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Re: VN and Freud--reply to Aisenberg and Mello
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James Twiggs: Before I respond to Jansy, I wish to recommend her essay “Time Before and Time After in Nabokov’s Novels,” which, when I sent my message, I had not yet read:
http://www.aetern.us/article122.html. Although I disagree with some of her key assertions, it is still a fine essay... I assume that JM is here talking about the effect on the reader, not on Shade or VN.
JM: I'm delighted that Jim Twiggs braves my difficulties with the English language and even encourages others to read one or two articles I wrote in the past. The one he's just indicated was published in The Nabokovian, n55 ( Fall 2005). However, when he assumes that I was talking about an increase in self-awareness as what must be happening with the reader, not with Shade, I realize that, once again, I expressed myself badly. I had in mind the adventures of Perceval, his failure to ask the right questions, his need to repeat his trajectory to be able to perceive people around him, grieve for his mother and learn to be curious about the world ( as in Le Morte d'Arthur). I imagined Shade in a similar cross-country quest to elaborate his various mournings and fear of dying.
J.T quotes: "JM: . . . to get to its "contexture" one needs to establish what it is that Shade means. However, it's exactly "meaning" that which, for him, will have to be abandoned to reach "texture," thereby moving beyond a textual meaning" and his answer: " I take it that dropping either “that” or “which” in the second sentence yields Jansy’s intended meaning. If so, she has touched on one of the most vexing problems in understanding VN (and, in this case, Shade). This is the question of how to speak about something that by definition lies outside language..." Thanks again for your correction ( I should use either 'that" or "which" to make myself clear). Just a quick comment now: I don't doubt that Nabokov tries to "escape" into a godlike perspective for his "metafiction," but "metalanguage" is another question I had in mind Lacan's redefinition of the word "signifier" as that which (oops!) lies beyond meaning, i.e., "texture" as "significance.".
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http://www.aetern.us/article122.html. Although I disagree with some of her key assertions, it is still a fine essay... I assume that JM is here talking about the effect on the reader, not on Shade or VN.
JM: I'm delighted that Jim Twiggs braves my difficulties with the English language and even encourages others to read one or two articles I wrote in the past. The one he's just indicated was published in The Nabokovian, n55 ( Fall 2005). However, when he assumes that I was talking about an increase in self-awareness as what must be happening with the reader, not with Shade, I realize that, once again, I expressed myself badly. I had in mind the adventures of Perceval, his failure to ask the right questions, his need to repeat his trajectory to be able to perceive people around him, grieve for his mother and learn to be curious about the world ( as in Le Morte d'Arthur). I imagined Shade in a similar cross-country quest to elaborate his various mournings and fear of dying.
J.T quotes: "JM: . . . to get to its "contexture" one needs to establish what it is that Shade means. However, it's exactly "meaning" that which, for him, will have to be abandoned to reach "texture," thereby moving beyond a textual meaning" and his answer: " I take it that dropping either “that” or “which” in the second sentence yields Jansy’s intended meaning. If so, she has touched on one of the most vexing problems in understanding VN (and, in this case, Shade). This is the question of how to speak about something that by definition lies outside language..." Thanks again for your correction ( I should use either 'that" or "which" to make myself clear). Just a quick comment now: I don't doubt that Nabokov tries to "escape" into a godlike perspective for his "metafiction," but "metalanguage" is another question I had in mind Lacan's redefinition of the word "signifier" as that which (oops!) lies beyond meaning, i.e., "texture" as "significance.".
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/