Subject
"Sebastian" (as in Knight)
Date
Body
While a positive answer to that question is ever-receding by design, a
"negative" one was advanced some years ago [G. Barabtarlo, Aerial View,
213ff]. To put it briefly, the name "Sebastian", being deliberately
laborious (Russians of his time and milieu were not named "Sevastian"),
suggests an epigrammatic device: "Sebastian [Knight]" reshuffles its
letters into "[a Knight] Is Absent", i.e. the half-brother is an elaborate
fiction the pursuit of which is the mode of the plot's propulsion. If one
"sees uner Real", one understands that the the elusive hero of the
narration is indeed absent, while the narrator is he.
One should not forget that VN meant to send the book to a British
contest, perhaps under a penname.
Sincerely,
Dina Birnbaum
"negative" one was advanced some years ago [G. Barabtarlo, Aerial View,
213ff]. To put it briefly, the name "Sebastian", being deliberately
laborious (Russians of his time and milieu were not named "Sevastian"),
suggests an epigrammatic device: "Sebastian [Knight]" reshuffles its
letters into "[a Knight] Is Absent", i.e. the half-brother is an elaborate
fiction the pursuit of which is the mode of the plot's propulsion. If one
"sees uner Real", one understands that the the elusive hero of the
narration is indeed absent, while the narrator is he.
One should not forget that VN meant to send the book to a British
contest, perhaps under a penname.
Sincerely,
Dina Birnbaum