister also on that it’s “a scream”. I keep returning to it over and over. But that’s not the reason I decided to write this comment…I was an avid Nabokov reader long before I began to correspond with Nablers at the List, or was able to discuss anything VN-related with anyone close to me.* It was a lonely and silent experience with a gigantic oeuvre and, for two times, like you, when you “happened to leave the book down at the home of…” , I abandoned the novel in a niche at my hosts’s homes as a mischievous gesture: I wanted “ADA” to be found one day and provoke a surprise (I didn’t think “ADA” would be a spontaneous acquisition by my American friends). The editions were cheap (one of them I bought at a used-books fair in New Hampshire) and my own copy was safe at home… Whenever I remember the impulse I feel puzzled by what could have prompted me to do it – it must have been related to the attic trouvailles and the herbarium. Jansy * ADA was translated and published in Brazil only in 2005.
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 22:04:01 +0300
From: skylark1970@MAIL.RU
Subject: solution of The Waltz Invention (full version)
...Suvorin's first wife was assassinated by her
lover (who committed suicide). Tolstoy learned the details of the murder from
Kramskoy, the artist who made a portrait (two portraits, to be
precise) of the writer. Lyubov's husband Troshcheykin is a portrait
painter. Troshcheykin's name and patronymic, Aleksey
Maksimovich, hints at Gorky, the author of Mat' ("The
Mother," 1906) whose panname means "bitter."
Barbashin and Barboshin (the private detective hired by Troshcheykin to
protect himself from Barbashin) seem to be two incarnations of the
devil. The solution of The Event is the saying Ne tak strashen
chyort kak ego malyuyut (the devil is not as terrible as he is painted).
The solution of The Waltz Invention seems to be our national
Oedipean oath. In a letter of the end of January, 1830, to Vyazemski
Pushkin writes:
Я напечатал твоё "К ним" противу воли Жуковского.
Конечно, я бы не допустил к печати ничего слишком горького, слишком
озлобленного. Но элегическую <ебёну-мать> позволено сказать, когда
невтерпёж приходится благородному человеку.
I published your [poem] To Them against Zhukovski's will. Of
course, I would have never admitted for publication anything
too bitter (nichego slishkom gor'kogo), too embittered
(slishkom ozloblennogo). But when a noble man can not stand it any
longer, one is allowed to say an elegiac ebyona mat' ("f...
your mother").
Nevterpyozh ("unbearable," the adverb used by Pushkin) and
neterpelivyi (impatient) are related words. According to Waltz, he
is a very neterpelivyi person:
Вальс. Я вообще крайне нетерпеливый человек, как
правильно заметил ваш секретарь. Но сейчас я запасся терпением, и кое-какие
запасы у меня ещё остались. Повторяю ещё раз: моя машина способна путем
повторных взрывов изничтожить, обратить в блестящую ровную пыль целый
город, целую страну,
целый материк. (Act One)
The Minister of War persistantly calls Waltz "Silvio:"
Министр. Я хочу, чтобы тотчас, тотчас был доставлен
сюда этот Сильвио!
Полковник. Какой Сильвио?
Министр. Не
переспрашивать! Не играть скулами! Изобра... изобру... изобри...
Полковник.
А, вы хотите опять видеть этого горе-изобретателя? Слушаюсь.
(Уходит.) (ibid.)
Silvio is the main character in Pushkin's story Vystrel ("The
Shot," 1830).
Uzh (already), zamuzh (part of the phrase vyiti
zamuzh, "to marry") and nevterpyozh are the three adverbs that end
in ж (zh) and have no terminal soft sign (the letter ь).
Because Troshcheykin insists that his ancestor wrote his name with
yat' (the letter ѣ canceled by the
reform of 1918) and asks his sister-in-law Vera to write his name with
yat' (instead of "e"), Lyubov' complains that she has married the
letter yat'. The characters of Chekhov's one-act
play Svad'ba ("The Wedding," 1889) based on his earlier story
Svad'ba s generalom ("The Wedding with a General," 1883) include the
telegraphist Yat'. Barboshin intercepts a telegram from Antonina Pavlovna's son
Mikhail. Troshcheykin compares Lyubov's brother Mikhail to medved' (a
bear). Medved' (1888) is another one-act play by Chaekhov.
Troshcheykin accuses his wife of confronting the danger with the
carelessness of a bird:
Любовь. Вот ещё! Напротив: я сейчас распоряжусь насчёт
торта. Это мамин праздник, и я ни в коем случае не собираюсь портить ей
удовольствие ради каких-то призраков.
Трощейкин. Милая моя, эти
призраки убивают. Ты это понимаешь или нет? Если вообще ты относишься к
опасности с такой птичьей беспечностью, то я... не знаю. (Act
Two)
In a letter of Jan. 7, 1831, to Pletnyov Pushkin compares the critics to
parrots and general Inzov's magpies that repeat ebyona mat', the only
phrase they were taught to speak:
Любопытно будет видеть отзыв наших Шлегелей, из коих
один Катенин знает своё дело. Прочие попугаи или сороки Инзовские, которые
картавят одну им натверженную <ебёну мать>.
In the same letter to Pletnyov Pushkin speaks of the unexpected
success by readers of his drama Boris Godunov (1826):
Пишут мне, что Борис мой имеет большой успех: Странная
вещь, непонятная вещь! по крайней мере я того никак не ожидал. Что тому
причиною? Чтение Вальт. Скотта? голос знатоков, коих избранных так мало? крик
друзей моих? мнение двора? — Как бы то ни было — я успеха трагедии моей у вас не
понимаю.
In a letter of March 7, 1826, to Pletnyov (the Professor of Literature at
the Aleksandrovski boarding school for girls) Pushkin says that his
tragedy Boris Godunov is not for fair sex, because its characters of
different nationalities use foul language:
Какого вам Бориса, и на какие лекции? в моём
Борисе бранятся по-матерну на всех языках. Это трагедия не для прекрасного
полу.
Nobody uses foul language in The Waltz Invention, but its solution
turns out to be an unprintable oath (despite the fact that the action of the
play seems to take place in a young woman's dream). Interestingly, in
the same letter of beginning of May, 1889, to Suvorin, in which he says
that his play Leshiy ("The Wood Demon") vytantsovyvaetsya (is
coming off), Chekhov informs his friend and editor that last night he
dreamt of mlle Emily (whoever that were).
Мой «Леший» вытанцовывается.
Анне Ивановне, Насте и Боре мой сердечный
привет. В эту ночь мне снилась m-lle Эмили. Почему? Не знаю.
In a letter of Sept. 14, 1835, Pushkin asks his wife if she has
success as a rival of her namesake, Countess Emilia Musin-Pushkin (a famous
beauty, sister of Avrora Demidov, born Shernval):
Счастливо ли ты воюешь со своей
однофамилицей?
In a famous madrigal Lermontov compares Emilia's heart to the
Bastille. Barbashin (who turns into Waltz in Lyubov's dream) spent five
years and a half in prison.
The maiden name of Pushkin's wife was Goncharov. In the same
letter to Suvorin Chekhov speaks of Ivan Goncharov (the writer who was in no way
related to the family of Pushkin's wife) and his novel Oblomov
(1859):
Между прочим, читаю Гончарова и удивляюсь. Удивляюсь
себе: за что я до сих пор считал Гончарова первоклассным писателем? Его
«Обломов» совсем неважная штука. Сам Илья Ильич, утрированная фигура, не так уж
крупен, чтобы из-за него стоило писать целую книгу. Обрюзглый лентяй, каких
много, натура не сложная, дюжинная, мелкая; возводить сию персону в общественный
тип — это дань не по чину. Я спрашиваю себя: если бы Обломов не был лентяем, то
чем бы он был? И отвечаю: ничем. А коли так, то и пусть себе дрыхнет. Остальные
лица мелкие, пахнут лейковщиной, взяты небрежно и наполовину сочинены. Эпохи они
не характеризуют и нового ничего не дают. Штольц не внушает мне никакого
доверия. Автор говорит, что это великолепный малый, а я не верю. Это продувная
бестия, думающая о себе очень хорошо и собою довольная. Наполовину он сочинён,
на три четверти ходулен. Ольга сочинена и притянута за хвост. А главная беда —
во всем романе холод, холод, холод... Вычёркиваю Гончарова из списка моих
полубогов.
Among other things I am reading Goncharov and wondering. I wonder how I
could have considered Goncharov a first-rate writer. His "Oblomov" is not really
good. Oblomov himself is exaggerated and is not so striking as to make it worth
while to write a whole book about him. A flabby sluggard like so many, a
commonplace, petty nature without any complexity in it: to raise this person to
the rank of a social type is to make too much of him. I ask myself, what would
Oblomov be if he had not been a sluggard? And I answer that he would not have
been anything. And if so, let him snore in peace. The other characters are
trivial, with a flavour of Leikin about them; they are taken at random, and are
half unreal. They are not characteristic of the epoch and give one nothing new.
Stoltz does not inspire me with any confidence. The author says he is a splendid
fellow, but I don't believe him. He is a sly brute, who thinks very well of
himself and is very complacent. He is half unreal, and three-quarters on stilts.
Olga is unreal and is dragged in by the tail. And the chief trouble is that the
whole novel is cold, cold, cold. I scratch out Gontcharov from the list of my
demi-gods.
Goncharov is the author of Obryv ("The Precipice," 1869). As she
speaks to Meshaev the Second (the palmist who reads her palm), Lyubov' mentions
obryv (the precipice):
Любовь. Ну, вы не много мне сказали. Я
думала, что вы предскажете мне что-нибудь необыкновенное, потрясающее...
например, что в жизни у меня сейчас обрыв, что меня ждёт удивительное,
страшное, волшебное счастье... (Act Three)
"I thought that you would predict to me something extraordinary,
stupendous... for example, that I now have a precipice in my life, that a
wondrous, terrifying, magical happinness awaits me..."
Alexey Sklyarenko
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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 22:24:18 -0500
From: nabokv-l@UTK.EDU
Subject: Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Darwin in Ada
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:18:14 +0000
From: Fet, Victor <fet@marshall.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Dear Jansy:
I thank you for your kind words, for reiterating Colonel Vershinin who
is always nice to listen to, and for unexpected reposting of my "Three
Sisters" review on this list.
All these are wonderful questions, which I would be happy to discuss.
However, NABOKOV-L must stay focused on Nabokov, and I think we cannot
really open a broad discussion on natural sciences, evolution, Darwin
and Chekhov here.
It might belong on another forum or blog - if you or anyone else are
willing to launch one (I do not, since I do not like blogging, LJ and
especially Facebook).
One word on evolution. In my humble opinion, naturalistic (biological)
definition of evolution is inherited change (of anything an organism
has) over time (generations). Darwin defined this in old-fashioned words
as "descent with modification", clear enough to understand for us today.
"Progress" may be included, depending on definition and situation.
"Improvement" (of function and structure) is often observed, but again
depends on viewpoint.
adaptation"
Worm does not always strive to be a man: from human position, tapeworm's
evolution is degradation compared even to its free-living worm
ancestors. Yes, it lost guts completely--but why do you need guts if you
live inside someone's ?
Very often terms are confused, and they have many meanings.
There is no denying wonderful evolution of human sentience, although I
have seen opinions that primates are a dead-end due to their herd/leader
mentality (cf. Russia).
And other species (not only closest primates but especially birds and
octopi; don't count out your dog and my cat) have glimpses of sentience,
or alternative path to it (ants!!). Evolution tends to acquire
complexity over time. But be careful with shallow time we live in
(thrones and kings and powers): a living cell is 2 billion year old, and
more complex than any novel.
I stop here, lest I be preaching or spamming :)
Thank you (Rus. spasibo) to all listening,
Victor Fet
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