Subject
Re: Dan Brown's _The Da Vinci Code_ & VN? ...
From
Date
Body
I was amused (I seethed with amusement) by the article Sandy Klein
shared.
Dan (absolutely no relation) Brown's D-Code book was one I read awhile
ago with a Chestertonian concentration of grief.
To some of us, Chesterton's observations on "the agnostic ... the
sceptic
... the modern man" will ring with somewhat Kinbotean tones. I don't
doubt
Chesterton's conviction, although when I read a short book of his on
Thomas
Acquinas I rather doubted his sanity. And I don't think VN made Kinbote
a
Christian in order simply to mock the beliefs of Chesterton or others.
Both Nabokov and Chesterton urge on their readers a clearer perception
of
what is around them by ignoring the delusions of conventional
(convention-trapped) beliefs. Chesterton considers the
modern-agnostic-sceptic to be completely inverted in perspective.
Nabokov
believed that modern humanity, agnostic or not, missed the beauty of
this
world in a blitz of "general ideas," group think, and commercial
ephemera.
Maybe both would have found agreement in a term such as spiritual
laziness,
if spirit or soul can be considered both secular and sacred.
Andrew Brown
"Grief ought to be a concentration; but for the agnostic its desolation
is spread through an unthinkable eternity. This is what I call being
born upside down. The sceptic may truly be said to be topsy-turvy; for
his feet are dancing upwards in idle ecstasies, while his brain is in
the abyss. To the modern man the heavens are actually below the earth.
The explanation is simple; he is standing on his head; which is a very
weak pedestal to stand on."
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
shared.
Dan (absolutely no relation) Brown's D-Code book was one I read awhile
ago with a Chestertonian concentration of grief.
To some of us, Chesterton's observations on "the agnostic ... the
sceptic
... the modern man" will ring with somewhat Kinbotean tones. I don't
doubt
Chesterton's conviction, although when I read a short book of his on
Thomas
Acquinas I rather doubted his sanity. And I don't think VN made Kinbote
a
Christian in order simply to mock the beliefs of Chesterton or others.
Both Nabokov and Chesterton urge on their readers a clearer perception
of
what is around them by ignoring the delusions of conventional
(convention-trapped) beliefs. Chesterton considers the
modern-agnostic-sceptic to be completely inverted in perspective.
Nabokov
believed that modern humanity, agnostic or not, missed the beauty of
this
world in a blitz of "general ideas," group think, and commercial
ephemera.
Maybe both would have found agreement in a term such as spiritual
laziness,
if spirit or soul can be considered both secular and sacred.
Andrew Brown
"Grief ought to be a concentration; but for the agnostic its desolation
is spread through an unthinkable eternity. This is what I call being
born upside down. The sceptic may truly be said to be topsy-turvy; for
his feet are dancing upwards in idle ecstasies, while his brain is in
the abyss. To the modern man the heavens are actually below the earth.
The explanation is simple; he is standing on his head; which is a very
weak pedestal to stand on."
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