Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0008951, Fri, 21 Nov 2003 16:18:04 -0800

Subject
Fw: Fw: Casta Diva? ADA
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dane Gill" <pennyparkerpark@hotmail.com>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Casta Diva? ADA

> Carolyn Kunin
> I apprecaite what you are saying about Ada's difficulty - I've had my fair
> share of it. However, I must disagree with you. I'm not so sure we (as
> readers) are really suppose to "get" everything. The harder with try (ie
> Yolande Kickshaw) the more frustrating it becomes. I had already beat my
> head against the wall and read everything about Pale Fire before realizing
> I'm never going to understand it all. And so, I've not made the misstake
of
> giving up on Ada because the answer is not there in front of me. Without
> really being able to put it any other way, Ada is simply too beautiful a
> work of art to be given up on. Like Barton mentions, the reading and
> re-reading far (and I mean far) exceeds the frustration. Besides for every
> question you ask yourself, there is more than likely an answer to it
> somewhere on this list. With the exception of a few comments, almost all
of
> my posts (about Ada or otherwise) have been questions and almost all of
them
> have been answered. There is no excuse for quitting Nabokov when you have
> access to the greatest Nabokovians in the world right at your finger tips.
> Dane Gill
>
> >From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> >Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> >Subject: Fw: Casta Diva? ADA
> >Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 11:21:55 -0800
> >
> >Casta Diva?
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Carolyn Kunin
> >To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> >Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 10:28 AM
> >Subject: Casta Diva?
> >
> >
> >Dear Mr. Gill,
> >
> >Is Ada over the top is a very good question. After wrestling with it for
a
> >year, I have pretty much concluded that it is. There may be a there
there,
> >but it seems to me that if one can't find it after trying for a year, the
> >problem may not be in the reader but in the read. Ada, in other words,
> >seems to me to be out of all proportion (i.e., is "over the top"). My
god,
> >one could learn calculus in the time it takes to not understand Ada! If
> >there is an answer, will it be worth the effort?
> >
> >Some of Ada's images and questions will probably haunt me until someone
> >discovers what it is that is going on in this anti-novel, but I have
> >concluded that actively pursuing Ada is a losing game and I'm taking my
> >marbles and going home.
> >
> >Carolyn
> >---------------------------
> >EDNOTE. ADA can indeed be discouraging in detail but the general
outlines
> >are now reasonably clear thanks to a generation of scholarship.
> >For me, the pleasures of reading. rereading, and researching far
outweigh
> >the not infrequent frustrations.
>
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