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Re: Hurtiling through time...the missing quote from SO
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Former posting: When I read this [observation by Sebald] I was immediately
carried over to what V.Nabokov wrote about his novel "Lolita" when, in a
retrospective view, he feels it as a painting hanging on a wall (I wish I
had my books by me to quote these words correctly). Perhaps the entire
process of writing fiction was for him a way to engender a mental picture
that could be felt "outside time" and. as a kind of redemption!
Present Posting: Ihave found the quote, but it is a bit different from what
I remembered, perhaps it had been altered by the author's words which were
previously registered in Strong Opinions. I'll try to bring up the entire
sequence in a chronological order. The actual quote is as follows: " I think
that I would welcome at the close of a book of mine is a sensation of its
world receding in the distance and stopping somewhere there, suspended afar
like a picture in a picture: The Artist's Studio by Van Bock." (SO,72-73).
Other quotes, sequentially: "Turning one's novel into a movie script is
rather like making a series of sketches for a painting that has long ago
been finished and framed" (SO,6) 1962.
"I don't write consecutively from the beginning to the next chapter and so
on to the end. I just fill in the gaps in the picture, of this jigsaw puzzle
which is quite clear in my mind, picking out a piece here and a piece there
and filling out part of the sky and part of the landscape and part of the -
I don't know, the carousing hunters." (SO, 16-17),1962.
"Nobody will ever discover how clearly a bird visualizes, or if it
visualizes at all, the fure nest and the eggs in it .I feel a kind of gentle
development, an uncurling inside, and I know that the details are there
already, that in fact I would see them plainly if I looked closer.but I
prefer to wait until what is loosely called inspiration completed the task
for me." (SO,31),1964.
"Lolita has left me with the most pleasurable afterglow - perhaps because it
is the purest of all,the most abstract and carefully contrived."
(SO,46-7),1964.
So, there!
Btw: I noticed that the lines from "Lolita" ch.25 ( 'Wanted'): "the rest is
rust and stardust" may be seen to resort to a kind of "wordgolf," as later
explored in length in "Pale Fire" (rest-rust-dust). I wonder if there are
other such instances in VN's poems or in "Lolita."
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The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
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carried over to what V.Nabokov wrote about his novel "Lolita" when, in a
retrospective view, he feels it as a painting hanging on a wall (I wish I
had my books by me to quote these words correctly). Perhaps the entire
process of writing fiction was for him a way to engender a mental picture
that could be felt "outside time" and. as a kind of redemption!
Present Posting: Ihave found the quote, but it is a bit different from what
I remembered, perhaps it had been altered by the author's words which were
previously registered in Strong Opinions. I'll try to bring up the entire
sequence in a chronological order. The actual quote is as follows: " I think
that I would welcome at the close of a book of mine is a sensation of its
world receding in the distance and stopping somewhere there, suspended afar
like a picture in a picture: The Artist's Studio by Van Bock." (SO,72-73).
Other quotes, sequentially: "Turning one's novel into a movie script is
rather like making a series of sketches for a painting that has long ago
been finished and framed" (SO,6) 1962.
"I don't write consecutively from the beginning to the next chapter and so
on to the end. I just fill in the gaps in the picture, of this jigsaw puzzle
which is quite clear in my mind, picking out a piece here and a piece there
and filling out part of the sky and part of the landscape and part of the -
I don't know, the carousing hunters." (SO, 16-17),1962.
"Nobody will ever discover how clearly a bird visualizes, or if it
visualizes at all, the fure nest and the eggs in it .I feel a kind of gentle
development, an uncurling inside, and I know that the details are there
already, that in fact I would see them plainly if I looked closer.but I
prefer to wait until what is loosely called inspiration completed the task
for me." (SO,31),1964.
"Lolita has left me with the most pleasurable afterglow - perhaps because it
is the purest of all,the most abstract and carefully contrived."
(SO,46-7),1964.
So, there!
Btw: I noticed that the lines from "Lolita" ch.25 ( 'Wanted'): "the rest is
rust and stardust" may be seen to resort to a kind of "wordgolf," as later
explored in length in "Pale Fire" (rest-rust-dust). I wonder if there are
other such instances in VN's poems or in "Lolita."
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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L