Dear Don and all,

Matt Evans, a new Nabokov fan, sent me a couple of questions about TT. As one of them might interest some of you (the other apparently not--it is about the Japanese TT notes published with our Japanese translation), with his permission, I am forwarding it followed by my answer for the moment.

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My next question has to do with VN's treatment of TT's "fictional
ontology." What I mean by this is, if Mr. R. is the narrator, and Hugh is dead, how
did the fictional manuscript get into the reader's hands? For instance,
Lolita's "fictional ontology" would have the fictional manuscript originate with
HH, and then go to J.R., J.r. with the instruction that it be posthumously
published; the Pale Fire manuscript would originate with John Shade (at
least the poem), enter thereafter into Kinbote's possession, and go from
him to the publisher; the RSLK manuscript is written by V; and I wanted here
to write "et cetera" but I couldn't, since I haven't read the remaining
novels in VN's oeuvre. So my question is, first, do all of VN's fictions follow
this solid "fictional ontology" pattern in that each novel's fictional
manuscript has, what I for lack of a better term call, a procuring cause
(a chain of events set in motion that culminate in a publishable manuscript)?

If yes, then could the mortal agent of TT's fictional manuscript be Julia
Moore? (Transcribing her dead, pedophile step-father's thoughts? I'm
reaching here.) DN $B!G (Bs introduction to the Italian translation of TT hints that Mr. R. and Julia Moore are characters to be given especial attention.

Answering your second question: I found it very interesting. It is also interesting that you have read VN's novels in which "fictional ontology" or authorship or editorship is really important. In some of the rest like Mary, KQK, The Defense, Glory, Laughter in the Dark, The Enchanter, the theme does not seem to exist. In the others such as The Eye, Despair, Invitation to a Beheading, The Gift, Bend Sinister, Pnin, TT, LATH, we could meet with the theme of writing in various ways, but strictly speaking, there is no fictional ontology pattern as in RLSK, Lolita, PF, and Ada. I had not thought TT as a publishable manuscript. For me, the work feels being actually narrated rather than written, and "Who is/are narrating here?" is always crucial (I have solved the riddle only very partially, and I wonder if we could solve it perfectly). On the other hand, we often find metaphors related with writing, editing, proofreading, printing and books. In the end, HP is described to be dying in/into a burning book, and it must be the one he has been living and editing, and we have been reading. Perhaps there could be another story I had not imagined of the book.