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[NABOKOV] Cosmicomics
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While checking dates for cosmicomic wordplay (Calvino's and Nabokov's)* I found Conrad Brenner ( 1958, The New Republic). Here is a paragraph on Nabokov humor:
" Nabokov's humor, though, is indescribably original:
Uncle alone in the house with the children said he'd dress up to amuse them. After a long wait, as he did not appear, they went down and saw a masked man putting the table silver into a bag. "Oh uncle," they cried in delight. "Yes, isn't my make-up good?" said Uncle, taking his mask off. Thus goes the Hegelian syllogism of humor. Thesis: Uncle made himself up as a burglar (a laugh for the children); antithesis: it was a burglar (a laugh for the reader); synthesis: it still was Uncle (fooling the reader ) . . . .
None of the dazzling trickery is practiced for its own sake, but always as the key to individual scenes or the seminal conflict. Humor becomes a swathe blighting all those falsely heavy approaches to life and literature, disclosing by the way its own irresistible angles. The strength of Nabokov lies in the check (and balance) of the sinister obbligato, Nabokov's figures teeter on the edge of the void, take one grotesque step, and blunder their way to the bottom. They are neither Stavrogins, men without qualities, men of action fighting death with destiny, nor simple victims of assorted "forces." In their own place, they aspire and fall on the strings of a vision profoundly matured rather than obsessed. Still, there is no lack of demons; they are there, convulsed, jerking those strings. Nabokov's pattern of limbo, search, disguise and discord is played in a variety of keys. .."
Books and Arts: Nabokov: The Art of the Perverse
June 23, 1958 By Conrad Brenner
www.tnr.com/...and.../nabokov-the-art-the-perverse -
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Nabokov's sentence antecedes Calvino's. It is found in his biography of Gogol (1959)
Brenner quotes from chapter 5: "The truth is that the play [The Government Inspector] it not a "comedy" at all, just as Shakespeare's dreamplays Hamlet or Lear cannot be called "tragedies." A bad play is more apt to be good comedy or good tragedy than the incredibly complicated creations of such men as Shakespeare or Gogol. . . . Gogol's play is poetry in action, and by poetry I mean the mysteries of the irrational as perceived through rational words. True poetry of that kind provokes--not laughter and not tears--but a radiant smile of perfect satisfaction, a purr of beatitude.."
and includes the needed reference: "It [Gogol's style] gives one the sensation of something ludicrous and at the same time stellar, lurking constantly around the corner--and one likes to recall that the difference between the comic side of things, and their cosmic side, depends upon one sibilant...."
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" Nabokov's humor, though, is indescribably original:
Uncle alone in the house with the children said he'd dress up to amuse them. After a long wait, as he did not appear, they went down and saw a masked man putting the table silver into a bag. "Oh uncle," they cried in delight. "Yes, isn't my make-up good?" said Uncle, taking his mask off. Thus goes the Hegelian syllogism of humor. Thesis: Uncle made himself up as a burglar (a laugh for the children); antithesis: it was a burglar (a laugh for the reader); synthesis: it still was Uncle (fooling the reader ) . . . .
None of the dazzling trickery is practiced for its own sake, but always as the key to individual scenes or the seminal conflict. Humor becomes a swathe blighting all those falsely heavy approaches to life and literature, disclosing by the way its own irresistible angles. The strength of Nabokov lies in the check (and balance) of the sinister obbligato, Nabokov's figures teeter on the edge of the void, take one grotesque step, and blunder their way to the bottom. They are neither Stavrogins, men without qualities, men of action fighting death with destiny, nor simple victims of assorted "forces." In their own place, they aspire and fall on the strings of a vision profoundly matured rather than obsessed. Still, there is no lack of demons; they are there, convulsed, jerking those strings. Nabokov's pattern of limbo, search, disguise and discord is played in a variety of keys. .."
Books and Arts: Nabokov: The Art of the Perverse
June 23, 1958 By Conrad Brenner
www.tnr.com/...and.../nabokov-the-art-the-perverse -
..............................................................................
Nabokov's sentence antecedes Calvino's. It is found in his biography of Gogol (1959)
Brenner quotes from chapter 5: "The truth is that the play [The Government Inspector] it not a "comedy" at all, just as Shakespeare's dreamplays Hamlet or Lear cannot be called "tragedies." A bad play is more apt to be good comedy or good tragedy than the incredibly complicated creations of such men as Shakespeare or Gogol. . . . Gogol's play is poetry in action, and by poetry I mean the mysteries of the irrational as perceived through rational words. True poetry of that kind provokes--not laughter and not tears--but a radiant smile of perfect satisfaction, a purr of beatitude.."
and includes the needed reference: "It [Gogol's style] gives one the sensation of something ludicrous and at the same time stellar, lurking constantly around the corner--and one likes to recall that the difference between the comic side of things, and their cosmic side, depends upon one sibilant...."
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/