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Re: The "56 days" conundrum in "Lolita"
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Bruce Stone:" ...Perhaps the problem has received little attention because no Nabokovian has yet seen the wisdom of insisting so inflexibly on the meaning of the phrase "days ago" (which rings of literal-mindedness)....
JM: Bruce Stone is right about VN's registered annoyance with literal-mindedness and stupidity (like Mr. Teste's*). He was also irritated by a reader's wish to find out if a story is "true." However, certain depictions of a disturbed mind (about those who suffer from obsessive or concrete thinking) are not derisive, disrespectful although he isn't particularly compassionate either. As we can read in the example below, in Luzin's precise answer. "...Then, fully aware of the stupidity of the question but incapable of stopping herself, she asked how long he had been playing chess. He gave no answer and turned away and she felt so embarrassed that she began to reel off a list of all the meteorological indications for yesterday, today and tomorrow. He continued silent and she also fell silent, and then she began to rummage in her handbag, searching agonizingly for a topic and finding only a broken comb. Suddenly he turned his face to her and said: 'Eighteen years, three months and four days.' For her this was an exquisite relief, and furthermore she was somehow flattered by the elaborate circumstantiality of his reply. Subsequently, however, she began to grow a little annoyed that he in his turn never asked any questions, taking her, as it were, for granted."
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* - Valèry: "La bêtise n'es pas mon fort"
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JM: Bruce Stone is right about VN's registered annoyance with literal-mindedness and stupidity (like Mr. Teste's*). He was also irritated by a reader's wish to find out if a story is "true." However, certain depictions of a disturbed mind (about those who suffer from obsessive or concrete thinking) are not derisive, disrespectful although he isn't particularly compassionate either. As we can read in the example below, in Luzin's precise answer. "...Then, fully aware of the stupidity of the question but incapable of stopping herself, she asked how long he had been playing chess. He gave no answer and turned away and she felt so embarrassed that she began to reel off a list of all the meteorological indications for yesterday, today and tomorrow. He continued silent and she also fell silent, and then she began to rummage in her handbag, searching agonizingly for a topic and finding only a broken comb. Suddenly he turned his face to her and said: 'Eighteen years, three months and four days.' For her this was an exquisite relief, and furthermore she was somehow flattered by the elaborate circumstantiality of his reply. Subsequently, however, she began to grow a little annoyed that he in his turn never asked any questions, taking her, as it were, for granted."
...................................................................................................
* - Valèry: "La bêtise n'es pas mon fort"
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/