Vladimir Nabokov: The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight

[Peder]

Why Shucks! It looks like we got us a consensus here abouts!

A truly amazing thing to see! j/k j/k guys
It looks like a great discussion ahead!
Wherein, to quote the back cover:

The worlds of reality and literary invention grow increasingly indistinguishable

We already do that!

Peder

 

[pontalba]

Reality? W h a t........ i s........ r e a l i t y... . . . . . . . . . .

/fainter and fainter.........../

 

[Peder]

Reality? W h a t........ i s........ r e a l i t y... . . . . . . . . . .

/fainter and fainter.........../

It's that thing we finally see at the end of a discussion when we all stand around in a circle and pat ourselves on the back and say "Oh yeah!! That's what it was all about!"

As if,
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Shawl Dance? I've gotta get reading!

 

[Peder]

Shawl Dance? I've gotta get reading!

But afore ya do, Pontalba,
Just take a look at this, which I think is one of the most beautiful scenes of imagination in all of Sebastian Knight:
V has entered Sebastian's apartment for the first time after his death and has been gazing at all the items of life now silent, shirts, suits, shoes, his bed

As I looked about me all things in his bedroom seemed to have just jumped back in the nick of time as if caught unawares, and now were gradually returning my gaze, trying to see whether I had noticed their guilty start. This was particularly the case with the low white-robed arm-chair near the bed; I wondered what it had stolen. Then by groping in the recesses of its reluctant folds I found something hard; it turned out to be a Brazil nut, and the armchair again folding its arms resumed its inscrutable expression (which might have been one of contemptuous dignity).

Has ever an empty roomful of furniture behaved thus in all of literature?
Magnificent!
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Will we ever think of a comfortable arm chair in the same way? Probably not. And haven't you sometimes searched and searched for some small item.....over and over in the same places, recesses of couches, chairs, in back of books on the shelf, and then suddenly on the third or even fourth time...........Look! There it is...given up by

the recesses of its reluctant folds

then one notices....

its inscrutable expression (which might have been one of contemptuous dignity)

That is how I shall from this day think of it.
I agree, magnificent.

I found a bit that somewhat explains V's implacable thrust to find the "truth" of Sebastian. After he'd met with Goodman and the little secretary has told him of Goodman's book, he was so upset that Goodman's book just might be the "end all, be all" of Sebastian's life.

I, for one, would have ignored that book altogether had it been just another bad book, doomed with the rest of its kind to oblivion by next spring. The Lethean Library, for all its incalculable volumes, is, I know, sadly incomplete without Mr. Goodman's effort. But bad as the book may be, it is something else besides. Owing to the quality of its subject, it is bound to become quite mechanically the satellite of another man's enduring fame. As long as Sebastian Knight's name is remembered, there always will be some learned inquirer conscientiously climbing up a ladder to where The Tragedy of Sebastian Knight keeps half awake between Godfrey Goodman's Fall of Man and Samuel Goodrich's Recollections of a Lifetime. Thus, if I continue to harp on the subject, I do so for Sebastian Knight's sake.

Small part or not, it is at least V's conscious reasoning behind his search for the Real Sebastian Knight. To begin with.

 

[Peder]

I found a bit that somewhat explains V's implacable thrust to find the "truth" of Sebastian. After he'd met with Goodman and the little secretary has told him of Goodman's book, he was so upset that Goodman's book just might be the "end all, be all" of Sebastian's life.
Small part or not, it is at least V's conscious reasoning behind his search for the Real Sebastian Knight. To begin with.

Pontalba,
Good find in the midst of all that is said!
It sounds like a perfect reason to me. But better yet, it sounds exactly like the kind of reason that VN himself would endorse, having the record exactly straight. That would have been V's complaint with Ninka also: didn't you realize the man you were trifling with was a great author?
But you say 'conscious' as if there is something else also on your mind?
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Nothing terribly deep or fascinating, but just the fact that V had looked up to Sebastian for his entire life up till then, and felt the loss of not knowing his brother. The loss of a sibling companion for life so to speak. I'm an only child, but I've seen how close some siblings are, my father and his for instance. Cut one, cut them all.

Perhaps thats why V wanted to take Sebastian into himself so to speak, absorb his life and continue it as his own. The life that Sebastian could not live for himself. V would in essence live it for him.

And yes it was important to have the record set straight, and not let that slimy little man have the last say. You know I couldn't help but think of Field's bio of VN, it makes me wonder if the reason VN and Vera were so open with Boyd, was in fact to set the record straight.

 

[pontalba]

You know, it just occured to me that one of the reasons that Ninka trifled with Sebastian so cruelly was in fact because it made her feel powerful to be able to hold such a talented and intelligent man captive. She was in essence a sadist. A dreadful and empty woman.

 

[Peder]

Nothing terribly deep or fascinating, but just the fact that V had looked up to Sebastian for his entire life up till then, and felt the loss of not knowing his brother. The loss of a sibling companion for life so to speak. I'm an only child, but I've seen how close some siblings are, my father and his for instance. Cut one, cut them all.

Perhaps thats why V wanted to take Sebastian into himself so to speak, absorb his life and continue it as his own. The life that Sebastian could not live for himself. V would in essence live it for him.

And yes it was important to have the record set straight, and not let that slimy little man have the last say. You know I couldn't help but think of Field's bio of VN, it makes me wonder if the reason VN and Vera were so open with Boyd, was in fact to set the record straight.

Pontalba,
I agree with all of your insight, Pontalba, but I chuckle when I realize that I can't get Prof Greene out of my thoughts any more than V could erase the thought of Mr. Goodman. It is especially your last observation that brings Prof. Greene to mind.
Nabokov was well known for requiring that interviews be conducted via written questions and his written answers. And the reason he gave once, was that he was dissatisfied with the answers he gave when formulating them extemporaneously. Prof. Greene carps that Nabokov wanted to have himself come out of the interview looking good. To which I can only ask "So? Wouldn't anyone?" Prof. Greene sees that as Nabokov "constructing" a public image of himself, and observes that Freud says that is exactly what people try to do. To which I can only again say "So? So what? Is that a blinding insight?" But moreover does it necessarily mean anything? Or, worse yet, anything ominous? Everyone likes to be well thought of. Duh. The Nabokov's no less?
But one day I'll forget Prof. Greene, and Sebastian will live on!
Peder

 

[Peder]

/Chuckling even louder/
You're not going to find me defending Ninka!

 

[pontalba]

/Chuckling even louder/
You're not going to find me defending Ninka!

Aw shucks! That would have been an interesting discussion!

Originally posted by Peder but I chuckle when I realize that I can't get Prof Greene out of my thoughts any more than V could erase the thought of Mr. Goodman.

Hmmmm.....verrrraaa interesting.....

 

[Peder]

Hmmmm.....verrrraaa interesting.....

Yes. I must have what we call ... what we call what? ....Yes! A condition!
I have 'a condition.'

Peder

 

[pontalba]

Yes. I must have what we call ... what we call what? ....Yes! A condition!
I have 'a condition.'

Peder

Ve haf vays of meking yu ta(l)k, or is that tick.....no I was right to begin with, (oy what issues must I have ) its tock......

 

[Peder]

Ve haf vays of meking yu ta(l)k, or is that tick.....no I was right to begin with, (oy what issues must I have ) its tock......

Yayce! Tock. And my other condition is also back. I am laughing out loud at the coffee shop again, as I read further in Harlequins. VN is exhibiting the greatest dead-pan humor. Maybe they are in-jokes for Nabokovians only, but they are funny in my book.

As when he refers to a book being available now to American students "in an indifferent translation."

Or
"He asked me what I thought of the book he was telling Morozov (a monolinguist) about."

And you have to read about the cane for yourselves.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Not so muffled muttering is heard whilst Pontalba riffles the pages of latest Nabokovian Pick......
Not enough hours in the day, or enough days in the week........

Didja
ever
notice
that
Nabokovians
use
the
:rolleyes
quite
a
bit
?
?
?

 

[Peder]

Um, no.

 

[pontalba]

rotfalol....