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[Fwd: Fwd: Jane Austen, Mark Twain and Vladimir Nabokov ...]
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[Apologies for the delay of this message: it was misplaced during the
EDSwitch. I wrote to Arnie Perlstein reminding him of the list's style
preference for addressing others in the third person, rather than the
second (the only "you" here is the whole list audience, not a specific
contributor) ~SB]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Jane Austen, Mark Twain and Vladimir Nabokov ...
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:42:33 -0500
From: Arnie Perlstein <arnieperlstein@myacc.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
On 12/27/2010 1:47 PM, Stan Kelly-Bootle wrote:
> Arnie Perlstein’s interesting comments reveal some of the paradoxes
> inherent in language, and especially those that bedevil our honest
> assessment of particular quotations from Nabokov’s diverse writings.
Sthan, thank you very much for _your_ interesting reply to my comments. ;)
I have been away the past couple of days, this is my first opportunity
to reply to you.
>
> Arnie seems to be aware of the inherent, inescapable ambiguity of all
> natural language. IF we feel that Nabokov is teasing and burlesquing
> (irony, humour, sarcasm, hyperbole, ...) we naturally praise the very
> lack of precision expressed so precisely. VN’s real ‘thoughts’ (we are
> pre-convinced that he’s no misogynist foe of Jane) are beautifully
> conveyed by statements to the contrary. In humourless Boolean terms,
> expressing P as NOT-P is the epitome of NON-precision!
I concur.
> However, since we are equally convinced of VN’s dislike of Freud,
> Lenin. Stalin (more ...), we interpet his denigrations as precisely
> worded and Irony-Free.
The key point that you have not mentioned is that I am not relying
solely on what Nabokov said about Jane Austen in isolation, but on the
Mark Twain/Pride and Prejudice "Chinese Box" subtext beneath those
remarks. I would not have claimed Nabokov was being ironic if not for
that subtext, it is what "seals the deal".
And I have one additional "Chinese Box" to add to Nabokov's very
elaborate joke--Note that Nabokov, in replying to Edmund Wilson, says
that instead of Jane Austen, he will read Robert Louis Stevenson
instead. While it might have been possible that Nabokov mentioned
Stevenson of all writers because he was a fan of Stevenson's writing,
what shows that this is part of the same elaborate joke is that
Stevenson wrote the following in a short piece entitled "A Gossip on a
Novel of Dumas":
"Elizabeth Bennet has but to speak, and I am at her knees. Ah! these are
the creators of desirable women. "
So are we to believe that it is _also_ a coincidence that the writer
whom Nabokov names as an alternative study subject just happens to be a
writer who, like Twain, has made a forceful statement in print about
Pride and Prejudice, and that it is Lizzy Bennet who is specifically
mentioned, being the speaker of the lines in Pride and Prejudice which
spawned (I claim) Twain's _and_ Nabokov's comments about Pride and
Prejudice?
The odds of such a 5-part coincidence are microscopically, vanishingly
small!
So, again, this is not just about a few lines that Nabokov wrote which
might or might not be ironic--it's about a series of nested Chinese
Boxes of the literary mind of Nabokov, exactly what one would expect
from the author of an elaborate literary game like _Pale Fire_!
Cheers, ARNIE
sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com
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EDSwitch. I wrote to Arnie Perlstein reminding him of the list's style
preference for addressing others in the third person, rather than the
second (the only "you" here is the whole list audience, not a specific
contributor) ~SB]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Jane Austen, Mark Twain and Vladimir Nabokov ...
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:42:33 -0500
From: Arnie Perlstein <arnieperlstein@myacc.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
On 12/27/2010 1:47 PM, Stan Kelly-Bootle wrote:
> Arnie Perlstein’s interesting comments reveal some of the paradoxes
> inherent in language, and especially those that bedevil our honest
> assessment of particular quotations from Nabokov’s diverse writings.
Sthan, thank you very much for _your_ interesting reply to my comments. ;)
I have been away the past couple of days, this is my first opportunity
to reply to you.
>
> Arnie seems to be aware of the inherent, inescapable ambiguity of all
> natural language. IF we feel that Nabokov is teasing and burlesquing
> (irony, humour, sarcasm, hyperbole, ...) we naturally praise the very
> lack of precision expressed so precisely. VN’s real ‘thoughts’ (we are
> pre-convinced that he’s no misogynist foe of Jane) are beautifully
> conveyed by statements to the contrary. In humourless Boolean terms,
> expressing P as NOT-P is the epitome of NON-precision!
I concur.
> However, since we are equally convinced of VN’s dislike of Freud,
> Lenin. Stalin (more ...), we interpet his denigrations as precisely
> worded and Irony-Free.
The key point that you have not mentioned is that I am not relying
solely on what Nabokov said about Jane Austen in isolation, but on the
Mark Twain/Pride and Prejudice "Chinese Box" subtext beneath those
remarks. I would not have claimed Nabokov was being ironic if not for
that subtext, it is what "seals the deal".
And I have one additional "Chinese Box" to add to Nabokov's very
elaborate joke--Note that Nabokov, in replying to Edmund Wilson, says
that instead of Jane Austen, he will read Robert Louis Stevenson
instead. While it might have been possible that Nabokov mentioned
Stevenson of all writers because he was a fan of Stevenson's writing,
what shows that this is part of the same elaborate joke is that
Stevenson wrote the following in a short piece entitled "A Gossip on a
Novel of Dumas":
"Elizabeth Bennet has but to speak, and I am at her knees. Ah! these are
the creators of desirable women. "
So are we to believe that it is _also_ a coincidence that the writer
whom Nabokov names as an alternative study subject just happens to be a
writer who, like Twain, has made a forceful statement in print about
Pride and Prejudice, and that it is Lizzy Bennet who is specifically
mentioned, being the speaker of the lines in Pride and Prejudice which
spawned (I claim) Twain's _and_ Nabokov's comments about Pride and
Prejudice?
The odds of such a 5-part coincidence are microscopically, vanishingly
small!
So, again, this is not just about a few lines that Nabokov wrote which
might or might not be ironic--it's about a series of nested Chinese
Boxes of the literary mind of Nabokov, exactly what one would expect
from the author of an elaborate literary game like _Pale Fire_!
Cheers, ARNIE
sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com
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/