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Re: another invisible gorilla
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Re: [NABOKV-L] another invisible gorillaStan Kelly Bootle:[to Gary] "...agreed in general on how often we can overlook evidence 'right before us,' but may I query, in context, your phrase 'ignore significant matter.' The amazing (but rather artificial) Invisible Gorilla experiment works precisely because the viewers are intensely focused on other matters (counting basket-ball passes) The popular idiom, The Elephant in the Room, is somewhat other! Here we have an unarguably visible object that for diverse reasons we prefer not to acknowledge. Until, that is, someone forces a reaction. Topics such as Malcolm X's murder...and VN's sources for Lolita spring to mind.Your general warning remains valid...We all tend to find what we are looking for: the unconscious cherry-picking of evidence that supports our hypotheses. From the enormous number (literally unlimited!) of potential anagrams lurking in Nabokov's texts, we pounce on those that favour our interpretations, and reject counter-examples."
JM: Your Invisible Gorilla addition reminded me of a response to the announcement that two million Argentinian soccer fans, and a dentist, would be wiped out of the planet during the 2010 World Cup Soccer championship ("Why the dentist?") used to demonstrate that only the dentist was "a significant matter."
What do you mean: "VN's sources for Lolita?" The Maar hypothesis, as if there were no foreplays in "The Gift," and as if the outline of plot and a name were sufficient clues to garantee a link to VN's "Lolita"?
Would the search for any kind of consistency, loyalty or pattern represent also a "cherry-picking of evidence"?
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JM: Your Invisible Gorilla addition reminded me of a response to the announcement that two million Argentinian soccer fans, and a dentist, would be wiped out of the planet during the 2010 World Cup Soccer championship ("Why the dentist?") used to demonstrate that only the dentist was "a significant matter."
What do you mean: "VN's sources for Lolita?" The Maar hypothesis, as if there were no foreplays in "The Gift," and as if the outline of plot and a name were sufficient clues to garantee a link to VN's "Lolita"?
Would the search for any kind of consistency, loyalty or pattern represent also a "cherry-picking of evidence"?
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/