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Re: [Fwd: not the dream]
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A former exchange (Sat.29 Jan, 2011) with comments and a belated "sighting":
Gary Lipon: "I think this ("not the dream") simply refers to Shade's vision of the fountain, which had just been discredited by Coates."
JM: A very sensible observation. Sometimes even Nabokovian words may be simply simple, such as "dream."
JM: "No dream is ever just a dream" is one of the closing remarks we find in Stanley Kubrick's last film Eyes Wide Shut (1999), which was based on Schnitzler's 1926 novella Dream Story (Traumnovelle)*. In his discussion about Kubrick's movies Critic Randy Rasmussen (Cf. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_Wide_Shut ) interprets Ziegler (a character who is absent from Schnitzler's novel) as representing "Bill's worst self, much as in other Kubrick films; the title character in Dr. Strangelove represents the worst of the American national security establishment, Charles Grady represents the worst of Jack Torrance in The Shining, and Clare Quilty represents the worst of Humbert Humbert in Lolita," leaving no doubt that, in his eyes, Quilty and Humbert are one and the same.
After I happened onto a forum where Kubrick's movie was being discussed, I selected from it its lines about "a dream." Although I fully agree with Gary Lipon's observation that Shade's lines refer to his dream about the reality of a fountain [a shiny eruption that rises in after-life ( therefore, as a vision which he'd share with other people who went through a similar experience as his) and the implicit conclusion that a typographic mix up (fountain/mountain) may, itself, be significant enough to reveal the presence of life's hidden patterns], I think that it's still worthwhile to interpret Shade's lines by taking into account not only his ideas, but also Nabokov's overall visions - including his denial of how dreams serve to reveal a person's (even a character's) inner turmoils. Nabokov's irony, lurking through Shade's equivocated belief that he'd be alive on the next day acquires thereby new ambiguity and depth**.
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* Sigmund Freud, in a letter to Schnitzler, confessed "I have gained the impression that you have learned through intuition - though actually as a result of sensitive introspection - everything that I have had to unearth by laborious work on other persons". In Arthur Schnitzler's "Dream Story", as in Stanley Kubrick & Frederic Raphael's screenplay reality and dream-life often intertwine. In the movie's last exchanges we find Alice saying to Bill that they must be "grateful that we've managed to survive through all of our adventures, whether they were real or only a dream." for she doubts that "the reality of one night,.let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth," while her husband adds: "And no dream is ever just a dream."
** "I'm reasonably sure that we survive/ And that my darling somewhere is alive,/ As I am reasonably sure that I/ Shall wake at six tomorrow, on July/ The twenty-second, nineteen fifty-nine,/ And that the day will probably be fine" (he cannot be reasonably sure about the weather, though...)
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Gary Lipon: "I think this ("not the dream") simply refers to Shade's vision of the fountain, which had just been discredited by Coates."
JM: A very sensible observation. Sometimes even Nabokovian words may be simply simple, such as "dream."
JM: "No dream is ever just a dream" is one of the closing remarks we find in Stanley Kubrick's last film Eyes Wide Shut (1999), which was based on Schnitzler's 1926 novella Dream Story (Traumnovelle)*. In his discussion about Kubrick's movies Critic Randy Rasmussen (Cf. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_Wide_Shut ) interprets Ziegler (a character who is absent from Schnitzler's novel) as representing "Bill's worst self, much as in other Kubrick films; the title character in Dr. Strangelove represents the worst of the American national security establishment, Charles Grady represents the worst of Jack Torrance in The Shining, and Clare Quilty represents the worst of Humbert Humbert in Lolita," leaving no doubt that, in his eyes, Quilty and Humbert are one and the same.
After I happened onto a forum where Kubrick's movie was being discussed, I selected from it its lines about "a dream." Although I fully agree with Gary Lipon's observation that Shade's lines refer to his dream about the reality of a fountain [a shiny eruption that rises in after-life ( therefore, as a vision which he'd share with other people who went through a similar experience as his) and the implicit conclusion that a typographic mix up (fountain/mountain) may, itself, be significant enough to reveal the presence of life's hidden patterns], I think that it's still worthwhile to interpret Shade's lines by taking into account not only his ideas, but also Nabokov's overall visions - including his denial of how dreams serve to reveal a person's (even a character's) inner turmoils. Nabokov's irony, lurking through Shade's equivocated belief that he'd be alive on the next day acquires thereby new ambiguity and depth**.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* Sigmund Freud, in a letter to Schnitzler, confessed "I have gained the impression that you have learned through intuition - though actually as a result of sensitive introspection - everything that I have had to unearth by laborious work on other persons". In Arthur Schnitzler's "Dream Story", as in Stanley Kubrick & Frederic Raphael's screenplay reality and dream-life often intertwine. In the movie's last exchanges we find Alice saying to Bill that they must be "grateful that we've managed to survive through all of our adventures, whether they were real or only a dream." for she doubts that "the reality of one night,.let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth," while her husband adds: "And no dream is ever just a dream."
** "I'm reasonably sure that we survive/ And that my darling somewhere is alive,/ As I am reasonably sure that I/ Shall wake at six tomorrow, on July/ The twenty-second, nineteen fifty-nine,/ And that the day will probably be fine" (he cannot be reasonably sure about the weather, though...)
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/