Subject
NATASHA: Bed springs and the delights of imagination
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Date
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Natasha sleeps on a couch "with amazing springs" whereas her father sleeps
and dies on a bed, the springs of which are not mentioned.
laurence hochard
***
"Wolfe, RELISHING his story, smiled..."
"...I had the impression that it had really happened..."
"That's just it," Wolfe said, BEAMING.
"Tell me some more about your travels,"Natasha asked, INTENDING NO SARCASM.
This passage shows that neither of them dismisses the other's fantasies or
visions; on the contrary, this same shared taste for the products of
imagination (in other words: poetry)is what seals their love.
Another passage shows, I think, that the author intends no sarcasm either:
it's when Wolfe says:"I had a friend who served for three years in Bombay.
[...]That friend of mine was INCAPABLE OF COMMUNICATING anything,
remembered nothing except work-related squabbles, the heat, the fevers, and
the wife of some British colonel. Which of us really visited India?... It's
obvious- of course, I'm the one."
Work-related squabbles...etc... all the things that on a Nabokovian scale
of values have no substance. This is why I don't think the characters of
this story can be seen as pathetic liars; on the contrary, although their
life happens to take place in terrible historical circumstances, they are
able to outlive them nearly untouched.
Laurence Hochard
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and dies on a bed, the springs of which are not mentioned.
laurence hochard
***
"Wolfe, RELISHING his story, smiled..."
"...I had the impression that it had really happened..."
"That's just it," Wolfe said, BEAMING.
"Tell me some more about your travels,"Natasha asked, INTENDING NO SARCASM.
This passage shows that neither of them dismisses the other's fantasies or
visions; on the contrary, this same shared taste for the products of
imagination (in other words: poetry)is what seals their love.
Another passage shows, I think, that the author intends no sarcasm either:
it's when Wolfe says:"I had a friend who served for three years in Bombay.
[...]That friend of mine was INCAPABLE OF COMMUNICATING anything,
remembered nothing except work-related squabbles, the heat, the fevers, and
the wife of some British colonel. Which of us really visited India?... It's
obvious- of course, I'm the one."
Work-related squabbles...etc... all the things that on a Nabokovian scale
of values have no substance. This is why I don't think the characters of
this story can be seen as pathetic liars; on the contrary, although their
life happens to take place in terrible historical circumstances, they are
able to outlive them nearly untouched.
Laurence Hochard
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/