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[NABOKOV] [NABOKOV STUDIES ARTICLE] Teleology,coincidence,
Darwin: FYI
Darwin: FYI
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Dear List members,
While I was investigating one of VN's sentence about coincidences, trying a short-cut thru internet took me to an article written by Victoria N. Alexander [ NABOKOV AND INSECT MIMICRY (The final product of this research is a paper published in Nabokov Studies and can be found at http://www.dactyl.org/directors/vna/papers/InsectMimicry.pdf) [1] ]
Since we've been randomly discussing, among various other VN developments, evolutionary theory, platonism and darwinism,V.N.Alexander's article should be brought up here. She begins with a quote: "The mysteries of mimicry had a special attraction for me. Its phenomena showed an artistic perfection usually associated with man-wrought things.... When a butterfly has to look like a leaf, not only are all the details of a leaf beautifully rendered but markings mimicking grub-bored holes are generously thrown in. 'Natural selection' ... could not explain the miraculous coincidence of imitative aspect ..., nor could one appeal to the theory of 'the struggle for life' when a protective device was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in excess of a predator's power of appreciation. I discovered in nature the non-utilitarian delights that I sought in art." Vladimir Nabokov (Boyd 85-86). From it she proceeds to: Some believe Nabokov is implying here that there must be a creator responsible for some wonders of nature[...]I argue that Nabokov assumed there were some apparently teleological mechanisms in addition to natural selection that also guided the evolutionary process. And he was right [ ...]My area of specialization as a narrative theorist is teleology, and more generally, causality. My understanding of telos, or final cause, differs from what I consider an oversimplified if not simply incorrect understanding held today by many postmodernists.Several paragraphs later: This brings me to the idea of funny coincidences in Nabokov's Plots. ÷it dawned on me that this / Was the real point, the contrapuntal theme;Just this: not text, but texture; not the dreamBut topsy-turvical coincidence,Not flimsy nonsense, but a web of sense (Pale Fire 342) And adds: You all know that John Shade begins to suspect that there is an afterlife when he hears about Mrs. Z who, like he, saw a fountain during a brief and aborted visit to the other side[...] Apparently, whether or not there truly is a God or an afterlife is not as interesting to Nabokov as the fact that it is suggestive coincidences that give the impression life is like a novel written by an omniscient and somewhat playful author. Why is chance so important to the belief in an external supernatural Creator (whose role is very like that of an Author of fictional worlds)? Science is only interested in resemblances that are indicative of a common cause[...]
[...] Nabokov: "the chance that mimics choice, the flaw that looks like a flower" (622).
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While I was investigating one of VN's sentence about coincidences, trying a short-cut thru internet took me to an article written by Victoria N. Alexander [ NABOKOV AND INSECT MIMICRY (The final product of this research is a paper published in Nabokov Studies and can be found at http://www.dactyl.org/directors/vna/papers/InsectMimicry.pdf) [1] ]
Since we've been randomly discussing, among various other VN developments, evolutionary theory, platonism and darwinism,V.N.Alexander's article should be brought up here. She begins with a quote: "The mysteries of mimicry had a special attraction for me. Its phenomena showed an artistic perfection usually associated with man-wrought things.... When a butterfly has to look like a leaf, not only are all the details of a leaf beautifully rendered but markings mimicking grub-bored holes are generously thrown in. 'Natural selection' ... could not explain the miraculous coincidence of imitative aspect ..., nor could one appeal to the theory of 'the struggle for life' when a protective device was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in excess of a predator's power of appreciation. I discovered in nature the non-utilitarian delights that I sought in art." Vladimir Nabokov (Boyd 85-86). From it she proceeds to: Some believe Nabokov is implying here that there must be a creator responsible for some wonders of nature[...]I argue that Nabokov assumed there were some apparently teleological mechanisms in addition to natural selection that also guided the evolutionary process. And he was right [ ...]My area of specialization as a narrative theorist is teleology, and more generally, causality. My understanding of telos, or final cause, differs from what I consider an oversimplified if not simply incorrect understanding held today by many postmodernists.Several paragraphs later: This brings me to the idea of funny coincidences in Nabokov's Plots. ÷it dawned on me that this / Was the real point, the contrapuntal theme;Just this: not text, but texture; not the dreamBut topsy-turvical coincidence,Not flimsy nonsense, but a web of sense (Pale Fire 342) And adds: You all know that John Shade begins to suspect that there is an afterlife when he hears about Mrs. Z who, like he, saw a fountain during a brief and aborted visit to the other side[...] Apparently, whether or not there truly is a God or an afterlife is not as interesting to Nabokov as the fact that it is suggestive coincidences that give the impression life is like a novel written by an omniscient and somewhat playful author. Why is chance so important to the belief in an external supernatural Creator (whose role is very like that of an Author of fictional worlds)? Science is only interested in resemblances that are indicative of a common cause[...]
[...] Nabokov: "the chance that mimics choice, the flaw that looks like a flower" (622).
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/