Subject
Boyd -- more on Nabokov and St Augustine
From
Date
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 3:41 PM
Subject: RE: Fw: more on Nabokov and St Augustine for HH
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (148
lines) ------------------
> But Nabokov DID know and admire St. Augustine, although when he first read
> him is not clear. The passages below include the explicit allusions I
> remember, with the notes I prepared for the Library of America edition,
but
> keyed to the first edition/Vintage pagination. Some of the notes depended
on
> the generous help and precise knowledge of James O'Donnell, whom I
contacted
> through Nabokv-L.
>
> PALE FIRE,
> commentary, p 154:
> Line 172:_books and people
> In a black pocketbook that I fortunately have with me I find, jotted
> down, here and there, among various extracts that had happened to please
me
> (a footnote from Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson, the inscriptions on the
> trees in Wordsmith's famous avenue, a quotation from St. Augustine, and so
> on), a few samples of John Shade's conversation which I had collected in
> order to refer to them in the presence of people whom my friendship with
the
> poet might interest or annoy.
>
> PALE FIRE, commentary to line 549, p 227,
> I too, I too, my dear John, have been assailed in my time by religious
> doubts. The church helped me to fight them off. It also helped me not to
ask
> too much, not to demand too clear an image of what is unimaginable. St.
> Augustine said--
> SHADE: Why must one always quote St. Augustine to me?
> KINBOTE: As St. Augustine said, "One can know what God is not; one
> cannot know what He is." I think I know what He is not: He is not despair,
> He is not terror, He is not the earth in one's rattling throat, not the
> black hum in one's ears fading to nothing in nothing.
>
> BB: 227.14-15 As St. Augustine said, "One can know what God is not; one
> cannot know what He is"] Since the limitations of human knowledge of
> God is one of St. Augustine's great themes, a number of quotations could
fit
> the bill: Enarrationes in Psalmos (391-430 AD), 85.12: "Deus ineffabilis
> est; facilius dicimus quid non sit, quam quid sit" ("God is ineffable; we
> more easily say what he is not, than what He is"); De ordine (386),
2.16.44:
> "de summo illo deo, qui scitur melius nesciendo" ("of that high God, who
is
> known best by not knowing"); Sermones (391-430), 117.3.5: "si enim
> comprehendis, non est Deus" ("If you understand, it is not God"
(Patrologiae
> Latinae, 37:1090, 32:105, 38:663).
>
>
> ADA 537 (Part 4):
> And Aurelius Augustinus, too, he, too, in his tussles with the same theme,
> fifteen hundred years ago, experienced this oddly physical torment of the
> shallowing mind, the shchekotiki (tickles) of approximation, the evasions
of
> cerebral exhaustion--but he, at least, could replenish his brain with
> God-dispensed energy (have a footnote here about how delightful it is to
> watch him pressing on and interspersing his cogitations, between sands and
> stars, with vigorous little fits of prayer).
>
> BB: 537.24-31 Aurelius Augustinus . . . prayer]
> St. Augustine's famous discussion of time, Confessions, Bk. 11.
>
>
> ADA 541:
> But beware, anime meus, of the marcel wave of fashionable art
>
> BB: 541.03 beware, anime meus]
> See Darkbloom ["Lat., soul"]; in imitation of Augustine's addresses
> to "my soul."
>
> ADA 544:
> Such a drought affected Hippo in the most productive months of
> Augustine's bishopric that clepsydras had to be replaced by sandglasses.
He
> defined the Past as what is no longer and the future as what is not yet
> (actually the future is a fantasm belonging to another category of thought
> essentially different from that of the Past which, at least, was here a
> moment ago--where did I put it? Pocket? But the search itself is already
> "past").
>
> BB: 544.07 Hippo]
> St. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430.
> BB: 544.09-10 defined the Past as what is no longer and the future as what
> is not yet] Confessions, Bk. 11, 14: "duo ergo illa tempora, praeteritum
> et futurum, quomodo sunt, quando et praeteritum iam non est et futurum
> nondum est?" ("There are therefore two times, the past and the future, but
> in what sense, when the past no longer is and the future is not yet?")
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2002 4:40 AM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: more on Nabokov and St Augustine for HH
>
>
> EDITOR'S NOTE. The suggested link between VN & St. Augustine is intriguing
> but, pending evidence to the contrary, implausible. It doesn't seem likely
> that VN (from an Russian orthodox tradition and Cambridge education) would
> have read Augustine. Even if so, it would more likely surfaced in his
later
> autobiography than in MARY. John Burt Foster's book on VN and European
> Modernism finds the presence of Nietzsche which seems a better based
> assumption although some have questioned this.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Hanny Hindi" <hanny@ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>doesn't
> Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 10:26 PM
> Subject: Re: Fw: more on St Augustine for HH
>
>
> >
> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (42
> lines) ------------------
> > > > St Augustine was the first saint to have a home page on the
Internet.
> It
> > > is
> > > > maintained by James O'Donnell, University of Pennsylvania. Do a
search
> for
> > > > "Augustine of Hippo" and "Home Page" and it should come right up.
> > > >
> > > > Carolyn Kunin
> > >
> >
> > Very funny that you should mention that. I just graduated from Penn in
> > May and James O'Donnell (as of this past July, Provost of Georgetown)
was
> > a wonderful mentor and friend with whom I am still in constant contact.
> >
> > I ask the question because I think that _Mary_ is more than an
apprentice
> > piece and believe that one of the clues to the novel lies in its
> > coordination of different forms of imagination (fancy, memory, and
> > "fore-fancy") and would like to know if the phrase "dispersion of the
> > will" is leading us to Augustine's conception of the relationship
between
> > time and imagination as he articulates it in Book XI of the
_Confessions_.
> > "Distentio Animi" refers to the condition of being occupied with
memories,
> > sensory experiences and expectations at the same moment, as opposed to
> > the ideal condition of directing our "undivided attention" (a
particularly
> > apt phrase in this context) toward God.
> >
> > In _Mary_, Ganin, while recuperating from typhus, imagines a girl whom
he
> > would like to meet (fancy) and is lucky enough to find one who fits his
> > conception (and solipsistic enough to abandon her the moment she
violates
> > his aesthetic). In Germany, nine years later, he remembers his time
with
> > _Mary_ in vivid visual detail (another form of imagination). Where he,
> > and Alfyorov, fail is in their inability to project forward and
> > imagine a changed _Mary_
> > after a number of years (fore-fancy). They both insist that "she must
not
> > have changed a bit."
> >
> > Could the phrase "dispersion of the will" be a translation of
Augustine's
> > "distentio animi" and a clue to pay closer attention to "memoria" and
> > "expectatio" in _Mary_? I speak no Russian, and do not know which
> > editions or translations of the _Confessions_ VN would have used, but
hope
> > that someone might be able to point me in the right direction.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > hh
> >
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 3:41 PM
Subject: RE: Fw: more on Nabokov and St Augustine for HH
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (148
lines) ------------------
> But Nabokov DID know and admire St. Augustine, although when he first read
> him is not clear. The passages below include the explicit allusions I
> remember, with the notes I prepared for the Library of America edition,
but
> keyed to the first edition/Vintage pagination. Some of the notes depended
on
> the generous help and precise knowledge of James O'Donnell, whom I
contacted
> through Nabokv-L.
>
> PALE FIRE,
> commentary, p 154:
> Line 172:_books and people
> In a black pocketbook that I fortunately have with me I find, jotted
> down, here and there, among various extracts that had happened to please
me
> (a footnote from Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson, the inscriptions on the
> trees in Wordsmith's famous avenue, a quotation from St. Augustine, and so
> on), a few samples of John Shade's conversation which I had collected in
> order to refer to them in the presence of people whom my friendship with
the
> poet might interest or annoy.
>
> PALE FIRE, commentary to line 549, p 227,
> I too, I too, my dear John, have been assailed in my time by religious
> doubts. The church helped me to fight them off. It also helped me not to
ask
> too much, not to demand too clear an image of what is unimaginable. St.
> Augustine said--
> SHADE: Why must one always quote St. Augustine to me?
> KINBOTE: As St. Augustine said, "One can know what God is not; one
> cannot know what He is." I think I know what He is not: He is not despair,
> He is not terror, He is not the earth in one's rattling throat, not the
> black hum in one's ears fading to nothing in nothing.
>
> BB: 227.14-15 As St. Augustine said, "One can know what God is not; one
> cannot know what He is"] Since the limitations of human knowledge of
> God is one of St. Augustine's great themes, a number of quotations could
fit
> the bill: Enarrationes in Psalmos (391-430 AD), 85.12: "Deus ineffabilis
> est; facilius dicimus quid non sit, quam quid sit" ("God is ineffable; we
> more easily say what he is not, than what He is"); De ordine (386),
2.16.44:
> "de summo illo deo, qui scitur melius nesciendo" ("of that high God, who
is
> known best by not knowing"); Sermones (391-430), 117.3.5: "si enim
> comprehendis, non est Deus" ("If you understand, it is not God"
(Patrologiae
> Latinae, 37:1090, 32:105, 38:663).
>
>
> ADA 537 (Part 4):
> And Aurelius Augustinus, too, he, too, in his tussles with the same theme,
> fifteen hundred years ago, experienced this oddly physical torment of the
> shallowing mind, the shchekotiki (tickles) of approximation, the evasions
of
> cerebral exhaustion--but he, at least, could replenish his brain with
> God-dispensed energy (have a footnote here about how delightful it is to
> watch him pressing on and interspersing his cogitations, between sands and
> stars, with vigorous little fits of prayer).
>
> BB: 537.24-31 Aurelius Augustinus . . . prayer]
> St. Augustine's famous discussion of time, Confessions, Bk. 11.
>
>
> ADA 541:
> But beware, anime meus, of the marcel wave of fashionable art
>
> BB: 541.03 beware, anime meus]
> See Darkbloom ["Lat., soul"]; in imitation of Augustine's addresses
> to "my soul."
>
> ADA 544:
> Such a drought affected Hippo in the most productive months of
> Augustine's bishopric that clepsydras had to be replaced by sandglasses.
He
> defined the Past as what is no longer and the future as what is not yet
> (actually the future is a fantasm belonging to another category of thought
> essentially different from that of the Past which, at least, was here a
> moment ago--where did I put it? Pocket? But the search itself is already
> "past").
>
> BB: 544.07 Hippo]
> St. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430.
> BB: 544.09-10 defined the Past as what is no longer and the future as what
> is not yet] Confessions, Bk. 11, 14: "duo ergo illa tempora, praeteritum
> et futurum, quomodo sunt, quando et praeteritum iam non est et futurum
> nondum est?" ("There are therefore two times, the past and the future, but
> in what sense, when the past no longer is and the future is not yet?")
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2002 4:40 AM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: more on Nabokov and St Augustine for HH
>
>
> EDITOR'S NOTE. The suggested link between VN & St. Augustine is intriguing
> but, pending evidence to the contrary, implausible. It doesn't seem likely
> that VN (from an Russian orthodox tradition and Cambridge education) would
> have read Augustine. Even if so, it would more likely surfaced in his
later
> autobiography than in MARY. John Burt Foster's book on VN and European
> Modernism finds the presence of Nietzsche which seems a better based
> assumption although some have questioned this.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Hanny Hindi" <hanny@ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>doesn't
> Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 10:26 PM
> Subject: Re: Fw: more on St Augustine for HH
>
>
> >
> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (42
> lines) ------------------
> > > > St Augustine was the first saint to have a home page on the
Internet.
> It
> > > is
> > > > maintained by James O'Donnell, University of Pennsylvania. Do a
search
> for
> > > > "Augustine of Hippo" and "Home Page" and it should come right up.
> > > >
> > > > Carolyn Kunin
> > >
> >
> > Very funny that you should mention that. I just graduated from Penn in
> > May and James O'Donnell (as of this past July, Provost of Georgetown)
was
> > a wonderful mentor and friend with whom I am still in constant contact.
> >
> > I ask the question because I think that _Mary_ is more than an
apprentice
> > piece and believe that one of the clues to the novel lies in its
> > coordination of different forms of imagination (fancy, memory, and
> > "fore-fancy") and would like to know if the phrase "dispersion of the
> > will" is leading us to Augustine's conception of the relationship
between
> > time and imagination as he articulates it in Book XI of the
_Confessions_.
> > "Distentio Animi" refers to the condition of being occupied with
memories,
> > sensory experiences and expectations at the same moment, as opposed to
> > the ideal condition of directing our "undivided attention" (a
particularly
> > apt phrase in this context) toward God.
> >
> > In _Mary_, Ganin, while recuperating from typhus, imagines a girl whom
he
> > would like to meet (fancy) and is lucky enough to find one who fits his
> > conception (and solipsistic enough to abandon her the moment she
violates
> > his aesthetic). In Germany, nine years later, he remembers his time
with
> > _Mary_ in vivid visual detail (another form of imagination). Where he,
> > and Alfyorov, fail is in their inability to project forward and
> > imagine a changed _Mary_
> > after a number of years (fore-fancy). They both insist that "she must
not
> > have changed a bit."
> >
> > Could the phrase "dispersion of the will" be a translation of
Augustine's
> > "distentio animi" and a clue to pay closer attention to "memoria" and
> > "expectatio" in _Mary_? I speak no Russian, and do not know which
> > editions or translations of the _Confessions_ VN would have used, but
hope
> > that someone might be able to point me in the right direction.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > hh
> >