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EDNOTE. For those wishing more info on H.G.Wells and Martin Gardner, see my
old essay "The Ambidextrous Universe of Look at the Harlequins!," (reprinted
in my _Worlds in Regression_ study. It is my hazy recollection that Richard
Borden published a piece on Wells and VN.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:40 PM
Subject: well, well, Wells
Since Carolyn Kunin drew our attention to Martin Gardner's response to
Nabokov's comic response to Gardner's comic reference to Shade in The
Ambidextrous Universe, in which Gardner mentions H. G. Wells as a precursor
of the "parallel worlds" theme in ADA, I thought it might be amusing to
mention one puzzling reference to Wells in ADA. Though one of Nabokov's
favorite novelists ("the greatest romancer and magician of our time," LATH
22), Wells does not rate many mentions in Nabokov's only "science fiction"
novel, apart from a fleeting allusion to The War of the Worlds, another to
The Passionate Friends, and others to The Invisible Man (see below) and
perhaps Rattner on Terra (Rattner's name is an anagram of N.T. Terra and
therefore Antiterra, and perhaps also an allusion to Wells's "The Plattner
Story").
Nabokov frequently gives his narrators a decidedness of judgment, a strength
of opinion, that sounds like his own. He often quoted Housman's image of
hairs on the spine bristling as the sure sign one was reading an inspired
line of verse, so that Kinbote seems to speak for Nabokov in the note to
line 920:
"Alfred Housman (1859-1936), whose collection The Shropshire Lad vies with
the In Memoriam of Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) in representing, perhaps (no,
delete this craven "perhaps"), the highest achievement of English poetry in
a hundred years, says somewhere (in a foreword?) exactly the opposite: The
bristling of thrilled little hairs obstructed his barbering. . . .
Not yet knowing A Shropshire Lad at 16, I took this for Nabokov's own
judgment; now I realize it is a comic comment on the way Kinbote's
homosexuality distorts his literary ratings.
What then do we make of this passage in ADA, where Van narrates: "Van
changed his course from gravel path to velvet lawn (reversing the action of
Dr. Ero, pursued by the Invisible Albino in one of the greatest novels of
English literature)." Nabokov is known to admire Wells, but does he really
think The Invisible Man one of the greatest novels of English literature?
One that can really stand alongside the best of Austen, Dickens and Joyce?
Well, no. But Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, whose hero is black, had
already by the time of ADA been rated one of the greatest novels of American
literature. Hence: the Invisible Albino. Maybe this was obvious to others,
but it took me a while to see the joke, especially as he has often mentioned
Wells; only this once, so far as I know, does he even imply Ellison.
Brian Boyd
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin <mailto:chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <mailto:NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 8:48 AM
Subject: a little Kant
Volume 13, Number 1 · July 10, 1969
Letter
INVENTIONS
By Martin Gardner,
In response to Happy Families (May 22, 1969)
To the Editors:
NYR readers may be amused to know more about why Nabokov, as pointed out
in Matthew Hodgart's excellent review of ADA (May 22), refers to me on
p. 542 of his novel as an "invented philosopher." In my Ambidextrous
Universe (Basic Books, 1964), in a section on Kant's approach to space
and time, I quote two lines from Pale Fire. (Nabokov's page citation is
to the British Penguin Press edition; he will find his lines rendered in
Russian on p. 159 of a Russian paperback translation.) I did not mention
Nabokov but credited the poem instead to his invented poet, John Shade.
Nabokov returns the joke by calling me "invented," since my book
appeared on Terra, a perhaps imaginary earth, whereas the action of ADA
occurs on Anti-Terra, an earth of antimatter.
(Nabokov's novel exploits the familiar science-fiction concept of
"parallel worlds" first used so entertainingly by H. G. Wells in his
greatest Utopia novel, Men Like Gods.)
old essay "The Ambidextrous Universe of Look at the Harlequins!," (reprinted
in my _Worlds in Regression_ study. It is my hazy recollection that Richard
Borden published a piece on Wells and VN.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:40 PM
Subject: well, well, Wells
Since Carolyn Kunin drew our attention to Martin Gardner's response to
Nabokov's comic response to Gardner's comic reference to Shade in The
Ambidextrous Universe, in which Gardner mentions H. G. Wells as a precursor
of the "parallel worlds" theme in ADA, I thought it might be amusing to
mention one puzzling reference to Wells in ADA. Though one of Nabokov's
favorite novelists ("the greatest romancer and magician of our time," LATH
22), Wells does not rate many mentions in Nabokov's only "science fiction"
novel, apart from a fleeting allusion to The War of the Worlds, another to
The Passionate Friends, and others to The Invisible Man (see below) and
perhaps Rattner on Terra (Rattner's name is an anagram of N.T. Terra and
therefore Antiterra, and perhaps also an allusion to Wells's "The Plattner
Story").
Nabokov frequently gives his narrators a decidedness of judgment, a strength
of opinion, that sounds like his own. He often quoted Housman's image of
hairs on the spine bristling as the sure sign one was reading an inspired
line of verse, so that Kinbote seems to speak for Nabokov in the note to
line 920:
"Alfred Housman (1859-1936), whose collection The Shropshire Lad vies with
the In Memoriam of Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) in representing, perhaps (no,
delete this craven "perhaps"), the highest achievement of English poetry in
a hundred years, says somewhere (in a foreword?) exactly the opposite: The
bristling of thrilled little hairs obstructed his barbering. . . .
Not yet knowing A Shropshire Lad at 16, I took this for Nabokov's own
judgment; now I realize it is a comic comment on the way Kinbote's
homosexuality distorts his literary ratings.
What then do we make of this passage in ADA, where Van narrates: "Van
changed his course from gravel path to velvet lawn (reversing the action of
Dr. Ero, pursued by the Invisible Albino in one of the greatest novels of
English literature)." Nabokov is known to admire Wells, but does he really
think The Invisible Man one of the greatest novels of English literature?
One that can really stand alongside the best of Austen, Dickens and Joyce?
Well, no. But Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, whose hero is black, had
already by the time of ADA been rated one of the greatest novels of American
literature. Hence: the Invisible Albino. Maybe this was obvious to others,
but it took me a while to see the joke, especially as he has often mentioned
Wells; only this once, so far as I know, does he even imply Ellison.
Brian Boyd
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin <mailto:chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <mailto:NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 8:48 AM
Subject: a little Kant
Volume 13, Number 1 · July 10, 1969
Letter
INVENTIONS
By Martin Gardner,
In response to Happy Families (May 22, 1969)
To the Editors:
NYR readers may be amused to know more about why Nabokov, as pointed out
in Matthew Hodgart's excellent review of ADA (May 22), refers to me on
p. 542 of his novel as an "invented philosopher." In my Ambidextrous
Universe (Basic Books, 1964), in a section on Kant's approach to space
and time, I quote two lines from Pale Fire. (Nabokov's page citation is
to the British Penguin Press edition; he will find his lines rendered in
Russian on p. 159 of a Russian paperback translation.) I did not mention
Nabokov but credited the poem instead to his invented poet, John Shade.
Nabokov returns the joke by calling me "invented," since my book
appeared on Terra, a perhaps imaginary earth, whereas the action of ADA
occurs on Anti-Terra, an earth of antimatter.
(Nabokov's novel exploits the familiar science-fiction concept of
"parallel worlds" first used so entertainingly by H. G. Wells in his
greatest Utopia novel, Men Like Gods.)