Subject
Department of Corretions. Re: Speak Memory opening
sentence---Machado de Assis
sentence---Machado de Assis
From
Date
Body
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:01:44 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Re: Re: Fwd: Re: Speak Memory opening sentence---Machado de Assis
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas ( or also Epitaph for a small winner )
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
( a recent translation from the Portuguese is by Gregory Rabassa,with a Foreword
by Enylton )
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald B. Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Speak Memory opening sentence---Machado de Assis
EDNOTE. Jansy called my attention to Brazilian writer Machado de Assis (died
1908) some years ago. The book she mentions is well worth reading. I vaguely
(mis-?)recall the English was called "Memoirs of a small Loser".
--------------------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 13:55:05 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Speak Memory
To: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
Here we find another corpse ( beside Pamuk´s which you quoted today) speaking
about time before and after, but from a perspective that is different from
Nabokov´s: ( I quoted it at the begining of the note addressed to TN) and with
a thrilling kind of "ironic twist" by Brazilian Machado de Assis:
"I hesitated for a while if I should start these memoirs from the beginning
or
from the end, if I should first describe my birth or my demise (.)Properly
speaking, I am not a deceased author (.) my tomb was my second cradle.
Moses,
who also wrote about his death, did not commence with it (.): a radical
distinction between this book and the Pentateuch.
Machado de Assis, "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas" (Chapter One, 1881).
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: "Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello" <jansy@aetern.us>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Speak Memory
Whoops! Sorry, Jansy. I don't think TN will react--only a small part of your
noye was involved. If you hear from TN, I'll square it with the editor.
Best, Don
Quoting Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>:
> Dear Don
> You wrote: "Thanks for cc-ing me Could you send me the Pascal
> reference? -for personal use only? "
> and then you sent it on to the List.
> I don´t mind it at all - but I was worrying about The Nabokovian´s
> policies concerning articles which were subjected to them for
> evaluation!
> Jansy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Donald B. Johnson
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 1:24 PM
> Subject: Fwd: Re: Speak Memory
>
>
> 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 -----
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here we find another corpse ( beside Pamuk´s which you quoted today) speaking
about time before and after, but from a perspective that is different from
Nabokov´s: ( I quoted it at the begining of the note addressed to TN) and with
a thrilling kind of "ironic twist" by Brazilian Machado de Assis:
"I hesitated for a while if I should start these memoirs from the beginning
or from the end, if I should first describe my birth or my demise (.)Properly
speaking, I am not a deceased author (.) my tomb was my second cradle. Moses,
who also wrote about his death, did not commence with it (.): a radical
distinction between this book and the Pentateuch.
Machado de Assis, "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas" (Chapter One, 1881).
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: "Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello" <jansy@aetern.us>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Speak Memory
Whoops! Sorry, Jansy. I don't think TN will react--only a small part of your
noye was involved. If you hear from TN, I'll square it with the editor.
Best, Don
Quoting Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>:
> Dear Don
> You wrote: "Thanks for cc-ing me Could you send me the Pascal
> reference? -for personal use only? "
> and then you sent it on to the List.
> I don´t mind it at all - but I was worrying about The Nabokovian´s
> policies concerning articles which were subjected to them for
> evaluation!
> Jansy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Donald B. Johnson
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 1:24 PM
> Subject: Fwd: Re: Speak Memory
>
>
> 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 -----