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Fw: Wingstroke and TT
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ednote. sOME ASTUTE COMMENTS ON WINGSTROKE & TT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Stone" <bstone41@hotmail.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (38
lines) ------------------
>
> If this has already been covered in the volley of postings pertaining to
> Wingstroke and Transparent Things, please euthanize it accordingly.
>
> Isn't there an additional link between the two texts in their rendering of
> dreams? It's been some time since I've read TT, but if memory serves,
Person
> strangles his wife inadvertently while he's dreaming. In Wingstroke, the
> middle section, if I'm not mistaken, veers into dream too for the
encounter
> with the angel. Granted, it's a dream puzzling in its realism (if one can
> call it that), but it's the dream's implications that make the ending more
> complex, and satisfying, I think. That is, it opens up a level of irony
> between Kern's experience of the events and the reader's experience of the
> text.
> Kern never seems to doubt the validity of his encounter with the angel,
but
> the reader is, I think, invited to doubt exactly this in certain
particulars
> that crop up (the yellow pajamas which later seem to get confused with
black
> silk, the white face and the broken plate, then later the absence of any
> letters and Isabel's surprising presence for the jumping--if this is
> obvious, my apologies). So when Kern heads off to make good, as it were,
on
> the suicide--because "something had happened after which a man cannot and
> must not continue living"--he might be thinking equally of his sad history
> as well as his world-shaking encounter with the angel. Isabel's mysterious
> death does apparently corroborate Kern's point of view in this; however,
the
> reader who has taken the bait and doubted the authenticity of Kern's
> encounter does not have to be contented with this literal understanding of
> the conclusion. Instead, Kern's suicide might be motivated by the
discovery
> (the reader's discovery) that his "real" existence is indistinguishable
from
> his dream existence, that there is a continuum rather than a disconnect
> between the two existential "realities." In this Kern's case seems to
> prefigure in some ways the dilemma of later Nabokovian characters.
>
>
> Bruce Stone
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get a FREE online virus check for your PC here, from McAfee.
> http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Stone" <bstone41@hotmail.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (38
lines) ------------------
>
> If this has already been covered in the volley of postings pertaining to
> Wingstroke and Transparent Things, please euthanize it accordingly.
>
> Isn't there an additional link between the two texts in their rendering of
> dreams? It's been some time since I've read TT, but if memory serves,
Person
> strangles his wife inadvertently while he's dreaming. In Wingstroke, the
> middle section, if I'm not mistaken, veers into dream too for the
encounter
> with the angel. Granted, it's a dream puzzling in its realism (if one can
> call it that), but it's the dream's implications that make the ending more
> complex, and satisfying, I think. That is, it opens up a level of irony
> between Kern's experience of the events and the reader's experience of the
> text.
> Kern never seems to doubt the validity of his encounter with the angel,
but
> the reader is, I think, invited to doubt exactly this in certain
particulars
> that crop up (the yellow pajamas which later seem to get confused with
black
> silk, the white face and the broken plate, then later the absence of any
> letters and Isabel's surprising presence for the jumping--if this is
> obvious, my apologies). So when Kern heads off to make good, as it were,
on
> the suicide--because "something had happened after which a man cannot and
> must not continue living"--he might be thinking equally of his sad history
> as well as his world-shaking encounter with the angel. Isabel's mysterious
> death does apparently corroborate Kern's point of view in this; however,
the
> reader who has taken the bait and doubted the authenticity of Kern's
> encounter does not have to be contented with this literal understanding of
> the conclusion. Instead, Kern's suicide might be motivated by the
discovery
> (the reader's discovery) that his "real" existence is indistinguishable
from
> his dream existence, that there is a continuum rather than a disconnect
> between the two existential "realities." In this Kern's case seems to
> prefigure in some ways the dilemma of later Nabokovian characters.
>
>
> Bruce Stone
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get a FREE online virus check for your PC here, from McAfee.
> http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
>