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Fw: Fw: more on Nabokov and St Augustine for HH
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EDITOR'S NOTE. The suggested link between VN & St. Augustine is intriguing
but, pending evidence to the contrary, implausible. It doesn't seem likely
that VN (from an Russian orthodox tradition and Cambridge education) would
have read Augustine. Even if so, it would more likely surfaced in his later
autobiography than in MARY. John Burt Foster's book on VN and European
Modernism finds the presence of Nietzsche which seems a better based
assumption although some have questioned this.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hanny Hindi" <hanny@ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>doesn't
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 10:26 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: more on St Augustine for HH
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (42
lines) ------------------
> > > St Augustine was the first saint to have a home page on the Internet.
It
> > is
> > > maintained by James O'Donnell, University of Pennsylvania. Do a search
for
> > > "Augustine of Hippo" and "Home Page" and it should come right up.
> > >
> > > Carolyn Kunin
> >
>
> Very funny that you should mention that. I just graduated from Penn in
> May and James O'Donnell (as of this past July, Provost of Georgetown) was
> a wonderful mentor and friend with whom I am still in constant contact.
>
> I ask the question because I think that _Mary_ is more than an apprentice
> piece and believe that one of the clues to the novel lies in its
> coordination of different forms of imagination (fancy, memory, and
> "fore-fancy") and would like to know if the phrase "dispersion of the
> will" is leading us to Augustine's conception of the relationship between
> time and imagination as he articulates it in Book XI of the _Confessions_.
> "Distentio Animi" refers to the condition of being occupied with memories,
> sensory experiences and expectations at the same moment, as opposed to
> the ideal condition of directing our "undivided attention" (a particularly
> apt phrase in this context) toward God.
>
> In _Mary_, Ganin, while recuperating from typhus, imagines a girl whom he
> would like to meet (fancy) and is lucky enough to find one who fits his
> conception (and solipsistic enough to abandon her the moment she violates
> his aesthetic). In Germany, nine years later, he remembers his time with
> _Mary_ in vivid visual detail (another form of imagination). Where he,
> and Alfyorov, fail is in their inability to project forward and
> imagine a changed _Mary_
> after a number of years (fore-fancy). They both insist that "she must not
> have changed a bit."
>
> Could the phrase "dispersion of the will" be a translation of Augustine's
> "distentio animi" and a clue to pay closer attention to "memoria" and
> "expectatio" in _Mary_? I speak no Russian, and do not know which
> editions or translations of the _Confessions_ VN would have used, but hope
> that someone might be able to point me in the right direction.
>
> Best,
>
> hh
>
but, pending evidence to the contrary, implausible. It doesn't seem likely
that VN (from an Russian orthodox tradition and Cambridge education) would
have read Augustine. Even if so, it would more likely surfaced in his later
autobiography than in MARY. John Burt Foster's book on VN and European
Modernism finds the presence of Nietzsche which seems a better based
assumption although some have questioned this.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hanny Hindi" <hanny@ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>doesn't
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 10:26 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: more on St Augustine for HH
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (42
lines) ------------------
> > > St Augustine was the first saint to have a home page on the Internet.
It
> > is
> > > maintained by James O'Donnell, University of Pennsylvania. Do a search
for
> > > "Augustine of Hippo" and "Home Page" and it should come right up.
> > >
> > > Carolyn Kunin
> >
>
> Very funny that you should mention that. I just graduated from Penn in
> May and James O'Donnell (as of this past July, Provost of Georgetown) was
> a wonderful mentor and friend with whom I am still in constant contact.
>
> I ask the question because I think that _Mary_ is more than an apprentice
> piece and believe that one of the clues to the novel lies in its
> coordination of different forms of imagination (fancy, memory, and
> "fore-fancy") and would like to know if the phrase "dispersion of the
> will" is leading us to Augustine's conception of the relationship between
> time and imagination as he articulates it in Book XI of the _Confessions_.
> "Distentio Animi" refers to the condition of being occupied with memories,
> sensory experiences and expectations at the same moment, as opposed to
> the ideal condition of directing our "undivided attention" (a particularly
> apt phrase in this context) toward God.
>
> In _Mary_, Ganin, while recuperating from typhus, imagines a girl whom he
> would like to meet (fancy) and is lucky enough to find one who fits his
> conception (and solipsistic enough to abandon her the moment she violates
> his aesthetic). In Germany, nine years later, he remembers his time with
> _Mary_ in vivid visual detail (another form of imagination). Where he,
> and Alfyorov, fail is in their inability to project forward and
> imagine a changed _Mary_
> after a number of years (fore-fancy). They both insist that "she must not
> have changed a bit."
>
> Could the phrase "dispersion of the will" be a translation of Augustine's
> "distentio animi" and a clue to pay closer attention to "memoria" and
> "expectatio" in _Mary_? I speak no Russian, and do not know which
> editions or translations of the _Confessions_ VN would have used, but hope
> that someone might be able to point me in the right direction.
>
> Best,
>
> hh
>