-------- Original Message --------
Dear Carolyn,
I like very much your question about "crown jewels". I think
in Nabokov's case it would be rather certain memories - I had
a chance myself to walk freely alone in my youth in the countryside
not very far from Nabokov's estate. It was more Finnish, to
the North of St. Petersburg, not to the South, as their place.
But one thing (besides the nature itself) was this freedom.
It may sound strange, but in the USSR it was possible to
have more freedom just to walk in the forests that it is possible
in the USA or Western Europe - because there was no private
land and very little closed areas. It is not very different
in Skandinavia by the way (but the traditions are different).
I think in Russia in Nabokov's times for a young man of a
"good family" it was rather like my freedom in the USSR. Of course
he had his keen interest to nature (butterflies), his
synaestesia - probably much richer impressions and memories.
Language - maybe a jewel as well, but as diamond is used to shape
diamonds.
But I don't agree that the madness is like exile - I think
in a way it is the opposite - the lucidity of suffering is
absent. I remember, Gogol in his last years, getting mad,
traveled to Palestine, and was once sitting in Nazareth
under the rain thinking he is in Russia.
All the best,
Sergei
>