Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011522, Tue, 24 May 2005 15:18:54 -0700

Subject
Re: Fwd: Re: Nabokov and Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
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----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 01:52:50 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Nabokov and Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum

Dear Anthony Stadlen,

You said that VN´s words "might apply by extension to FW", but that he "means
primarily, and quite possibly exclusively, the 'stream of consciousness' "
because he had referred his observation to J.Joyce´s mental soliloquies.

You are probably correct in your observation because VN explicitly returned to
this idea in the Joyce lecture ( Bowers,page 289) while describing Molly´s
final soliloquy:

" but one can comment here that it exagerates the verbal side of thought. Man
thinks not always in words but also in images, whereas the stream of
consciousness presupposes a flow of words that can be notated: it is difficult,
however, to believe that Bloom was continuously talking to himself" .

On page 363:
"we must not see in the stream of consciousness as renedered by Joyce a natural
event. It is a reality only insofar
as it reflects Joyce´s cerebration, the mind of the book".

And he added: " This book is a new world invented by Joyce. In that world people
think by means of words, sentences. Their mental associations are mainly
dictated by the structural needs of the book, by the author´s artistic purposes
and plans"

I think that one may still consider FW as an expression of "Joyce´s cerebration"
taking over "the shadows of thought".
What does actually "too much verbal body" mean?

( Curiously, in his JJ Lecture he substituted by "images" what he had described
as "shadows" in SO)

Jansy


----- Forwarded message from STADLEN@aol.com -----
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 20:13:56 EDT
From: STADLEN@aol.com
Reply-To: STADLEN@aol.com
Subject: Re: Nabokov and Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
To: List

....................................................................................
This scrap ot a sentence almost certainly applies to FW (SO, 30): "We think not
in words but in shadows of words. James Joyce´s mistake in those otherwise
marvelous mental soliloquies of his consists in that he gives too much verbal
body to his thoughts"
....................................................................................

I suppose this might apply by extension to FW, but surely VN here means
primarily, and quite possibly exclusively, the "stream of consciousness"
passages in "Ulysses". After all, FW is supposed to consist of dream, not
"mental soliloquies".

Anthony Stadlen

----- End forwarded message -----



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In a message dated 21/05/2005 21:36:09 GMT Standard Time, chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu
writes:


This scrap ot a sentence almost certainly applies to FW (SO, 30): "We think
not in words but in shadows of words. James Joyce´s mistake in those
otherwise marvelous mental soliloquies of his consists in tht he gives too
much verbal body to his thoughts"



I suppose this might apply by extension to FW, but surely VN here means
primarily, and quite possibly exclusively, the "stream of consciousness"
passages in "Ulysses". After all, FW is supposed to consist of dream, not
"mental soliloquies".

Anthony Stadlen

----- End forwarded message -----
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