Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004226, Fri, 25 Jun 1999 08:17:50 -0700

Subject
Van and Marcel (fwd)
Date
Body

>It is interesting that the fact that Proust is made
>the enemy to be revised and to a degree reviled in the first chapter of
>Ada...

I too find the mention of Proust (who brought on "...a roll-wave of surfeit
and and a rasp of gravelly heartburn...") interesting. It seems to be a
common experience among too casual readers of Nabokov that they give up
early on because they identify the author with the creepoid narrator. If
one thinks Ada is written by Van Veen --as opposed to Vladimir
Vladimirovich-- or Lolita by Humbert Humbert, the books become revolting.

I'm in volume 5 of In Search of Lost Time, and I keep waiting for the
author to show, as Nabokov invariably does, some self-consciousness that
will distinguish him from the beastly narrator, whose idea of love is a
political relationship in which the beloved is treated merely as a means to
his own ends; who is seduced by the charms of aristocracy and dehumnanized
by its values even as he is revolted by the poshlust of its members; and
who has nothing better to do with his Time than spend it among people he
loathes, or whom, if he "loves" them, he treats like dirt.

>a real artist and
>lover a la Proust, instead of the lover and artist manque Humbert

Unless in the last 1200 pages or so the author separates himself from the
narrator to whom he gives his own name, taking care to point this out to
the reader, or unless I missed something, there's no disjunction here.
Proust is indeed an artist. He writes --or his translator writes--
beautifully. But is the novel edifying? Humbert Humbert had a wicked way
with words too.

If I am misreading Proust, somebody please straighten me out.