Nabokovilia: Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot
"Bellovian," Leonard said. "It's extra nice when they change the spelling slightly. Nabokovian already has the v. So does Chekhovian. The Russians have it made. Tolstoyan! That guy was an adjective waiting to happen." (p. 57)Possible second bit of Nabokovilia (the gesticulating trees echo Signs and Symbols -- relevant passage below the fold):
A three-thirty, instead of showing up for J.V. football practice, Leonard went straight home. A sense of impending doom, of universal malevolence, pursued him the entire way. Tree limbs gesticulated menacingly in his peripheral vision. Telephone lines sagged like pythons between the poles. When he looked up at the sky, however, he was surprised to find that it was cloudless. No storm. Clear weather, the sun pouring down. He decided that there was something wrong with his eyes. (p. 258)
From Nabokov's Signs and Symbols:
...The patient imagines that everything happening around him is a veiled reference to his personality and existence. He excludes real people from the conspiracy, because he considers himself to be so much more intelligent than other men. Phenomenal nature shadows him wherever he goes. Clouds in the staring sky transmit to each other, by means of slow signs, incredibly detailed information regarding him. His in- most thoughts are discussed at nightfall, in manual alphabet, by darkly gesticulating trees.
Nabokovilia: Maira Kalman's The Principles of Uncertainty
From Maira Kalman's The Principles of Uncertainty:
 | |
| "Nabokov's Family fled Russia. How could the young Nabokov, sitting innocently and elegantly in a red chair, leafing through a book on butterflies imagine such displacement. Such loss." (p. 7) |
Lorrie Moore does "Signs & Symbols"!
For those unfamiliar with "Signs & Symbols": Moore's title is a reference to the protagonist's condition, "referential mania," a where "the patient imagines that everything happening around him is a veiled reference to his personality and existence. He excludes real people from the conspiracy, because he considers himself to be so much more intelligent than other men. Phenomenal nature shadows him wherever he goes. Clouds in the staring sky transmit to each other, by means of slow signs, incredibly detailed information regarding him. His in- most thoughts are discussed at nightfall, in manual alphabet, by darkly gesticulating trees."
Moore's opening shadows Nabokov's as well: "For the fourth time in as many years, they were confronted with the problem of what birthday present to take to a young man who was incurably deranged in his mind. Desires he had none. Man-made objects were to him either hives of evil, vibrant with a malignant activity that he alone could perceive, or gross comforts for which no use could be found in his abstract world. After eliminating a number of articles that might offend him or frighten him (anything in the gadget line, for instance, was taboo), his parents chose a dainty and innocent trifle—a basket with ten different fruit jellies in ten little jars."
The full text of Nabokov's version is a available here. See/hear Mary Gaitskill talking about her love of the novel and reading the whole thing, also in the New Yorker.
(Via the Nabokv-L Listserv.)
Mystery bag!
Internets, we bought this bag in San Francisco's Chinatown for like 99 cents and it's been one of my favorite carry-alls since:
I've been carrying it around for a while, and it's taken a beating, and I'd very much love to find another one. Any clue as to what it's called or who sells them or anything?
I'm not alone in liking these! Delphine carries it all through her various ruined vacations in Eric Rohmer's terrific The Green Ray, which is apparently streaming until someone puts a stop to it. Here is proof:
I'm not alone in liking these! Delphine carries it all through her various ruined vacations in Eric Rohmer's terrific The Green Ray, which is apparently streaming until someone puts a stop to it. Here is proof:
Too Many Blue Shoes!
I own too many blue shoes! Also: you can never own too many blue shoes. But I am stopping at five pairs.
News: The French Vladimir Nabokov society
This website was created by the members of the French Vladimir Nabokov Society which gathers scholars, artists, translators, writers, and Nabokov enthusiasts.
Along with a presentation of the society and of its members, it includes a biography of Vladimir Nabokov, an extensive bibliography of French criticism on Vladimir Nabokov, a series of links to websites dedicated to Nabokov studies, to his works and his passions such as entomology.
The website also announces its first international conference focusing on the various aspects of Vladimir Nabokov’s relationship with France. This conference will be held in Paris from 30th May to 1st June 2013.The Chercheurs Enchantés join the International Vladimir Nabokov Society as well as the Nabokov Society of Japan as part of a now well established, and very exciting, group of like-minded scholars exploring all things Nabokov.
http://www.vladimir-nabokov.org/manifestation-vladimir- nabokov-et-la-france-en
Someone pinned a shirt to me & covered up my shame!
Dmitri Nabokov, 1934-2012
 |
| Photo from this obituary. |
- I Will Sing When You're All Dead
- Terry Myers on watching Dmitri with Dmitri
- Panayoti Kelaidis on not meeting Dmitri
- See also the threads under the subject line "Dmitri," "Dmitri Nabokov," "DVN 1934-2012," and "Farewell Dmitri" in the 2012 February archives of the Nabokv-L Listserv.
- The New York Times obituary for Dmitri Nabokov.
- Essential reading: Brian Boyd's touching recollection of Dmitri's life and legacy.
Sarah made me this awesome 3d card for our belated valentine's day.
Convergences: Hyatt Place keycard totally looks like a Damien Hirst dot painting.
 |
| Damien Hirst |
 |
| Hyatt Place keycard |
Roadside Oddities: Novels of the 50s (ENGL347) Whitman College Spring 2012
Hi! Here's the material you'll need for Roadside Oddities: Novels of the 50s (ENGL347) Whitman College Spring 2012:
Introduction to Creative Writing (ENGL 150-B), Whitman College, Spring 2012
Here's the material you'll need for Introduction to Creative Writing, ENGL 150-B, Whitman College, Spring 2012!
- The syllabus
- Our calendar of readings, events, and due dates
- Writing Exercises
- Formal constraints for story due on 2/9/12
- Formal constraints for story due on 2/23/12
- Formal constraints for story due on 3/8/12
- Formal constraints for revision due on Thursday 4/12/12
- Portfolio Requirements
- Supplementary Stories, Poems, and Essays Worth Your While
VN Sighting in J. Winterson Memoir
I had two English teachers. The main one was a sexy wildman who eventually married one of our classmates when she managed to turn eighteen. He said that Nabokov was truly great and that one day I would understand that. "He hates women," I said, not realizing that this was the beginning of my feminism.
"He hates what women become," said the wildman. "That's different. He loves women until they become what they become."
And then we had an argument about Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch, and the revolting Rosamund, whom all the men prefer, presumably because she hasn't become what women become...
The argument led nowhere and I went trampolining with a couple of girls who weren't worried about Dorothea Brooke or Lolita. They just liked trampolining. (122-3)
A Fine, Fine Fall Day for Grafftti Removal
Kermit & Kinbote
It's always delightful to see Nabokov referenced. It is particularly delightful to see him referenced in a review of the new Muppets movie:
When Gary brings his ultra-perky girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams), on a trip to Los Angeles, Walter tags along too, in great anticipation of visiting the Muppets' studio and meeting, in Vladimir Nabokov's phrase, "beings akin to him."
Limits are Possibilities
Always remember: Limits are possibilities. That sounds like Orwell, I know. It’s not – it’s Patton. Formal restrictions, contrary to what you might think, free you up by allowing you to concentrate on purer ideas. As graphic designers you want the world as your palette. But beware: You can be crippled by too many choices, especially if you don’t know what your goals are.So it's a thing I do for myself: set arbitrary rules, some rational, some less so, in whatever I write. It helps beyond the telling.
And so then it's no surprise that it's also a thing I love doing to my students: giving them assignment sheets with insane strictures, which they at first blanch at and then wholly embrace when they find themselves so pleased with the end results. This is the sheet I assigned near the beginning of the semester. And this is the one they just got for their final story. I am very much looking forward to the results.
Also! It's nice to see one's hunches and personal experience confirmed by science. And by Russell Smith, who also, I'm pleased to note, also asks that students produce more material than is seemingly reasonable to ask. But again: it's worth doing because it works.
Nabokovilia: Martin Amis (The Information and London Fields)
Little by little, bit by bit, I'll be reintroducing bits of Nabokovilia from the old site. Here is the first (additional bits of Martin Amis Nabokovilia available here.)
From The Information:
Even when he was in familiar company (his immediate family, for instance) it sometimes seemed to Richard that those gathered in the room were not quite authentic selves -- that they had gone away and then come back not quite right, half remade or reborn by some blasphemous, backhanded, and above all inexpensive process. In a circus, in a funhouse. All flaky and carny. Not quite themselves. Himself very much included.
He said, 'Is this without interest? Nabokov said he was frankly homosexual in his literary tastes. I don't think men and women write and read in exactly the same way. They go at it differently.'
Even when he was in familiar company (his immediate family, for instance) it sometimes seemed to Richard that those gathered in the room were not quite authentic selves -- that they had gone away and then come back not quite right, half remade or reborn by some blasphemous, backhanded, and above all inexpensive process. In a circus, in a funhouse. All flaky and carny. Not quite themselves. Himself very much included.
He said, 'Is this without interest? Nabokov said he was frankly homosexual in his literary tastes. I don't think men and women write and read in exactly the same way. They go at it differently.'
'And I suppose,' she said, 'that there are racial differences too?'
He didn't answer. For a moment Richard looked worryingly short-necked. He was in fact coping with a digestive matter, or at least he was sitting tight until the digestive matter resolved itself one way or the other.
'Nabokov,' suggested Balfour.
'Yeah but that was just a book of love poems. When he was a schoolboy.'
'Nevertheless. Philip Larkin. And of course James Joyce.'
From London Fields:
*
'But that was... Wasn't that just a maneuver? To avoid a homosexuality scandal," said Richard carefully. 'Advice from Gide. Before Proust went to Gallimard.''Nabokov,' suggested Balfour.
'Yeah but that was just a book of love poems. When he was a schoolboy.'
'Nevertheless. Philip Larkin. And of course James Joyce.'
*
Richard had hated all the poets and novelists too, but the playwrights, the playwrights... With Nabokov, and others, Richard regarded the drama as a primitive and long-exhausted form. The drama boasted Shakespeare (which was an excellent cosmic joke), and Chekhov, and a couple of sepulchral Scandinavians. Then where were you?From London Fields:
When she arranged this meeting with Guy, over the telephone, Nicola stressed the need for commando or bank-caper synchrony ('Unpunctuality throws me utterly. It's tiresome, I know. The orphanage, perhaps...'); but this didn't stop her keeping him waiting for a good fifteen minutes ('Please, sit down!' she called from the bedroom. 'I do apologize'). She needed fifteen minutes. One to envelope her bikini in a plain white cotton dress. Another to give the bedclothes a fantastic worrying. What was the delightful phrase in Lolita: the guilty dissaray of hotel linen suggesting and ex-convicts saturnalia with a couple of fat old whores? The rest of the time Nicola needed for make-up...
- Thanks to M.R. Miller for providing both the London Fields source and the quote itself.
- Martin Amis in Wikipedia
The Cat's in the Bag
