Subject
Re: [NABOKOV-L] [Sighting] Gonçalo M. Tavares "Bib lioteca"
From
Date
Body
Jansy: you have (in my book!) earned Tavares a wider English audience. How
can we encourage more translations? We have met, and giggled over, similar
author-caricatures: clerihews for the clerisy? Haiku for the highbrow? But
fantasy-sketches offer a broader canvas for creative mockery.
The better snide jokes always embed some element of reality¹ (whatever
that means). However, readers must never fall for the various dubious Proof
Methods in the endless search for Truth (repeat the whatever warning).
Popperian-Nabokovians (like BB, SHB and me) know that Deduction beats
Induction; Induction beats Proof by Assertion, Proof by Epigram, Proof by
Sarcasm, ... We do allow, under duress, VN¹s Proof by Strong, Superior
Authority (see Tavares) and even, for an occasional laugh, VN¹s Proof by
Spoonerism/Anagram.
Fun to guess (or can we deduce, induct?) who the three men are meant to be
in Tavares¹ tale. With Pale Fire never far from my mind, I wondered if they
are Shade/Kinbote-Botkin/King Charles, having somehow escaped Nabokov¹s
authorial control, are disputing their own identities. In comes the creator
to end the meta-meta-fictional nonsense?
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 06/12/2010 15:19, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> The cover of "Biblioteca" ("Library"), dated 2004 and published in Brazil
> only in 2009, informs that the young Portuguese writer Gonçalo M. Tavares has
> had his works translated and distributed in Spain, India, Italy, Sweden,
> Hungary, Holland, Belgium, Brazil and Portugal.
> I found no indication that his books were translated into English.
>
> In "Biblioteca," the list of authors whose work inspired him to create a short
> fantasy-sketch runs to over two-hundred names. Most of them appear in the
> alphabetical index, under their first name, such as J.D.Salinger, Jean Genet,
> James Joyce, Hart Crane, Robert Browning, Harold Bloom.
> Others, as Apuleio, Aristóteles, Empédocles, Euripedes, Dostoievsky and
> Nabokov, are just that - singles.
> Here is what he constructed about Nabokov:
>
> "A tall animal with a dictionary in his pocket entered a room where three men
> have been engrossed, for seven hours, in a debate about who was the first, the
> second and the third man at the table.
> A tall animal, with a profile that is incompatible with the multitude, menaces
> to open his mouth with the same intensity as the threat of wielding a weapon
> promotes. Nevertheless he only carries his tallness and a dictionary. And the
> way by which he made his entrance into the room. However, the three men were
> too weak and the man was so strong."
> (my translation).
> //schnip
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/
can we encourage more translations? We have met, and giggled over, similar
author-caricatures: clerihews for the clerisy? Haiku for the highbrow? But
fantasy-sketches offer a broader canvas for creative mockery.
The better snide jokes always embed some element of reality¹ (whatever
that means). However, readers must never fall for the various dubious Proof
Methods in the endless search for Truth (repeat the whatever warning).
Popperian-Nabokovians (like BB, SHB and me) know that Deduction beats
Induction; Induction beats Proof by Assertion, Proof by Epigram, Proof by
Sarcasm, ... We do allow, under duress, VN¹s Proof by Strong, Superior
Authority (see Tavares) and even, for an occasional laugh, VN¹s Proof by
Spoonerism/Anagram.
Fun to guess (or can we deduce, induct?) who the three men are meant to be
in Tavares¹ tale. With Pale Fire never far from my mind, I wondered if they
are Shade/Kinbote-Botkin/King Charles, having somehow escaped Nabokov¹s
authorial control, are disputing their own identities. In comes the creator
to end the meta-meta-fictional nonsense?
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 06/12/2010 15:19, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> The cover of "Biblioteca" ("Library"), dated 2004 and published in Brazil
> only in 2009, informs that the young Portuguese writer Gonçalo M. Tavares has
> had his works translated and distributed in Spain, India, Italy, Sweden,
> Hungary, Holland, Belgium, Brazil and Portugal.
> I found no indication that his books were translated into English.
>
> In "Biblioteca," the list of authors whose work inspired him to create a short
> fantasy-sketch runs to over two-hundred names. Most of them appear in the
> alphabetical index, under their first name, such as J.D.Salinger, Jean Genet,
> James Joyce, Hart Crane, Robert Browning, Harold Bloom.
> Others, as Apuleio, Aristóteles, Empédocles, Euripedes, Dostoievsky and
> Nabokov, are just that - singles.
> Here is what he constructed about Nabokov:
>
> "A tall animal with a dictionary in his pocket entered a room where three men
> have been engrossed, for seven hours, in a debate about who was the first, the
> second and the third man at the table.
> A tall animal, with a profile that is incompatible with the multitude, menaces
> to open his mouth with the same intensity as the threat of wielding a weapon
> promotes. Nevertheless he only carries his tallness and a dictionary. And the
> way by which he made his entrance into the room. However, the three men were
> too weak and the man was so strong."
> (my translation).
> //schnip
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/