Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0013627, Sun, 15 Oct 2006 23:47:02 -0300

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Re: DN on anamorphism
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Dear Dmitri,

Thank you for sending us this beautiful text that begins with a suggestion of "anamorphosis" then goes on to "anamorphism" in a smooth, non genealogical transition:
"the duration of a species, its sitting as a model, its presence before nature's mirror..." into "to say that, over the centuries, one species evolves into another... is to disrupt, to the same degree, the basic idea of species...until we admit it was not species that evolved in nature, but the very concept of species..."

The paragraphs you mailed seem to allude to an evolutionary balance that shall be achieved, one day, between our perceiving mind and the ever developing world. I only wish it were possible for me to be somehow alive to share this amazing revelation.

It is curious that the book which led me to think about anamorphosis ( and that bears no relation to it, or so I thought) is constituted by a series of drawings that represent nature in Atlantis - where mythical crawling roots turn into snakes and hydrangea blossoms into butterflies. Nevertheless, your verbal description and testimony bears only a very superficial semblance to the imaginary game played by the artist.
Jansy

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