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Re: was VN interested in "split personalities"?
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was VN interested in "split personalities"?Dear Carolyn,
You asked me: But you do know that VN was fascinated by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, don't you? I didn't invent this out of my hat!
I wouldn't put it as strongly as "being fascinated" by Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, though. I know you didn't invent this out of your hat, but why not? The magician's tricks are often brought up in "Pale Fire" ( weren't the index-cards placed in such a hat and later extracted (shaken out) as a poem?).
There is one interesting detail that adds strength to your position.
If we check the "Index" in PF we will find the names "Shade, John Francis, poet and scholar" and "Kinbote, Charles,Dr." ( i.e Mr. Shade and Dr. Kinbote ).
But, at the same time, re-reading VN's "Lectures on Literature", I found VN's quotes on Stevenson's "A Gossip on Romance", where value was set on "[ the highest]" ... "the plastic part of literature: to embody character, thought, or emotion in some act or attitude that shall be remarkably striking to the mind's eye".
I interpreted his lecture as emphasizing verbal rendering, alliterations, hidden sounds as the main elements that provide the transformation of events instead of stressing, particularly, their materialization, as in the crude image of Hyde/Jekyll.
By the way:
1. in my copy of the (Fredson Bowers) Lectures I found the reproduction of VN's own "pocket book" edition whose hideous cover he hid underneath something that looks like a sheet of paper, with tape fixing the corners of an illustration that carries the words " Ex libbris V.Nabokov" below.
At first glance we see a guy riding a bicycle in the image glued on the recovered cover and yet, his bicycle is very peculiar with no pedals and a strange handle-bar with a seat for the elbow. Has anyone explained this "Ex libris"?
2. What did VN mean when, in an interview, he described himself as "a monist"?
Jansy
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You asked me: But you do know that VN was fascinated by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, don't you? I didn't invent this out of my hat!
I wouldn't put it as strongly as "being fascinated" by Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, though. I know you didn't invent this out of your hat, but why not? The magician's tricks are often brought up in "Pale Fire" ( weren't the index-cards placed in such a hat and later extracted (shaken out) as a poem?).
There is one interesting detail that adds strength to your position.
If we check the "Index" in PF we will find the names "Shade, John Francis, poet and scholar" and "Kinbote, Charles,Dr." ( i.e Mr. Shade and Dr. Kinbote ).
But, at the same time, re-reading VN's "Lectures on Literature", I found VN's quotes on Stevenson's "A Gossip on Romance", where value was set on "[ the highest]" ... "the plastic part of literature: to embody character, thought, or emotion in some act or attitude that shall be remarkably striking to the mind's eye".
I interpreted his lecture as emphasizing verbal rendering, alliterations, hidden sounds as the main elements that provide the transformation of events instead of stressing, particularly, their materialization, as in the crude image of Hyde/Jekyll.
By the way:
1. in my copy of the (Fredson Bowers) Lectures I found the reproduction of VN's own "pocket book" edition whose hideous cover he hid underneath something that looks like a sheet of paper, with tape fixing the corners of an illustration that carries the words " Ex libbris V.Nabokov" below.
At first glance we see a guy riding a bicycle in the image glued on the recovered cover and yet, his bicycle is very peculiar with no pedals and a strange handle-bar with a seat for the elbow. Has anyone explained this "Ex libris"?
2. What did VN mean when, in an interview, he described himself as "a monist"?
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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