Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001319, Tue, 17 Sep 1996 14:28:39 -0700

Subject
Nabokov & Jung
Date
Body
1) I notice that VN did refer to Jung at least once in print.

Nor did Victor's causual sketches represent the so-called mandala--a term
supposedly meaning (in Sanskrit) a magic ring, and applied by Dr. Jung
and others toany doodle in the shape of a more or less fourfold
structuree. such as a halved mangosteen, or a cross, ot the wheel on
which egos are broken like Morphos, orexactly, the molecule of carbon,
with its four valences--that main chemical component of the brain,
automatically magnified and reflected on paper." PNIN (92)


2. On an odder note: Today's paper reported the death of McGeorge
Bundy, one of Kennedy's "best and brightest." Kennedy had hired Bundy
away from his job as arts Dean at Harvard where in 1957 Bundy had approved a
proposal to hire Nabokov--a scheme shot down by Roman Jakobson's famous
quip: "Gentlemen, even if one allows that he [VN] is an important writer,
are we next to invite an elephant to be Professor of Zoology"? The
details of the Nabokov-Jakobson feud are recounted in Galya Diment's
forthcoming book on VN & Marc Szeftel.


D. Barton Johnson
Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
Phelps Hall
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
Home Phone: (805) 682-4618