StillILearn
New Member
We have to stop meeting this way, pontalba. 
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Vladimir Nabokov: Look at the Harlequins!
- Thread starter Gem
- Start date
StillILearn
New Member
Peder said:SIL,
I have never seen a similar group for Nabokov. Although there are at least two collections of real and genuine Nabokov scholars, I don't know that they or any other groups engage in light-hearted fripperies.
So whenever there is a knotty question of fact here in our own Nabokovia, I whimsically engage Holmes's fictional crew (when they are free.) They are a very colorful bunch.
Peder
Aha! And so, my dear Peder, am I to assume that you (and you alone) are the VN/BSI incarnate? Fripperies and color and all?
pontalba
Well-Known Member
I have the ones above too, plus a couple of others by Kim Stanley Robinson, The Gold Coast, The three Californias, oh! Thats all by him.Peder said:
But I do have a couple by Scott Turow, including the new one Ordinary Heros. I really look forward to that one. Someday.
Oh, also five others by Allen Furst, he is quite interesting.
pontalba
Well-Known Member
Shhhhhhh!! Don't blow my cover, which is a cover for the Real Secret Person in Charge of the VN/BSI.....Peder said:Well, noo, SIL,
My own suspicion is that it is our own pontalba who is the actual secret Head of the VN/BSI, because she always comes up with the answers before any of them do.
Peder
Peder
Well-Known Member
I feel my pile growing by the minute, the longer I stay on-line here.pontalba said:But I do have a couple by Scott Turow, including the new one Ordinary Heros. I really look forward to that one. Someday.
Oh, also five others by Allen Furst, he is quite interesting.
But good. But good.
steffee
Active Member
Sorry! I am reading this thread though, eventually.pontalba said:Steffee....hey Steff, ya out there...
And I have started it, at least, now.
Vintage VN? TOES!It looks like this one is another of Nabokov's twisty books. All the references to his other works is so entertaining to keep up with. Some are inversions, some are straight on.....vintage VN!
pontalba
Well-Known Member
Hey there Steffee!
Come on in the water is sooo fine! Harlequins! is a hoot to read, both because of all the aforementioned references to other Nabokovs, plus the prose, plus the ever mysterious "You".
Seriously...........TOES!
SIL Do you know who "You" is yet? There is a tie-in with another of Nabokov's books. But my lip is zipped.
for the moment.
Come on in the water is sooo fine! Harlequins! is a hoot to read, both because of all the aforementioned references to other Nabokovs, plus the prose, plus the ever mysterious "You".
Seriously...........TOES!
SIL Do you know who "You" is yet? There is a tie-in with another of Nabokov's books. But my lip is zipped.
for the moment.
StillILearn
New Member
Peder said:SIL,
Help!
I can't place that reference to the train running in a circle -- lost as usual.
So what page are you on?
Peder
That wuzz .. p.70
Don't know who you is yet but you can bet I'll be keeping an eye out.
Peder
Well-Known Member
Ah! Thanks SIL,StillILearn said:
With you now!
P. 69. sure gave me a sinking feeling with that line:
And Iris seemed so promising for a happy life for him! I liked Iris.
But it is also the first place I had a chance to check something which I remember reading -- in the usual vague "someplace" -- that the appearance of a butterfly in Nabokov's novels often signifies the impending arrival of Death. And sure enough, there on p.67
Not only that, but Ivor next immediately asks after the health of Mata Hari, the ara, as Nabokov underlines the theme.
And then, as if that were not still enough, on p.68, Ivor is commenting on a script and saying "You will die!" for a triple underline by Nabokov.
And so it happens.
Much later in the book I also got a very bad feeling, as I began to sense Nabokov's ways of handling events, and said "Oh, no" to myself with a wince, as something inevitable seemed about to happen. There are a lot of people who fall out of the action in one way or another in this novel. But Iris was really too bad.
Anyway "you" is far in your future and you'll notice it for sure.
And if you are counting wives, it is now one down and only a few to go.
Peder
StillILearn
New Member
StillILearn
New Member
Ooops. Perhaps that was not 'you'.
VN was decidedly cruel to this 'Lyuba Serafimovna Savich'. Do you suspect that he was referring to an actual woman, and do you also suspect that he may have been doing this to somehow placate and reassure his "first reader"?
pp. 83/84
VN was decidedly cruel to this 'Lyuba Serafimovna Savich'. Do you suspect that he was referring to an actual woman, and do you also suspect that he may have been doing this to somehow placate and reassure his "first reader"?
pp. 83/84
pontalba
Well-Known Member
Firstly....not "you".StillILearn said:
As far as LSS ^, the impression I came away with was that the woman had taken the job as typist for Vadim because of an infatuation she carried for him, and VN was simply showing that this sort of thing did take place and was not reciprocated by the object of the "affection".
Actually Vadim treated the woman kindly, as kindly as you can treat a person like that without encouraging them.
Vadim even does not describe their last meeting on account of not wanting to be "a cad", he could have been truely cruel and gone into detail about that.
That is just my take on the situation though. All throughout the story I don't remember Vadim being overtly cruel to anyone. Thoughtless sometimes, yes...even selfish, but not low down mean.