Final Blog Post (Beside posting paper)

This is my final blog post. Wow! What a class this has been! I can remember signing up for this class thinking "who is this Vlad-a-mere Na-bow-cough guy?"I asked someone if they knew anything he had written and they replied "Yeah. He wrote a book about a pedophile. It's called Lolita." At that point I wondered what in hell kind of class I was signed up to take! But, I decided to give this Russian author a shot and how glad I am that I did!

The only reason I've decided to my last blog post now (except my paper which will be up when it's finished) is that I really wanted to try and get my thoughts out there before any good thing I have to say about this semester gets swallowed up by the mass intelligence drain that is the upcoming week! Also, I haven't posted any images on this post because I don't really think that it is necessary as this is MY last voice, my last utterance that gets to echo around the class before we head off to Christmas and leave this class for memories and recollections. I really just want to get my final reflections for this class out now before I get swamped and a lot of them get lost among all the other stuff I have to do. I'm sure that I will miss including the papers that are going to be presented next week but I can pretty confidently say that they will be good and offer new perspectives about each persons interests in Nabokovian studies.

Thinking back on the plethora of things we learned this semester it makes me wonder how more people don't spend almost all of their time reading this fabulous author! I guess there are a small share of Kinbotian Brian Boyd's who do :). It seems so crazy to think of the ground we have covered from wondering "what the hell are we reading?" to intensive discussions about Zembla! Although we took off at A we have not yet reached Z; in fact, I would be happy to think that I've reached C with Nabokov.

Well, because this is my last blog of the semester, I feel like I should reach some sort of tangible conclusion from the class. I think just for the sake of doing it (it is MY last blog after all) let me rank the order of works that we've read this semester according to my own personal likes/dislikes (don't attack my opinion because of my likes/dislikes! In this scenario, I get to be God and base my valuations on my personal opinion)

4. Transparent Things-- For some reason I just had a harder time getting into this book. It wasn't that I didn't like it, it was just difficult for me to discern it as well as the others. Part of me thinks that at the time maybe I was feeling "done" with Nabokov for a little bit while I regrouped. Anyway, out of all the texts, this is the one that I feel like I owe the most return to- if just to appreciate it more.

3. Speak, Memory- Having read few autobiographies, I must say that this work is the most carefully crafted "self-life-writing" I have ever read. It really offers anyone interested in Nabokov a real portrait of the author as a young man! (cheesy James Joyce joke). Nabokov's ability to speak the truth and stretch it so artfully form the foundations of his beautifully recollected autobiography! Perhaps, this book has my favorite opening in any book I've ever read.

2. Lolita- From what I know this is by far Nabokov's most popular book, and, unlike works by other authors with that notable status, this one doesn't disappoint! I was amazed at Nabokov's ability to compose a complex, dedicated, sincerely artistic text. This work seems like the perfect segway into studying Nabokov. So many of the themes and strategies of composition that lace his works are beautifully depicted here.

1. Pale Fire- Wow. To put it simply, this work is undeniably a masterpiece. I was mesmerized by the way Nabokov experiments with structure and achieves an effect worthy of the masterpiece title. The whole time I read this book I was in awe of how a true author can compose such an intricate and thoughtful text. Not only does the structure of the piece capture the author but also does his mastery of the various subject matters he writes about-- criticism, academia, loss of a child, poetry, etc. With the creation and depiction of the history of Zembla as it were, Nabokov perhaps achieved his most masterful feat.

I hope everyone reading this list at least can feel some of the justifications to why I put what books where I did. Although I know that ranking books is somewhat of a silly practice, I really feel like I need it to help me understand and grasp this semester a little more firmly.

Now here is where I really begin to wrap it up, play the final notes, turn off the lights, read the last line, and all other euphemisms for the end. First off, I'd really like to thank the whole class. I felt like, at some point in the semester, everyone really contributed to the overall direction of the class and added to the class perspective. It was a joy to pursue these studies with all of you. Thank you most of all to Dr. Sexson for teaching the class! It was really fun and, now that it's done, I think my studies of Nabokov must go off on their own directions. Perhaps to new Nabokov works we didn't make it to, literary criticism surrounding Nabokov, or wherever I find myself leaning. God, the closer I get to ending this blog the more I feel the end of the class coming to a close; like Gradus' existance dependent on following the path of the written words of John Shade I feel like my voice in this class is dependent on this blog. When the text ends, I end. Oh well, I guess if I'm going to go out I would like to conclude my blog with what I consider the most important passage of the whole semester. It seems a fitting end for me to fade away with this quote in mind.

Just this: not text, but texture; not the dream
But topsy-turvical coincidence,
Not flimsy nonsense, but a web of sense.
Yes! It sufficed that I in life could find
Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind
Of correlated pattern in the game,
Plexed artistry, and something of the same
Pleasure in it as they who played it found.

Adam