More Chess... and Italo Calvino

I can never be done. I mentioned that I should probably stop talking about Italo Calvino in a Vladamir Nabokov class. However, this may be one of the greatest discoveries I've made in the class-- Vladamir Nabokov had a HUGE impact on his contemporaries and followers, or, perhaps, a game did. Check out this passage from Invisible Cities about chess and see if it reminds you of anybody. It appears that like Nabokov, Calvino was very interested in chess and potentially used it to influence some of his writing-- at least as a theme. Maybe when this semester is over I will conduct some personal research to see just how related Calvino and Nabokov really are.

Paragraph on "Transparent Things"

Transparent Things. Well, I already did post an initial blog about this work, but I guess I can easily write another one, as there is a lot to write about! I will begin with the "like" question-- Did I like it?... Yes and no. It was hard for me to really get into this work. Perhaps it was the time I was reading it, it could possibly be that following one of the greatest works I've read, Pale Fire, and I think I was just hoping to read a work that presented itself more clearly. Certainly, Transparent Things DID NOT do that. However, discussing the work in class really made me feel more confident that perhaps I did understand what was going on more than I thought I did. A couple of major details did fly over my head but I hope we can get those tied down a little. Furthering the class discussion, our mention of how Hugh Person keeps returning to Switzerland, four times to be exact, and explores how memory works in the ways of recalling the past made me think of yet another Italo Calvino novel (I promise, I will eventually stop referencing Calvino) Invisible Cities. In this book, Marco Polo and Kubla Khan sit in the Khan's garden and the young Polo tells Kubla about all the cities in his empire. Many of the cities sound fantastical and soon, we learn that in fact Marco has been talking solely about Venice. Here is a small sample that, I think, isn't too far off from Nabokov... "As this wave of memories flows in the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all Zaira's past. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls." Now, if that doesn't sound somewhat like the groping for memory that Hugh Person must have (towards the end of his journey) I don't know what does!

Nabokov's Religious Views?...

Here is a link to some criticism of Nabokov focused on confronting his widely supposed lack of "religious views" by explicating on the ways Nabokov represents his views on immortality and notions of afterlife, through various devices and themes that he uses in his novels. Note specific references to Transparent Things.
Behind the Glass Pane: Vladimir Nabokov’s “Perfection” and Transcendence

Transparent Things-- The "Knot" of Structure

*A much easier knot to untangle than Transparent Things

I had a bit of a hard time with Transparent Things. In order to elucidate my minimal understanding of this novel more I went to the internet. Here is a excerpt I read from a website that offered some valuable insight and a mention of Brian Boyd--
"Transparent Things, a novella and National Book Award nominee, was published after first appearing in the December 1971 issue of Esquire. This deceptively slim chaser to Ada had taken Nabokov more than two years, off and on, to complete, and reviewers scarcely knew what to make of it. With a complex network of disembodied narrators, it was inspired in part by Nabokov's stays in thin-walled hotel rooms on his travels across America which allowed him access to the unseen worlds of his neighbors. Finished on April Fool's Day, 1971, it was not issued in book form until the end of the following year.

On publication day, he wrote in his diary that reviews "oscillat[ed] between hopeless adoration and helpless hatred. Very amusing." One such review called it "an unlovely and unlovable book that begins to touch the reader only the second time around. It is a masterpiece, of course." In an interview published in 1973, Nabokov stated: "Amongst the reviewers several careful readers have published some beautiful stuff about it. Yet neither they nor, of course, the common criticule discerned the structural knot of the story." He assisted by sketching its theme, "a beyond-the-cypress inquiry into a tangle of random destinies." Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd's analysis attempts to untie that "knot" with a more specific elucidation: "Within the small compass of Transparent Things and the bleak life of Hugh Person, Nabokov ruptures the relationship of reader, character, and author more radically than he has ever done, in order to explore some of his oldest themes: the nature of time; the mystery and privacy of the human soul, and its simultaneous need to breach its solitude; the scope of consciousness beyond death; the possibility of design in the universe."




This mention of a "knot" in the structure of the story makes me feel better (I felt like it was an impossible mess of wires, cords, and lines that had been tangles behind my back.) Thinking about a book that confuses the reader by blurring the line between reader/author/subject I am going to have to come back to Italo Calvino (as I love linking books I'm reading to books I've read). It seems to me, that much of what is going on in this novels structure was also being confronted by Calvino, especially in his work If on a winter's night a traveler. "Traveler" confronts the issues as it follows the story of You (second person) as you read the book If on a Winters Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino; to explain it more basically, you are reading a book about yourself reading the book you are reading (Think of holding a mirror up to a mirror and the tunnel of reflections that follows). Throughout the text much of the same barriers and textual complexities confront the reader. I would be curious if Nabokov or Calvino ever made mention of each others works? It would be interesting if these two contemporaries had made some conversations and the discussions of form and texture that would have ensued. These are very interesting questions indeed...

I "googled" Brian Boyd and Italo Calvino thinking that maybe the Nabokov scholar would make some mention of Calvino. Here is a paragraph from a useful essay by Brian Boyd-- The average shot length in Hollywood movies has been shrinking as viewers have learned to assimilate film faster and to cope with the information rush of the modern world. Nabokov has influenced writers from acclaimed oldsters (Italo Calvino, W. G. Sebald, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Orhan Pamuk) to feisty youngsters (Zadie Smith, Marisha Pessl) by introducing into fiction something akin to modern film’s reduction in shot length, its rapidity of changes of subject or perspective. I suspect that storytelling in general has speeded up our capacity to shift attention from one perspective to another. Homer generally moves from subject to subject slowly compared with modern storytelling, let alone Nabokov, but even Homer can swiftly shift level and focus when he suddenly backgrounds a warrior dying on the battlefield."

Very interesting more discussion about the form and pacing of the work and how Nabokov, as perhaps more of a influence on Calvino rather than his contemporary as I earlier asserted, is, according to Boyd, one of the authors most instrumental in bringing about this radical shift in structure. The mention of Calvino in this context no doubt refers to the structural intrigue of "Traveler"; the pattern of texture in "Traveler" may in fact be cut from the same cloth of Nabokov's work Transparent Things.

2nd Panel-- "Who Are You?"

First Presentation-- ZuZu Federer "The Living Museum Piece". ZuZu's creative non-fiction essay dealt with the story of a Pygmy from Africa's capture and display at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Listening to Otebenga's journey to America, and the terrible misreading of Darwin's theory of evolution by social-Darwinism (justifications for white supremacy arguments). Otebenga was placed in a cage with Orangutans on display for the general public. Some creationist Christian groups became angered by the move; not because of the entrapment of a human being, but for the juxtaposition of what they believed was a presentation of Otebenga as the "missing link". Eventually, after being freed, he lived in America for a while and eventually committed suicide. Zuzu's research was extremely well founded and presented in an interesting and accessible manner. This piece was a great balance between fact and feeling and really depicts the power of cnf to convey facts.

Second Presentation-- Poetry. The poetry she presented was very Western and it really dealt with issues that arise for the western rodeo woman; the poems were very autobiographical. My favorite line about drunken sexual relations in the West- "He said he thought he talked to me Wednesdy night and he asked if he was a gentleman".

Third Presentation-- Story about presenters father from the first person. Before the piece she acknowledged how this story is important for her to understanding of the story. For me, this is a very interesting move in confronting the classic "how is this writing about you" question. For the listener this move really sets up the reader as vulnerable and makes the story seem much more "real". This story ends up revolving around the characters conflict of faith with the Jehovah Witnesses. This is an interesting memoiresque piece that puts the author in the voice of her father. Q&A- Someone asked a really interesting question if she has shared the piece with her father. This brings up really interesting ethics questions about writing about others, especially in this potentially inflammatory context.

Fourth Presentation-- Twilight Chaos...

Readin' the Hell Out of It Conference/Festival Helena, MT First Session

10:30 a.m.-- First Panel, "The Kids Aren't Alright". Examination of various aspects of childrens lit. Mixture of Criticism & Fiction.

First Presentation-- Madeline Lesveque "Selected Short Fiction". Madeline's first story was a story about a young woman in the city, Seattle, experiencing and interacting with the cityscape. Her second story revolves around the Megan in Seattle talking to a woman with a southern accent about working in a hospital, Megan's job. The woman likens it to the popular t.v show "ER". It's really interesting hearing this juxtaposition of characters from the Pacific Northwest and the South. The interaction of characters really sets up a wide view of America. Third Story- Older people on a bench taking about the clash between their older views and contemporary society. Their pastor proposes that there will be violent backlash due to the rapid atomization of people through Ipods and such. "There ain't gonna be no music when someone's got a gun in your face." Q&A.

2nd Presentation-- MSU's own Taylor Moorman. "Skins of a Life" Erotic connections with animals in Children's Lit. Mention of stroking Lyra's daemon in His Dark Materials trilogy. "What is it about the beasts?" Why have they been relegated to Children's lit. and folklore? "Are these things for childrens or are they for all of us?" Children's lit. magnifies desires and anxieties. The Beast, from "Beauty and the Beast", embodies animal and human in one body. "Bringing the animal into the human realm to create one embodiment." Mention of Angela Carter. Personal ?-- Is Teen lit. the perfect forum for this discussion? In a nutshell, it seems that Taylor would like to open the discussion and availability of this erotic-animal theme in what is considered more adult literature.

3rd Presentation-- Emily Stueven (Panel Chair) "The Silly Little Boy". Story creating a character profile embodying Emily's future characters in her teaching pursuits, although, not set particularly in the classroom. James, a little boy, recounts experiences and awareness of death and he decides that he must no longer be a silly little boy. He also is called "the man of the house" by his Grandma after his father has to go to the hospital and eventually dies. The struggle between innocence and experience, immaturity and maturity, runs deep in this story. Also, story is coupled with maturation of knowledge from picture books to "chapter books". Reading becomes an escape and he becomes a reading addict... "21 books in a month". Concludes with an image of the child crushing a dead bug, which he used to cry over, and a mention of him being a big boy who reads chapter books. Story about kids growing up and kids growing up too soon. Very interesting perspective into the ways in which children develop a grasp of the world and learn to understand the ways to act-- and the story seems to even be a critique of that.

Caroll College "Readin' The Hell Out Of It" Lit. Conference

Hey all--

This thursday and friday I will be up in Helena, MT. at a literary festival/conference presenting a short story and attending various panels about a range of topics from Magical Realism, Children's Lit., Philosophies of Death and Literature, and even one about Vampires and Lit. (damn Twilight). Even though it is not specifically a Nabokov conference and I don't believe any pieces are being presented on Nabokov I feel that this is a worthy subject to include on this blog. The whole nature of conferences in general seems to be something that is right up the "discovery" alley of Nabokov himself... I wonder if Vlad enjoyed attending various conferences. (I can see him attending all sorts of things, lit. conferences, science conferences, home shows, movie reviews, baseball games, obscure museums, etc., embracing a breadth of knowledge and discovery as broad and diverse as Whitman's America.) I think that this will be a fantastic opportunity for me to make some discoveries (despite whether or not they are about Nabokov) and practice what Nabokov preaches about being a voracious learner. Perhaps I will make some certain discoveries that illuminate some perspectives about Nabokov that, until now, have been left in the dark. Hopefully I will be feeling that tingle of discovery in my spine and I will come away with a satisfied mind. I plan on posting some various interesting things/discoveries/thoughts/revelations/etc. from the conference

Updated Paper Topic-- "Based on a Misprint"

Ok, I changed my paper topic. I am intensely fascinated by the phrase "Life everlasting based on a misprint" and plan to do a paper examining the ways misprints, "false scents" and misleadings can actually lead the creator/reader to more interesting discoveries than had they been right all the time. To slightly digress, consider the pain and anguish that Shade must have felt upon discovering that his proof of the afterlife, the white fountain, was actually a white mountain and thus not supporting his own notions; however, think of how the misprint of fountain perhaps led to his eternal refuge in Zembla. Embracing mistakes may lead a person to his/her mistakes may perhaps be the best guide down an undiscovered trail. Doing some further research should lead me down some wonderful trails of discovery mixed with dead-ends that will, according to the theory, lead me to more wonderful places then I would have ever come to otherwise.




*Think of Bugs Bunny's amazing adventure through errors on his way to Pismo Beach...

Final Paper Topic! -- "The Assembly of Zembla"

Ok. I haven't been blogging as consistently as I should, but now, with the pressing issue of the upcoming term paper, I will re-stoke that fire and get back to it. After the mention by Dr. Sexson of Kinbote and the commentary of Pale Fire as a parody of Literary Criticism I discovered that this is my topic of choice-- How Nabokov parodies lit. crit. keeping in mind that parody is a game and satire is a lesson. To explore the depths of this topic more I will (Ironically) be using some literary criticism to explore the topic. Mainly, keeping along with the theme of criticism, I will investigate and integrate some theories from the Reader Response field.

One particular avenue that I would like to pursue is how the critic is sort of the parasite who tags his/her who clutches onto the coattails of the artist & subject as they move into the space of immortality, the refuge of art.

Another topic of interest to this paper could be the metafictional appeals of the subjects within the stories to sway the reader and the characters awareness of the readers abilities in remembering their legacy (ie: H.H. in Lolita referring to the narrative as a trial where the reader is his jury) . Nabokov has his characters confronting the reader and attempting to sway the reader and, in effect, making attempts to change the nature and direction of criticism. However, investigating this too deeply may be trying to fry too many fish in one pan.

For this paper I would like to make it formal, but, really playful-- keeping in the true sense of Nabokov. It would be fun to even try to hide in some references and an acrostic... :)

It seems to me that a good title for this paper might be "The Assembly of Zembla". I really like effect of the A & Z and the mention of Zembla as a sort of idealistic and grotesque example of literary criticism and interpretation gone awry (but with fantastic results!).