Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0022836, Tue, 15 May 2012 22:02:04 -0400

Subject
THOUGHTS: thinking in images; theology
From
Date
Body
In response to Carolyn Kunin,

My name is Ingibjorg Bjornsdottir, and I just completed a MA thesis and
received a MA degree in translation studies.
I wrote about Vladimir Nabokov and his translation of Eugene Onegin into
English. My thesis is in English, Icelandic
and Russian, and I know all these languages. I was especially intrigued
with Nabokov´s great commentary to his translation of Eugene Onegin, and
I consider his comments in fact to be the main work, and the text of
Eugene Onegin itself, as secondary work and to be understood only with
reference to the paratext i.e. to the commentary.

It is impossible to know after someone passes away whether that person
had autistic traits or not. Thus we will
never know for certain whether Vladimir Nabokov had some mild autistic
traits. Thinking in images is a clue,
but does not answer the question. I myself am a Nabokov fan, and I have
Aspergers syndrome. I thus am autistic
myself, and I do consider that autism can in some cases lead to
excellence. Fitzgerald, a professor and autism specialist at Trinity
College in Dublin considers that many great thinkers and scientists had
autistic traits, you might wonder about Isaac Newton, Mozart and
Beethoven, but there will never be any proof, never any real evidence.

Thus this remains entirely speculative, and unproven, and will never be
proven, and I think that we should
allow Vladimir Nabokov to enjoy the benefits of the doubt. He was
brilliant, he had an unusual mind, but we will
never know more as we cannot speak to him today.

With lots of fond wishes and thanks for this forum.

Ingibjorg Elsa Bjornsdottir, M.Sc. and M.A.
Translator and writer
Erlurimi 8
800 Selfoss
Iceland.

Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en

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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com

Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/








Attachment