Post-Script:
Perhaps I should not have compared VN's words, in
an interview, to his character's behavior, when I observed that the
latter are sexually promiscuous,
but remain faithful to an original fictional-partner. Worse
mistake: I used this example to relate VN's passion for butterflies
and literature to sexuality and to love... A year
ago (Thu, 25 Jan 2007) Jerry Friedman wrote: "In
trying to think about whether we're simply talking about the body dying and the
spirit living, I'm confused between "I am an indivisible
monist" and the overtly dualistic dscriptions of Cincinnatus in
/Invitation to a Beheading/.Maybe Shade is both Icarus and Daedalus. I'm pretty
sure, tough, that Kinbote (whose favorite method of suicide is falling) ends up
as ashen fluff."
Once again we see VN's own words set in contrast to his character's,
although these sometimes repeat their creator's opinions. For example,
when Van writes: “The mind of man, by nature a
monist, cannot accept two
nothings; he knows there has been one nothing, his biological
inexistence in the infinite past[...] But a second nothingness [...] is
logically unacceptable…")
Here is another example of VN's testimony of
his passion for literature ( his ecstatic response to butterflies is somewhere
in SO):
"We ought to remain a little aloof and take pleasure in this
aloofness while at the same time we keenly enjoy -- passionately enjoy, enjoy
with tears and shivers -- the inner weave of a given masterpiece."
And yet, concerning spiritual and physical love, I can
only cite passionately monistic Sebastian Knight (quoted by
V.!):
'Physical love is but another way of saying the same
thing and not a special sexophone note, which once heard is echoed in every
other region of the soul,' (Lost Property, page 82,) 'All things belong to the same order of things, for such is the
oneness of human perception, the oneness of individuality, the oneness of
matter, whatever matter may be, The only real number is
one, the rest are mere repetition,' (ibid, page 83.) "
and, again,
'One may have a thousand friends,
but only one love-mate. Harems have nothing to do with this matter: I am
speaking of dance, not gymnastics.[...] For if I say "two" I have started to
count and there is no end to it. There is only one real number: One. And love, apparently, is the best
exponent of this singularity."
Perhaps paradise, love and
ecstatic experiences are unrelated?