Subject
DN on Nabokov and Japan (and dreams)
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Response for Nikita Danilov from DN:
For the moment I can quickly think of only one reference by VN in the
context of Japan and the Japanese. It occurs among the dreams of his
that he recorded as part of an experiment concerning the relationship
between dreams and reality in the past and in the present. It is part of
a batch titled "VN Cards from 1958," "(card XY)" and "(card YX)," but
is otherwise unidentified. It occurred to me because I have been
examining my father's dreams in view of possible publication. Here is
the text:
"I was grossly late for my last public lecture at Cornell: it had been
difficult to park the car because of the interest in a controversial
movie; my wife and I had been cruising around and around in the hope
that somebody would leave, until we realized that all available space
near the lecture hall would remain full until the performance was over.
Finally we had to seek out a rather remote spot, and started at a brisk
walk, almost a run, for the lighted building.
(card YX)
People were waiting there -- students had come, except for a last
runner, for on the way we were suddenly overtaken by a lone Japanese,
who sprinted past us at a pace far surpassing anything we could attain.
There was something uncanny about his solitary velocity and streamlined
attitude as he made for the porch and dashed up the steps and plunged
into the crowded place, which existed for him at the moment only insofar
as it included and contained the lecturer. But the lecturer was still
outside, almost paralyzed by the weird feeling of a ghost [...?]
debarred from the events his [...?] past."
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
For the moment I can quickly think of only one reference by VN in the
context of Japan and the Japanese. It occurs among the dreams of his
that he recorded as part of an experiment concerning the relationship
between dreams and reality in the past and in the present. It is part of
a batch titled "VN Cards from 1958," "(card XY)" and "(card YX)," but
is otherwise unidentified. It occurred to me because I have been
examining my father's dreams in view of possible publication. Here is
the text:
"I was grossly late for my last public lecture at Cornell: it had been
difficult to park the car because of the interest in a controversial
movie; my wife and I had been cruising around and around in the hope
that somebody would leave, until we realized that all available space
near the lecture hall would remain full until the performance was over.
Finally we had to seek out a rather remote spot, and started at a brisk
walk, almost a run, for the lighted building.
(card YX)
People were waiting there -- students had come, except for a last
runner, for on the way we were suddenly overtaken by a lone Japanese,
who sprinted past us at a pace far surpassing anything we could attain.
There was something uncanny about his solitary velocity and streamlined
attitude as he made for the porch and dashed up the steps and plunged
into the crowded place, which existed for him at the moment only insofar
as it included and contained the lecturer. But the lecturer was still
outside, almost paralyzed by the weird feeling of a ghost [...?]
debarred from the events his [...?] past."
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