Subject
THOUGHTS: Terra and Antiterra and ADA
From
Date
Body
I recently finished Ada, or Ardor by VN and while some of the book was very interesting, it is part of the downward trend in books I have read by Nabokov. (Pale Fire being the best by far.)
Ada makes numerous references to Russian and Western European literature that I never even heard of. However, the one motif I was able to pick up on was the Terra/Antiterra doubling. After finishing the book and trying to find ways of understanding it, this is the image that kept returning.
I have found that the Terra/Antiterra doubling works similar to the unreliable narrator which is used throughout VN's work. This works through the form of the novel. Ada is essentially the memoir of someone living on Antiterra. In the course of the narrative we learn more about the parallel plane of Terra which shares much more in common with our own Earth. Things still seem quite different there though. My contention is that Terra is in fact Earth (gasp!) but the method by which Van and others access information about Terra is a greatly flawed science. Back on Earth we are accessing a document that reports information from Antiterra. The final document (Ada) is just as flawed through a similar method of access and, as it were, translation.
Has anyone else noticed this? What do you think? Can anyone illuminate the text for me in another way?
Thanks
CM Carnot
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/
Ada makes numerous references to Russian and Western European literature that I never even heard of. However, the one motif I was able to pick up on was the Terra/Antiterra doubling. After finishing the book and trying to find ways of understanding it, this is the image that kept returning.
I have found that the Terra/Antiterra doubling works similar to the unreliable narrator which is used throughout VN's work. This works through the form of the novel. Ada is essentially the memoir of someone living on Antiterra. In the course of the narrative we learn more about the parallel plane of Terra which shares much more in common with our own Earth. Things still seem quite different there though. My contention is that Terra is in fact Earth (gasp!) but the method by which Van and others access information about Terra is a greatly flawed science. Back on Earth we are accessing a document that reports information from Antiterra. The final document (Ada) is just as flawed through a similar method of access and, as it were, translation.
Has anyone else noticed this? What do you think? Can anyone illuminate the text for me in another way?
Thanks
CM Carnot
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/