Subject
Lehr and Nabokov
From
Date
Body
FROM THE NABOKV-L ARCHIVE
D. Barton Johnson forwards this account of Nabokovs Katze from the Nabokov archive. [Stephen Blackwell has remarked, however, that despite the speculation about the influence of "Spring in Fialta," Mr. Lehr specifically told him that he had not read that story.]
EDITOR's NOTE. Nassim Balestrini who submits the item below is the author of _Imagery in VN's last Russian Novel (Dar), Its English Translation (The Gift) and Other Prose Works of the 1930s_ (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1995). She is also the compiler of an annotated bibliography of German studies of VN that is to appear in issue #5 of NABOKOV STUDIES. She was also a participant in the "Nabokov and Germany Conference" held at the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg last year.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nassim Balestrini
Thomas Lehr. _Nabokovs Katze_ [Nabokov's Cat]. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1999. [clothbound]
Amazon.de describes this novel by Thomas Lehr, a writer from Berlin, as follows (this is a rough translation of the description that I found on the WebSite): "Having first used LSD at the age of 15, Georg eventually experiences one extremely horrible 'trip' which nearly causes his death. Having escaped death, he decides that, from now on, the ability to see and think shall become the one 'real(ly)' intoxicating condition which will direct his life. However, when he leaves the hospital, he encounters passion in the form of Camille, one of his school mates, with whom he immediately falls in love. Although they split up soon after that, they keep running into each other, and he becomes more and more fascinated with the girl and her Indian [Mexican] background. In the course of the coming years, he realizes that after each meeting with Camille his life changes fundamentally. He begins to write screenplays, to make movies; he meets the woman that will become his wife. But whatever he does, he remains obsessed with Camille; or, he rather becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea of Camille. Finally, he knows no other escape than to leave everything behind and seek Camille's Indian heritage in Mexico in order to get rid of the buzzing camera in his head and everything else."
(As I have not read this novel, I cannot comment on it in detail. The description, however, seems to hint at allusions to "Spring in Fialta" and maybe also _Look at the Harlequins_.)
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Further Nabokov-related publications in German:
Gerd-Peter Eigner. _Nachstellungen 1: Essays über Mozart, Flaubert, Dostojewskij, Nabokov._ Frankfurt: Dielmann, 1998. [clothbound]
Marcel Reich-Ranicki. _Thomas Bernhard, Max Frisch, Günter Grass, Wolfgang Koeppen, Vladimir Nabokov, Martin Walser sowie ein Gespräch mit Peter von Matt: Der doppelte Boden_. Zürich: Ammann, 1990.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
D. Barton Johnson forwards this account of Nabokovs Katze from the Nabokov archive. [Stephen Blackwell has remarked, however, that despite the speculation about the influence of "Spring in Fialta," Mr. Lehr specifically told him that he had not read that story.]
EDITOR's NOTE. Nassim Balestrini who submits the item below is the author of _Imagery in VN's last Russian Novel (Dar), Its English Translation (The Gift) and Other Prose Works of the 1930s_ (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1995). She is also the compiler of an annotated bibliography of German studies of VN that is to appear in issue #5 of NABOKOV STUDIES. She was also a participant in the "Nabokov and Germany Conference" held at the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg last year.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nassim Balestrini
Thomas Lehr. _Nabokovs Katze_ [Nabokov's Cat]. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1999. [clothbound]
Amazon.de describes this novel by Thomas Lehr, a writer from Berlin, as follows (this is a rough translation of the description that I found on the WebSite): "Having first used LSD at the age of 15, Georg eventually experiences one extremely horrible 'trip' which nearly causes his death. Having escaped death, he decides that, from now on, the ability to see and think shall become the one 'real(ly)' intoxicating condition which will direct his life. However, when he leaves the hospital, he encounters passion in the form of Camille, one of his school mates, with whom he immediately falls in love. Although they split up soon after that, they keep running into each other, and he becomes more and more fascinated with the girl and her Indian [Mexican] background. In the course of the coming years, he realizes that after each meeting with Camille his life changes fundamentally. He begins to write screenplays, to make movies; he meets the woman that will become his wife. But whatever he does, he remains obsessed with Camille; or, he rather becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea of Camille. Finally, he knows no other escape than to leave everything behind and seek Camille's Indian heritage in Mexico in order to get rid of the buzzing camera in his head and everything else."
(As I have not read this novel, I cannot comment on it in detail. The description, however, seems to hint at allusions to "Spring in Fialta" and maybe also _Look at the Harlequins_.)
----------------------------------
Further Nabokov-related publications in German:
Gerd-Peter Eigner. _Nachstellungen 1: Essays über Mozart, Flaubert, Dostojewskij, Nabokov._ Frankfurt: Dielmann, 1998. [clothbound]
Marcel Reich-Ranicki. _Thomas Bernhard, Max Frisch, Günter Grass, Wolfgang Koeppen, Vladimir Nabokov, Martin Walser sowie ein Gespräch mit Peter von Matt: Der doppelte Boden_. Zürich: Ammann, 1990.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu