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tt-1
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EDNOTE. My "sent-mail" box shows this was sent on the 6th but apparently
Mark BENNETT EITHER DID NOT SEE IT OR DID NOT GET IT. dID OTHERS GET IT?
----------------------
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, July 09, 2004 8:09 AM -0700
From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: tt-1
I'm probably miles off base here, but isn't the construction of TT
circular? At the conclusion of the book, Hugh dies and "pass[es] from one
state of being to another" and the concluding sentence, "Easy, you know,
does it, son" is actually the first sentence, or one of the first
sentences, of the book. Mr. R greets Hugh as he makes the transition, but
Hugh has yet to make the "mysterious mental maneuver" that is necessary to
adjust to this new "state of being"; hence, Hugh does not hear Mr. R's
greeting and encouragement. The, "What's the matter, don't pull me" in the
third paragraph is actually Hugh's complaint to Mr. R; the next sentence is
Mr. R's response to the other shades who entreat him to stop bothering
Hugh. The final two paragraphs are, among other things, a mini-seminar on
certain aspects of VN's theory of art and metaphysics, as interpreted by
his spokesman, the now-spectral Mr. R: Person, or person, is a "material
object", a "natural one[]" "through which the past shines." When "we" [the
author and the reader] concentrate on "person" we are "soon reveling with
childish abandon in [his] story." The "childish" is important: it links
with the iteration of "novice" in these two paragraphs. When Mr. R/VN tells
us that "Novices must learn to skim over matter if they want matter to stay
at the exact level of the moment[,]" he is certainly not recommending that
"we" do so. He is telling us that the "novice" must learn, or be "taught"
to ignore the mystery that surrounds him, in order to "remain in the now,
with the now, on the now[]." If the novice maintains his "childish" wonder
at the mystery he will pierce the "thin veneer of immediate reality [that]
is spread over natural and artificial matter", and move beyond the "now."
Unfortunately, because of our present limitations, this movement largely
consists of sinking into the past of the object, or "person," upon which,
or upon whom, we are concentrating. The technique is demonstrated by Fyodor
in "The Gift", when he mentally moves about a crowded room and enters into
the being of various "persons" present. It is also demonstrated by Mr.R/VN
in the remaining pages of TT. Although it would take a "better brain" to
turn Time's Arrow around and perceive the future of "transparent things,"
from time to time even we mortals can do it, or something like it; for
instance, when we foresee our future recollections.
Mark Bennett
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Mark BENNETT EITHER DID NOT SEE IT OR DID NOT GET IT. dID OTHERS GET IT?
----------------------
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, July 09, 2004 8:09 AM -0700
From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: tt-1
I'm probably miles off base here, but isn't the construction of TT
circular? At the conclusion of the book, Hugh dies and "pass[es] from one
state of being to another" and the concluding sentence, "Easy, you know,
does it, son" is actually the first sentence, or one of the first
sentences, of the book. Mr. R greets Hugh as he makes the transition, but
Hugh has yet to make the "mysterious mental maneuver" that is necessary to
adjust to this new "state of being"; hence, Hugh does not hear Mr. R's
greeting and encouragement. The, "What's the matter, don't pull me" in the
third paragraph is actually Hugh's complaint to Mr. R; the next sentence is
Mr. R's response to the other shades who entreat him to stop bothering
Hugh. The final two paragraphs are, among other things, a mini-seminar on
certain aspects of VN's theory of art and metaphysics, as interpreted by
his spokesman, the now-spectral Mr. R: Person, or person, is a "material
object", a "natural one[]" "through which the past shines." When "we" [the
author and the reader] concentrate on "person" we are "soon reveling with
childish abandon in [his] story." The "childish" is important: it links
with the iteration of "novice" in these two paragraphs. When Mr. R/VN tells
us that "Novices must learn to skim over matter if they want matter to stay
at the exact level of the moment[,]" he is certainly not recommending that
"we" do so. He is telling us that the "novice" must learn, or be "taught"
to ignore the mystery that surrounds him, in order to "remain in the now,
with the now, on the now[]." If the novice maintains his "childish" wonder
at the mystery he will pierce the "thin veneer of immediate reality [that]
is spread over natural and artificial matter", and move beyond the "now."
Unfortunately, because of our present limitations, this movement largely
consists of sinking into the past of the object, or "person," upon which,
or upon whom, we are concentrating. The technique is demonstrated by Fyodor
in "The Gift", when he mentally moves about a crowded room and enters into
the being of various "persons" present. It is also demonstrated by Mr.R/VN
in the remaining pages of TT. Although it would take a "better brain" to
turn Time's Arrow around and perceive the future of "transparent things,"
from time to time even we mortals can do it, or something like it; for
instance, when we foresee our future recollections.
Mark Bennett
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L