Subject
Opening sentence of Speak Memory: Pamuk
From
Date
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----- Forwarded message from b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz -----
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:55:05 +1200
From: Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
Reply-To: Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
Subject: Re: Speak Memory
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Orhan Pamuk (as he has told me and promptly demonstrated) is a
passionate Nabokov fan, by the way. In Don's quote, he knew just who
and what he was echoing.
Brian Boyd
On 11/08/2005, at 4:24 AM, Donald B. Johnson wrote:
> EDNOTE:
> Jansy's suggestion of Pascal re Speak, Memory's opening is another
> likely
> candidate especially in that VN used Pascal elsewhere--especially
> in BEND
> SINISTER. The "darkness/sliver of light/darkness" metaphor is not
> uncommon. In
> the last few days I ran across it not only in Montaigne but in the
> recent
> Turkish novel by Orhan Pamuk "My Name is Red". In Chapter One, page
> 1 in which
> a corpse narrates "Before my birth there was infinite time, and
> after my death,
> inexhaustible time. I never thought of it before: I'de been living
> luminously
> between two eternities of darkness."
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> ----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
> Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 08:55:01 -0300
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> Subject: Re: Speak Memory
> To: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
>
> Dear Don,
>
> I extracted this from my note: Marina Grishakova recognizes that
> "[t]he
> Pascalean subtext and the fiction of the 'invisible observer' as
> the Author of
> the World vs. the author of the text appears already in Nabokov's
> Russian
> novels." She quotes the French Mathematician: "What will we do
> then, but
> perceive the appearance of the middle of things, in an eternal
> despair of
> knowing either their beginning or their end. All things proceed
> from the
> Nothing, and are borne towards the Infinite" ("V. Nabokov's "Bend
> Sinister": A
> Social Message or an Experiment with Time?" Sign Systems Studies
> 28, Tartu
> University Press, 2000, pp. 242-263).
>
> There is another author who introduced Pascal in connection with
> VN, but I must
> return to search in my text later. This is what I found now and I
> ´m in a rush
> to the office...
> Jansy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Donald B. Johnson
> To: jansy@aetern.us
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 12:59 AM
> Subject: Fwd: Speak Memory
>
>
> Dear Jansy-in-Rio,
> Thanks for cc-ing me Could you send me the Pascal
> reference? -for
> personal
> use only? Did I send you The Last Tango essay? The passing
> reference to Rio is
> in one version that I'm revising for publication. Best, Don
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 21:18:03 +0100
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
> Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> Subject: Speak Memory
> To: pennyparkerpark@hotmail.com
>
> Dear Dane Gill,
>
> I found your query at the list, concerning Montaigne and Nabokov
> ´s opening
> chapter in Speak Memory.
> I have been researching about the image of the cradle and the
> abyss and found
> several other names linked to it. Boyd connects it with the
> first lines of
> Pale Fire in his book on the novel. Also Priscilla Meyer studies
> it in her own
> book on Pale Fire and refers to The Honorable Bede ( the image of
> a sparrow
> crossing a lighted room while entering it from a dark winter
> night and
> returning to it again ). I found interesting links also with
> Pascal.
> I wrote a short note on this subject and I submitted it to The
> Nabokovian.
> Although I am not allowed to divulge the text of note ( and I
> still don´t know
> if it has been accepted for publication ) I think that I can
> offer you more
> bibliographic indications if you should be interested in
> pursuing this matte
> further, specially the references to Pascal. In that case, please
> ask me off
> list in a mail and I´ll be glad to forward them to you.
> Best,
> Jansy
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>
> Dear Dane Gill,
>
> I found your query at the list, concerning Montaigne and Nabokov
> ´s opening
> chapter in Speak Memory.
> I have been researching about the image of the cradle and the
> abyss and found
> several other names linked to it. Boyd connects it with the first
> lines of
> Pale Fire in his book on the novel. Also Priscilla Meyer studies it
> in her own
> book on Pale Fire and refers to The Honorable Bede ( the image of a
> sparrow
> crossing a lighted room while entering it from a dark winter night and
> returning to it again ). I found interesting links also with Pascal.
> I wrote a short note on this subject and I submitted it to The
> Nabokovian.
> Although I am not allowed to divulge the text of note ( and I still
> don´t know
> if it has been accepted for publication ) I think that I can offer
> you more
> bibliographic indications if you should be interested in pursuing
> this matte
> further, specially the references to Pascal. In that case, please
> ask me off
> list in a mail and I´ll be glad to forward them to you.
> Best,
> Jansy
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> Dear Don,
>
> I extracted this from my note: Marina Grishakova recognizes that
> "[t]he Pascalean subtext and the fiction of the 'invisible
> observer' as the Author of the World vs. the author of the text
> appears already in Nabokov's Russian novels." She quotes the French
> Mathematician: "What will we do then, but perceive the appearance
> of the middle of things, in an eternal despair of knowing either
> their beginning or their end. All things proceed from the Nothing,
> and are borne towards the Infinite" ("V. Nabokov's "Bend Sinister":
> A Social Message or an Experiment with Time?" Sign Systems Studies
> 28, Tartu University Press, 2000, pp. 242-263).
>
> There is another author who introduced Pascal in connection with
> VN, but I must return to search in my text later. This is what I
> found now and I´m in a rush to the office...
> Jansy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Donald B. Johnson
> To: jansy@aetern.us
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 12:59 AM
> Subject: Fwd: Speak Memory
>
> Dear Jansy-in-Rio,
> Thanks for cc-ing me Could you send me the Pascal reference? -
> for personal
> use only? Did I send you The Last Tango essay? The passing
> reference to Rio is
> in one version that I'm revising for publication. Best, Don
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 21:18:03 +0100
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
> Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> Subject: Speak Memory
> To: pennyparkerpark@hotmail.com
>
> Dear Dane Gill,
>
> I found your query at the list, concerning Montaigne and Nabokov´s
> opening
> chapter in Speak Memory.
> I have been researching about the image of the cradle and the abyss
> and found
> several other names linked to it. Boyd connects it with the first
> lines of
> Pale Fire in his book on the novel. Also Priscilla Meyer studies it
> in her own
> book on Pale Fire and refers to The Honorable Bede ( the image of a
> sparrow
> crossing a lighted room while entering it from a dark winter night and
> returning to it again ). I found interesting links also with Pascal.
> I wrote a short note on this subject and I submitted it to The
> Nabokovian.
> Although I am not allowed to divulge the text of note ( and I still
> don´t know
> if it has been accepted for publication ) I think that I can offer
> you more
> bibliographic indications if you should be interested in pursuing
> this matte
> further, specially the references to Pascal. In that case, please
> ask me off
> list in a mail and I´ll be glad to forward them to you.
> Best,
> Jansy
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
> Dear Dane Gill,
>
> I found your query at the list, concerning Montaigne and Nabokov´s
> opening chapter in Speak Memory.
> I have been researching about the image of the cradle and the abyss
> and found several other names linked to it. Boyd connects it with
> the first lines of Pale Fire in his book on the novel. Also
> Priscilla Meyer studies it in her own book on Pale Fire and refers
> to The Honorable Bede ( the image of a sparrow crossing a lighted
> room while entering it from a dark winter night and returning to it
> again ). I found interesting links also with Pascal.
> I wrote a short note on this subject and I submitted it to The
> Nabokovian. Although I am not allowed to divulge the text of note
> ( and I still don´t know if it has been accepted for publication )
> I think that I can offer you more bibliographic indications if you
> should be interested in pursuing this matte further, specially the
> references to Pascal. In that case, please ask me off list in a
> mail and I´ll be glad to forward them to you.
> Best,
> Jansy
>
----- End forwarded message -----