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!).

Short Paper-- "The Refuge of Art"

Early in Lolita Humbert Humbert informs the reader “between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic… and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as ‘nymphets’” (Nabokov 16). However, for the “nympholept”, those “lone voyagers” who have this obsessive attraction to nymphs, the idea of this “entranced time” between nine and fourteen supplies a problem (Nabokov 17). As the nymphete ages the nympholept must suffer knowing that he is soon about to lose her on her fifteenth birthday. However, in the last lines of Lolita H.H. offers a potential solution to this problem: “I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita” (Nabokov 309). Within these lines H.H. places special attention on “the refuge of art” as the place where girl-child nymph and her adult-male admirer can escape the problem of nymphic aging and live in immortality. Throughout the course of Lolita the eventual battle between H.H. and Clare Quilty is not only over the nymph Lolita but which nympholept is only a pretender and who will inhabit the “refuge of art”.

As H.H. reveals the qualities of nympolepts early in his narrative he offers the reader a revelation that to be a nympholept “you have to be an artist” (Nabokov 17). With the artistic prerequisite echoing in the minds of the readers H.H. strives to depict himself as an artist in order to establish his identity as a legitimate nymphelept. When reading the class-list H.H. showcases his artistic sensibilities by acknowledging his recognition of the seemingly mundane list as a poem. Also, he frequently writes poetry and references his own artistically trained eye. However, all these artistic displays are overshadowed by the greater text of Lolita supposedly composed by H.H. himself; the reader is led to wonder at the deft composition of the memoir but H.H informs us “you can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style” (Nabokov 9).

H.H.’s nemesis and doppelganger Clare Quilty, another of Lolita’s star nympholepts, also attempts to record and preserve this nymphic time in immortality. When H.H. has finally tracked down Lolita she reveals that she has been at a place owned by Quilty named “Duk Duk Ranch” where “the idea was for all of us to tangle in the nude while an old woman took movie pictures” (Nabokov 276). However, it seems that Lolita refused to partake in the making of these pornographic movies bringing the artistic status of Quilty’s pornos into question. The reader is also only given a brief description of this scene opposed to a prolonged viewing of the film attesting to the fact that it lacked the immortality to even be given a longer duration. The failure of this method to establish an artistic immortality echoes H.H.’s assertion that he is “not concerned with so-called ‘sex’ at all” (Nabokov 134). H.H. continues to essentially juxtapose his status of a nymphelept against Quilty’s by saying how “anybody can imagine those elements of animality. A greater endeavor lures me on: to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets” (Nabokov 134). Through this depiction of what a “true” nymphelept must have he confidently proves himself a true connoisseur of nymphs while demoting Quilty to the status of a mere perverted pedophile.

Despite the success of Quilty in stealing away Lolita and leading him on a chase across the American landscape H.H. can be viewed as the novel’s the eventual winner. This is accounted for not in H.H.’s murder of Quilty but that in the end, the glorious “refuge of art”, the ultimate prize offered in the novel, is awarded to H.H. because he has won over the sympathies of the reader. H.H. resounds this when he states “do not pity C.Q. One had to choose between him and H.H., and one wanted H.H. to exist at least a couple of months longer, so as to have him make you live in the minds of greater generations” (Nabokov 309). In this metafictional appeal to the reader, his judge and jury, H.H. reveals that the immortality he speaks of is not found in the physical text itself but in the mind of the reader—the true “refuge of art”.

Beginning Pale Fire-- An Account of a somewhat Resistant Reader

After reading Lolita I must confess that I don't trust Nabokov. I know that with various words, phrases, structures, and such he is striking some unconscious chord in my skull and leading me around exactly where he wants me, like a bee on a string, or perhaps a butterfly... As I read the "Foreward" to Pale Fire I was confronted by a dilemma concerning one of the most fundamental issues that could possible be presented. How am I supposed to read this damn thing? On page 28 of the "Foreward" Charles Kinbote (undoubtedly one of Nabokov's PAWNS in leading me astray) confronts me with the way to read Pale Fire. "Although those notes, in conformity with custom, come after the poem, the reader is advised to consult them first and then study the poem with their help, rereading them of course as he goes through its text, and perhaps, after having done with the poem, consulting them a third time so as to complete the picture."

This concept of Nabokov composing his own notes is very, very scary. By composing the notes I feel like I will soon be stuck in a world of vertigo. I am entering a world where it is not the case of "the blind leading the blind" but a guide with 20/20 omniscient vision coupled with devious intent to mislead me to the heart of confusion and vertigo to guide me, the blind. What if God was a trickster? I can only imagine what it would have been like if Nabokov was actually Anthony Appell in Lolita composing all the annotations for that work. This structure makes me feel vulnerable. I have to rely on Nabokov for guidance through his own work because in the notes is where the story lies. I think that this structure must have put Nabokov over the edge with excitement at seeing the possibilities; the twists, the turns, the games to be played... However, for these same reasons that the structure makes me feel vulnerable it makes me feel empowered. I am supposed to be doing the things that Nabokov wants me to do. He is leaving it up to me to be his ideal reader-- his worthy opponent.

The more I read and reread and reread and reread Nabokov the more I become a resistant reader to his words, "truths", and suggestions. I realize that his writings are a game between him and the reader. An intimate game which, despite my attentiveness, he will always win. Each time he tells me something I cringe and wait for the page to come when he confronts what I believed and makes me feel the part of the fool. Nabokov, in his infinitely puzzlemaster self, isn't only constructing the voracious, attentive reader, he is also crafting the resistant reader-- an opponent whose toying with, leading on, and eventual defeat is a game, infinitely pleasurable even from the grave.