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Re: from Ron Rosenbaum re Pale Firings
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PS: [ to "My insufficient knowledge of the German doesn't allow me to offer a translation for Zimmer's text....In German we find (p.416) "Die Recherche meiner Figur konzentriert sich auf das Problem des Vor- und Nachlebens, das, wie ich sagen darf, auf schöne Weise gelöst wird." Who or what is this "Figur" (Kinbote?) The word "gelöst" suggests to me that Nabokov considers that his novel presents the solution to a puzzle... (so now we have VN's word for the solution of a "puzzle")."]
JM: On p.585 of Zimmer's FF I came to a letter Nabokov wrote to Rust Hills in March, 1961 ( Selected Letters 1940-1977, Dmitri Nabokov and M.J.Bruccoli, 1980, page 329). It was written from Nice (Prom. des Anglais).
Nabokov describes his "material" (his words here are quite fascinating! I wonder what Nabokov added in the parenthsis intended for magazine publication of the isolated poem):
"It is a narrative poem of 999 lines in four cantos supposed to be written by an American poet and scholar, one of the characters in my new novel (footnote: "Pale Fire". Esquire declined VN's offer because of its policy against publishing poetry.), where it will be reproduced and annotated by a madman. The parenthesis I have added for magazine publication at the end of the last canto explains briefly, but I think sufficiently, what the pre-novel reader should know. If you want this poem despite its being rather racy and tricky, and unpleasant, and bizarre, I must ask you to publish all four cantos. The novel is going to take several more months to finish, and there might be some showable parts later on."
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PS 2: Stan, the etymology of words may help to clarify certain mysteries or augment our puzzlement about the way words "travel about."
I just discovered that the word in German ( "lösung") offers the same equivocation as when it is rendered as "solution." in English ( "solução" in Portuguese, aso). Related to the puzzle constituted by "Pale Fire", for example, could it ironically mean that its "solution" is either very diluted or too concentrated to be able to ellucidate an atheist's concept about the afterlife?
Yesterday, by coincidence, an atheist friend ( a reader of Eliade and Nietzsche) told me that since he was a child he'd entertained a belief in the hereafter without giving up his theory about the "eternal recurrence."
Paradise comes to the virtuous because they only return, eternally, to their happiest childhood scenes retained in their memories. Hell comes to the sinful because they can only revisit, over and over, their worst recollections.
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JM: On p.585 of Zimmer's FF I came to a letter Nabokov wrote to Rust Hills in March, 1961 ( Selected Letters 1940-1977, Dmitri Nabokov and M.J.Bruccoli, 1980, page 329). It was written from Nice (Prom. des Anglais).
Nabokov describes his "material" (his words here are quite fascinating! I wonder what Nabokov added in the parenthsis intended for magazine publication of the isolated poem):
"It is a narrative poem of 999 lines in four cantos supposed to be written by an American poet and scholar, one of the characters in my new novel (footnote: "Pale Fire". Esquire declined VN's offer because of its policy against publishing poetry.), where it will be reproduced and annotated by a madman. The parenthesis I have added for magazine publication at the end of the last canto explains briefly, but I think sufficiently, what the pre-novel reader should know. If you want this poem despite its being rather racy and tricky, and unpleasant, and bizarre, I must ask you to publish all four cantos. The novel is going to take several more months to finish, and there might be some showable parts later on."
...........................................................
PS 2: Stan, the etymology of words may help to clarify certain mysteries or augment our puzzlement about the way words "travel about."
I just discovered that the word in German ( "lösung") offers the same equivocation as when it is rendered as "solution." in English ( "solução" in Portuguese, aso). Related to the puzzle constituted by "Pale Fire", for example, could it ironically mean that its "solution" is either very diluted or too concentrated to be able to ellucidate an atheist's concept about the afterlife?
Yesterday, by coincidence, an atheist friend ( a reader of Eliade and Nietzsche) told me that since he was a child he'd entertained a belief in the hereafter without giving up his theory about the "eternal recurrence."
Paradise comes to the virtuous because they only return, eternally, to their happiest childhood scenes retained in their memories. Hell comes to the sinful because they can only revisit, over and over, their worst recollections.
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/