Subject
Re: VN & shared models of paradise <fwd> (fwd)
Date
Body
From: "Peter A. Kartsev" <petr@glas.apc.org>
Since the author of the posting below is speaking of models
ATTRIBUTED to Nabokov, existing in the imagination of "an
average Russian reader/writer", it is perhaps too hasty
to say that VN "shares" them, or anything else, with Brodsky
or others.
An average Russian reader and, especially, writer is not
the most reliable interpreter of Nabokov, as a rule.
Among other things, he tends to regard all VN's works of
fiction as one long autobiography, with "teenager girlfriends"
playing a prominent part, but who was eating all those green
apples?
Every childhood, happy or otherwise, comes to an end, and
that is something we all share. What singles out Nabokov's
paradise is surely the fact that, in a way, it was never lost.
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org
En cada instante puede revelarte su amor Helena de Troya. -- JLB
> An average Russian reader/writer thinks of VN as having two models
> of paradise:
> - paradise lost: childhood in Peterburg.
> - paradise regained: life by a warm sea in an abstract country.
>
> For instance, this structure of the universe was attributed to VN
> in a novel:
> Pelevin, V. _Chapaev i Pustota_, Znamia N4-5(1996). (see N4, page
> 47)
>
> This "kingdom by a warm sea" is usually associated with having a
> teenager girlfriend, although VN himself refered ironically in
> _Ada_ to his "eating too many green apples"; compare in Pelevin's
> novel, the character in 1918 answers his guest from 90's: "But he
> is in Crimea! And what has it to do with girls whatsoever?" - thus
> denying the first, urban, model of paradise, and getting rid of
> the sexual component in the second, sea-shore model.
>
> It is more interesting that VN shares these models of paradise
> with Russian writers of another generation. I.Brodskii writes
> (without any link to VN) that both he and E. Rein have the
> following models of paradise (here my translation ability fails):
>
> - paradise lost: "gorodskaia perspektiva, ukhodiashchaia v anilin,
> skoree vsego - Kamennoostrovskii prospekt v Leningrade, s ego
> vinegretom kontsa veka iz moderna i art nuvo... s obiazatel'nym
> mostom, s miatoi prostynei svintsovoi vody." - i ukazyvaetsia,
> chto eto vidit "setchatka podrostka".
> - paradise regained: "zaliv... s pal'mami, s baliustradami, s
> vkhodiashchim v bukhtu passazhirskim teplokhodom, s novymi
> linkorami, peredaiushchimi v stroiu fokstrot (sic!), publikoi
> promenada."
>
> This quotation is taken from:
> Brodskii, I. _Predislovie_, in: Rein, E. Izbrannoe, Tret'ia volna,
> Moscow-Paris-New York. (see page 11)
>
> Alexey Vernitskii
> -----------------------------------------------
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Essex
> Colchester UK
> CO4 3SQ
> E-mail: asvern@essex.ac.uk
> /* Daleko ot Moskvy */
Since the author of the posting below is speaking of models
ATTRIBUTED to Nabokov, existing in the imagination of "an
average Russian reader/writer", it is perhaps too hasty
to say that VN "shares" them, or anything else, with Brodsky
or others.
An average Russian reader and, especially, writer is not
the most reliable interpreter of Nabokov, as a rule.
Among other things, he tends to regard all VN's works of
fiction as one long autobiography, with "teenager girlfriends"
playing a prominent part, but who was eating all those green
apples?
Every childhood, happy or otherwise, comes to an end, and
that is something we all share. What singles out Nabokov's
paradise is surely the fact that, in a way, it was never lost.
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org
En cada instante puede revelarte su amor Helena de Troya. -- JLB
> An average Russian reader/writer thinks of VN as having two models
> of paradise:
> - paradise lost: childhood in Peterburg.
> - paradise regained: life by a warm sea in an abstract country.
>
> For instance, this structure of the universe was attributed to VN
> in a novel:
> Pelevin, V. _Chapaev i Pustota_, Znamia N4-5(1996). (see N4, page
> 47)
>
> This "kingdom by a warm sea" is usually associated with having a
> teenager girlfriend, although VN himself refered ironically in
> _Ada_ to his "eating too many green apples"; compare in Pelevin's
> novel, the character in 1918 answers his guest from 90's: "But he
> is in Crimea! And what has it to do with girls whatsoever?" - thus
> denying the first, urban, model of paradise, and getting rid of
> the sexual component in the second, sea-shore model.
>
> It is more interesting that VN shares these models of paradise
> with Russian writers of another generation. I.Brodskii writes
> (without any link to VN) that both he and E. Rein have the
> following models of paradise (here my translation ability fails):
>
> - paradise lost: "gorodskaia perspektiva, ukhodiashchaia v anilin,
> skoree vsego - Kamennoostrovskii prospekt v Leningrade, s ego
> vinegretom kontsa veka iz moderna i art nuvo... s obiazatel'nym
> mostom, s miatoi prostynei svintsovoi vody." - i ukazyvaetsia,
> chto eto vidit "setchatka podrostka".
> - paradise regained: "zaliv... s pal'mami, s baliustradami, s
> vkhodiashchim v bukhtu passazhirskim teplokhodom, s novymi
> linkorami, peredaiushchimi v stroiu fokstrot (sic!), publikoi
> promenada."
>
> This quotation is taken from:
> Brodskii, I. _Predislovie_, in: Rein, E. Izbrannoe, Tret'ia volna,
> Moscow-Paris-New York. (see page 11)
>
> Alexey Vernitskii
> -----------------------------------------------
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Essex
> Colchester UK
> CO4 3SQ
> E-mail: asvern@essex.ac.uk
> /* Daleko ot Moskvy */