Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023069, Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:56:03 -0300

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Re: torrents of spring
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a quick question, if I may? There was another consumptive in the family, namely Aqua and Marina's brother and various interesting sentences about him, alsmost suggesting a special relationship (incestuous?) bt. Marina and Ivan. Everything here relies on my vague memory of ADA. A hammock, a tulip tree, orchestral noises, a blob of blood...
Jansy


-----Mensagem Original-----
De: Alexey Sklyarenko
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Enviada em: terca-feira, 17 de julho de 2012 05:17
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] torrents of spring


Ada's consumptive husband, Andrey Vinelander died one spring night in 1922. (3.8) We say of people who suffer of tuberculosis and die in the spring that they уходят с вешними водами ("go with torrents of spring"). So does the hero and narrator of Turgenev's story The Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850): "The frozen rivers will break up, and with the last snow I shall, most likely, swim away... whither? God knows! To the ocean too. Well, well, since one must die, one may as well die in the spring."

Turgenev (who is mentioned in Ada at least three times) is the author of "Вешние воды" (Torrents of Spring, 1872). The name of its hero, Sanin, reminds one of Artsybashev's pornographic novel Sanin (1907). According to Aikhenvald (Literary Sketctes, 1924), Artsybashev (who is mentioned in VN's story Lips to Lips*) is a "non-alcoholic" writer: В жизни тело имеет все права; на искусство же имеет право только душа тела. Между тем, Арцыбашев ограничивается телом тела. И, в связи с этим, он рисует его грубо, цинично, без той игры и остроты, какая пенится и сверкает, и колет, например, у Мопассана. В иглах и искрах шампанского вина приобретает свою красоту и эротический алкоголизм; но Арцыбашев, в сущности, - без'алкогольный писатель. Сам не пьяный, и других, если и опьяняющий, то во всяком случае хмелем не тонким, он всегда теоретизирует, он умышляет, а не мыслит, и кустарно шьёт свои произведения белыми нитками тенденций.

The critic contrasts Artsybashev with Maupassant,** comparing the latter's writings to champagne, and Artsybashev's characters, with the hero of Turgenev's Fathers and Children: Вот Базаров теоретически отрицал любовь, а практически влюбился; всякий романтизм он признавал чепухой, а умер как романтик, и этот исследователь лягушек, этот нигилист и материалист, к своему смертному орду, точно ангела смерти, позвал Одинцову и попросил её, чтобы она поцеловала его, дунула на угасающую лампу его жизни... Тургенев думал, что вся эта нежность и поэзия - к лицу Базарова, потому что от живого дыхания рушатся теоретическия построения; герои же Арцыбашева в своих карточных домиках выделывают схемы и рамки для жизни, и жизнь в эти рамки удобно и послушно укладывается.

In a letter of November 25, 1892, to Suvorin Chekhov complains of the lack of alcohol in the writings of contemporary authors: "Tell me honestly, who of my contemporaries—that is, men between thirty and forty-five—have given the world one single drop of alcohol? Are not Korolenko,*** Nadson, and all the playwrights of to-day, lemonade?" On the other hand, in Chekhov's story "Бабье царство" (A Woman's Kingdom, 1894) the lawyer Lysevich recommends to the heroine Maupassant saying that she must drink each line written by this author: "My dear, read Maupassant! one page of his gives you more than all the riches of the earth! ...To be carried away by it you must savour it, slowly suck the juice from each line, drink it in.... You must drink it in!... " (chapter III)

Chekhov died of tuberculosis in 1904 (in a letter to Van, written after Lucette's death, Demon mentions "consumptive Anton:" 3.6). Andrey Andreevich Vinelander (who prefers hard liquors, despite his surname) is a namesake of Andrey Andreevich, the heroine's fiance in Chekhov's last story Nevesta (The Bride, 1903).

Veshnie vody (torrents of spring) literally means "vernal waters." On April 23, 1869, in drizzly and warm, gauzy and green Kaluga Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father) married Aqua (Marina Durmanov's dim-witted twin sister whose name means "water"), aged twenty-five and afflicted with her usual vernal migraine. (1.1) April 23 is VN's birthday. On the other hand, VN's father perished on March 28, 1922 (Ada's husband died in the spring of the same year).

*Ilya Borisovich considered that Artsybashev debauched young readers.
**According to Vivian Darkbloom (the author of "Notes to Ada"), Maupassant did not exist on Antiterra. Some of his works are attributed to Mlle Lariviere, Lucette's governess who adopts the pen name Guillaume de Monparnasse.
***Ilya Borisovich (the hero of Lips to Lips) appreciated Korolenko.

Alexey Sklyarenko
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