Subject
Re: [MABOKV-L] [SIGHTING] Google alert on "Breitenstraeter -
Paolino", VN's rare story about boxing.- and more
Paolino", VN's rare story about boxing.- and more
From
Date
Body
Dear all,
I've been a little slow about this but I thought Nabokovians might care to have the translation of Breitenstrater - Paolino published in the TLS this week,
and with it Lesley Chamberlain's facing article about the production of The Tragedy of Mister Morn which we staged at Pushkin House in London.
As Dieter Zimmer says, we didn't unearth Breitenstrater - Paolino, merely translated the text which appeared in the 1999-2000 Russian Collected
Works. I should say that neither we the translators (Anastasia Tolstoy and I) nor the TLS suggested otherwise; this stuff about 'unearthing' is
a strictly the Huffington Post's spin.
It's also true that it's not a story; still, what it is is far from obvious. I've argued in an article of 2006, and in my 2011 book, that it is a very artful
piece of writing, designed as counterpart and contrast to "A Guide to Berlin", also written in December 1925 - where that 'story-essay' explores
the vision of art and life as work, the 'essay-story' propounds and exemplifies a vision of life and art as play. It is, then, a partial expression of
Nabokov's image of life, not a total one; and, formally, it is a trick or a toy, in which Nabokov speaks through the mask of a super-aesthete
indifferent to pain, who thinks blood is merely ink - the forerunner to the narrator of "The Vane Sisters", for instance, while mounting an intricate
flanking manoeuvre agains that iron-masked variant of himself.
I have been reading Hazlitt for another piece and the coincidence makes me think it likely that Nabokov was influenced by Hazlitt's famous essay
"The Fight"; and also by Hazlitt's "The Indian Jugglers", which may have inspired the image of God as a juggler of the planets of the universe.
The underlying influences are also likely to be the philosopher-critics of the emigration, Fedor Stepun and Iulii Aikhenvald, whose importance to
Nabokov our editor, Stephen Blackwell, has been pioneering in demonstrating.
best,
Thomas.
Dr Thomas Karshan
Lecturer in Literature
University of East Anglia
Room: Arts 2.32
________________________________________
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] on behalf of Dieter E. Zimmer [mail@D-E-ZIMMER.DE]
Sent: 03 August 2012 21:16
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [MABOKV-L] [SIGHTING] Google alert on "Breitenstraeter - Paolino", VN's rare story about boxing.- and more
Nabokov’s text on the Breitenstaedter-Paolino fight that took place in the Berlin Sportpalast on December 1, 1925 is not “a rare story” but a talk, and it had not to be “unearthed” but simply translated into English. It has been published in Russian in the journal ‘Slovo’, Riga, December 28+29, 1925; in vol. 1 of the Simposium edition, St. Petersburg 1999, p.749-754; and in German in ‘Eigensinnige Ansichten’, Reinbek 2004, p.203-211.
Dieter Zimmer, Berlin
From: Jansy<mailto:jansy@AETERN.US>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 5:41 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU<mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: [NABOKV-L] [MABOKV-L] [SIGHTING] Google alert on "Breitenstraeter - Paolino", VN's rare story about boxing.- and more
Excerpts: The Times Literary Supplement has unearthed a rare story by Vladimir Nabokov, the author of "Lolita," "Pale Fire" and other poetic classics. Titled "Breitensträter – Paolino," the story has never been published in English before.[ ]This newly uncovered story, "Breitensträter – Paolino," was translated from Russian to English by Anastasia Tolstoy ...and Thomas Karshan.
The topic is a heavyweight boxing match that took place in Berlin in 1925....
The Times Literary Supplement writes:
Of all the sports Nabokov could have chosen to focus on, he took in boxing the one that concentrates as no other the pain and violence he always saw in play. But “Breitensträter–Paolino” is a very literary and verbal account of boxing [...] this is not the only posthumous Nabokov translation or publication. In 2009, the author's incomplete work, "The Original of Laura," was published in spite of his request that the manuscript be burned[ ] Here is a taste of "Breitensträter–Paolino"..."Man has played as long as he has existed. There are ages – holidays of humanity – when man is especially impassioned by games. So it was in bygone Greece, in bygone Rome, and so it is in our own Europe of today..."
Related on HuffPost:
Rare Vladimir Nabokov Story About Boxing Published For First Time In English<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/rare-nabokov-story_n_1733017.html&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAAoATAAOABAj6LsgAVIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNFUuQAaZLMFU5q30sBNhFiE5Ukgyw>
Huffington Post
Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and was raised speaking and writing both English and Russian. "Lolita" was written in English, and was later translated into Russian by Nabokov himself. This newly uncovered story, "Breitensträter – Paolino," was ...
See all stories on this topic »<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://news.google.com/news/story%3Fncl%3Dhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/rare-nabokov-story_n_1733017.html%26hl%3Den%26geo%3Dus&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAAoBjAAOABAj6LsgAVIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNH-P0AiEFdt6ZZ5ZRXPQl6eaVHMiA>
The Millions : Nabokov Speech Published in English for the First Time<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.themillions.com/2012/08/nabokov-speech-published-in-english-for-the-first-time.html%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bthemillionsblog%252Ffedw%2B(The%2BMillions)&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAEoATABOABAj6LsgAVIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNFm7RQN8VRemXcWpRrQGudOOqctYw>
The Correspondence of Nabokov and Wilson The correspondence of Vladimir Nabokov and the critic Edmund Wilson... Nabokov's Unpublished Letters Nearly ...
www.themillions.com/.../nabokov-speech-published-in-english...<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.themillions.com/2012/08/nabokov-speech-published-in-english-for-the-first-time.html%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bthemillionsblog%252Ffedw%2B(The%2BMillions)&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAEoBDABOABAj6LsgAVIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNFm7RQN8VRemXcWpRrQGudOOqctYw>
Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact the Editors<mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"<http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View Nabokv-L Policies<http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
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Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
I've been a little slow about this but I thought Nabokovians might care to have the translation of Breitenstrater - Paolino published in the TLS this week,
and with it Lesley Chamberlain's facing article about the production of The Tragedy of Mister Morn which we staged at Pushkin House in London.
As Dieter Zimmer says, we didn't unearth Breitenstrater - Paolino, merely translated the text which appeared in the 1999-2000 Russian Collected
Works. I should say that neither we the translators (Anastasia Tolstoy and I) nor the TLS suggested otherwise; this stuff about 'unearthing' is
a strictly the Huffington Post's spin.
It's also true that it's not a story; still, what it is is far from obvious. I've argued in an article of 2006, and in my 2011 book, that it is a very artful
piece of writing, designed as counterpart and contrast to "A Guide to Berlin", also written in December 1925 - where that 'story-essay' explores
the vision of art and life as work, the 'essay-story' propounds and exemplifies a vision of life and art as play. It is, then, a partial expression of
Nabokov's image of life, not a total one; and, formally, it is a trick or a toy, in which Nabokov speaks through the mask of a super-aesthete
indifferent to pain, who thinks blood is merely ink - the forerunner to the narrator of "The Vane Sisters", for instance, while mounting an intricate
flanking manoeuvre agains that iron-masked variant of himself.
I have been reading Hazlitt for another piece and the coincidence makes me think it likely that Nabokov was influenced by Hazlitt's famous essay
"The Fight"; and also by Hazlitt's "The Indian Jugglers", which may have inspired the image of God as a juggler of the planets of the universe.
The underlying influences are also likely to be the philosopher-critics of the emigration, Fedor Stepun and Iulii Aikhenvald, whose importance to
Nabokov our editor, Stephen Blackwell, has been pioneering in demonstrating.
best,
Thomas.
Dr Thomas Karshan
Lecturer in Literature
University of East Anglia
Room: Arts 2.32
________________________________________
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] on behalf of Dieter E. Zimmer [mail@D-E-ZIMMER.DE]
Sent: 03 August 2012 21:16
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [MABOKV-L] [SIGHTING] Google alert on "Breitenstraeter - Paolino", VN's rare story about boxing.- and more
Nabokov’s text on the Breitenstaedter-Paolino fight that took place in the Berlin Sportpalast on December 1, 1925 is not “a rare story” but a talk, and it had not to be “unearthed” but simply translated into English. It has been published in Russian in the journal ‘Slovo’, Riga, December 28+29, 1925; in vol. 1 of the Simposium edition, St. Petersburg 1999, p.749-754; and in German in ‘Eigensinnige Ansichten’, Reinbek 2004, p.203-211.
Dieter Zimmer, Berlin
From: Jansy<mailto:jansy@AETERN.US>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 5:41 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU<mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: [NABOKV-L] [MABOKV-L] [SIGHTING] Google alert on "Breitenstraeter - Paolino", VN's rare story about boxing.- and more
Excerpts: The Times Literary Supplement has unearthed a rare story by Vladimir Nabokov, the author of "Lolita," "Pale Fire" and other poetic classics. Titled "Breitensträter – Paolino," the story has never been published in English before.[ ]This newly uncovered story, "Breitensträter – Paolino," was translated from Russian to English by Anastasia Tolstoy ...and Thomas Karshan.
The topic is a heavyweight boxing match that took place in Berlin in 1925....
The Times Literary Supplement writes:
Of all the sports Nabokov could have chosen to focus on, he took in boxing the one that concentrates as no other the pain and violence he always saw in play. But “Breitensträter–Paolino” is a very literary and verbal account of boxing [...] this is not the only posthumous Nabokov translation or publication. In 2009, the author's incomplete work, "The Original of Laura," was published in spite of his request that the manuscript be burned[ ] Here is a taste of "Breitensträter–Paolino"..."Man has played as long as he has existed. There are ages – holidays of humanity – when man is especially impassioned by games. So it was in bygone Greece, in bygone Rome, and so it is in our own Europe of today..."
Related on HuffPost:
Rare Vladimir Nabokov Story About Boxing Published For First Time In English<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/rare-nabokov-story_n_1733017.html&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAAoATAAOABAj6LsgAVIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNFUuQAaZLMFU5q30sBNhFiE5Ukgyw>
Huffington Post
Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and was raised speaking and writing both English and Russian. "Lolita" was written in English, and was later translated into Russian by Nabokov himself. This newly uncovered story, "Breitensträter – Paolino," was ...
See all stories on this topic »<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://news.google.com/news/story%3Fncl%3Dhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/rare-nabokov-story_n_1733017.html%26hl%3Den%26geo%3Dus&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAAoBjAAOABAj6LsgAVIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNH-P0AiEFdt6ZZ5ZRXPQl6eaVHMiA>
The Millions : Nabokov Speech Published in English for the First Time<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.themillions.com/2012/08/nabokov-speech-published-in-english-for-the-first-time.html%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bthemillionsblog%252Ffedw%2B(The%2BMillions)&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAEoATABOABAj6LsgAVIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNFm7RQN8VRemXcWpRrQGudOOqctYw>
The Correspondence of Nabokov and Wilson The correspondence of Vladimir Nabokov and the critic Edmund Wilson... Nabokov's Unpublished Letters Nearly ...
www.themillions.com/.../nabokov-speech-published-in-english...<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.themillions.com/2012/08/nabokov-speech-published-in-english-for-the-first-time.html%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bthemillionsblog%252Ffedw%2B(The%2BMillions)&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAEoBDABOABAj6LsgAVIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=vjJvGVZBAnY&usg=AFQjCNFm7RQN8VRemXcWpRrQGudOOqctYw>
Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact the Editors<mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"<http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View Nabokv-L Policies<http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact the Editors<mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"<http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View Nabokv-L Policies<http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/