Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0007740, Fri, 11 Apr 2003 11:35:15 -0700

Subject
Fw: : Parenthetical Images
Date
Body
EDNOTE. Jansy Mello's posting calls attention to another aspect of VN and
typographical marks--a most fundamental one. Blank space is the defining
background to all written art forms. Consider, for example that the
"privileged" use of blank space is a defining characteristic of poetry (vs.
prose).

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello" <jansy@aetern.us>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (39
lines) ------------------

> I haven´t yet managed to get as far as I intended in Dureau´s book on
> _Nabokov et Le Sourire du Chat_, but while I was reading about VN´s use
of
> parenthesis in the Nabokv-L I was reminded of Dureau´s developments
> concerning VN´s use of blank spaces, sometimes as a form of "ellipsis" but
> mainly to create an "ineffable" dimension into which the reader could
> project himself and add a very personal interpretation that mainly
reflected
> him back and not VN...

>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > .
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (15
> > lines) ------------------
> > > Does anyone know of any writer before VN who used parentheses so
> > artfully?
> > > -------------------------------------------
> > > from vmylnikov@yahoo.com
> > >
> > > Cummings was cunning on that, I think.
> >
> > EDNOTE. The august Oxford University Press has published a scholarly
tome
> > by John Lennard devoted to the use of parentheses in the poetry of
> Marvell,
> > Coleridge, and Eliot (with side glances at other worthies, including
Elvis
> > Costello). Lennard entitles his 1991 study But I Digress: the
Exploitation
> > of Parentheses in English Printed Verse.
> >
>