Dr. Deborah A. Martinsen is right of course, it has been a while since I read these novels and I got the two characters mixed up.
It's a pity the paper is unpublished, though; I'm sure many list members would be interested.
Laurence Hochard
The confession is not Ivan’s but Stavrogin’s from the chapter of Demons that Katkov excised – “At Tikhon’s.”
There are multiple references to Ivan’s “all is permitted” in Lolita. (I have an unpublished conference paper on them.)
Dr. Deborah A. Martinsen
Associate Dean of Alumni Education
Adj. Associate Professor of Slavic
President, International Dostoevsky Society, 2007-2013
202 Hamilton Hall MC 2811 \ Columbia University \ New York, NY 10027
tel: 212-854-1259; fax: 212-854-5094; dm387@columbia.edu
Join us for Cafés Columbia cafescolumbia.columbia.edu
Let me underscore the obvious here: Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains behind the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.
Ann Patchett
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU]
On Behalf Of Anthony Stadlen
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2014 10:09 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [Old SIGHTING] Nabokov's Berlin: Nabokov, art and evil
I was referring to Humbert's explicit contemplation of a turn to religion as described by "him" in the novel. But of course he found this unsatisfactory, as he explains.
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
For Existential Psychotherapy and Inner Circle Seminars see:
http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com
In a message dated 10/02/2014 00:26:22 GMT Standard Time, nabokv-l@UTK.EDU writes:
RE [NABOKV-L] [Old SIGHTING] Nabokov's Berlin Nabokov, art and evil
Subject:
RE: [NABOKV-L] [Old SIGHTING] Nabokov's Berlin: Nabokov, art and evil
From:
laurence hochard <laurence.hochard@hotmail.fr>
Date:
2/9/2014 9:22 AM
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <nabokv-l@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Anthony Stadlen: "and also posturing penitent contemplating a turn to religion "
I don't think that Humbert's statement ("Unless it can be proven to me — to me as I am now, today, with my heart and by beard, and my putrefaction — that in the infinite run it does not matter a jot that a North American girl-child named Dolores Haze had been deprived of her childhood by a maniac, unless this can be proven (and if it can, then life is a joke), I see nothing for the treatment of my misery but the melancholy and very local palliative of articulate art.") can be read as a turn to religion. Quite the contrary! This is one of Humbert's rare moments of lucidity when Humbert's and the author's voices fuse. In essence, what they say here is that there is no redemption whatsover for Humbert's crime, that no religious idea of atonement can never undo what has been done.
I suspect that this passage is a dig at Ivan's confession in Dostoëvski's The Brothers Karamazov. Indeed, Ivan confesses to having abused a little girl who afterwards commits suicide. If I remember well, this written confession is addressed to staretz Zosima who recommends total obedience and surrender to God as atonement for Ivan's sin. This is what Nabokov totally rejects.
Laurence Hochard
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