Vladimir Nabokov: The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight

[pontalba]

The sentence? The unheard, almost heard, maybe heard, hafl-dream half-real sentence fragment? That one? You got me! But that provides a good reason for reareading those paragraphs.

And BTW I almost hate to say, but I have heard sentences like that.

Peder

Which totally defines my answer to many questions....vibes.

 

[Peder]

Which totally defines my answer to many questions....vibes.

Well, Pontalba,
It turns out I quite like the answers your vibes have provided to many of the questions that have risen here. So I'll try rereading and collecting a logical answer for that sentence, and then we'll see whether your vibes respond by going up and down, or waving side to side. But, so far, V's summary that the Asphodel remains as doubtful as ever is what, ever so slowly, rises up out of the muck of my memory.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

But, so far, V's summary that the Asphodel remains as doubtful as ever is what, ever so slowly, rises up out of the muck of my memory.
Peder

I'll trust the muck of your memory over some er, people's written word any day.

 

[Peder]

I'll trust the muck of your memory over some er, people's written word any day.

Pontalba,
Actually, that scene sort of sticks in mind, because on the one hand he didn't hear what Sebastian had to say (I don't think) -- which was what the whole purpose of his nerve-frazzling urgency in getting there was all about -- but on the other hand, despite all the adversity, he comes out of it with a sense of serenity and calm acceptance nevertheless.

Is it just me, or would you perhaps also say that this might be one of Nabokov's most "psychological" novels that we have read so far? Seems like it to me, even though I don't know how to describe the question any better.

Peder

 

[pontalba]

Peder Well in a wierd way (is there any other in Nabokov ) it seems to me that it is.....I guess a psychological detective story wrapped up in a memoir that is not the "author's" own. Hah! Try placing that on the bookstore shelves.

And yes, I had to go back and reread to make sure I hadn't missed the answer couched in another manner. Although I still say that the last line of the book is an answer in itself.

....try as I may, I cannot get out of my part: Sebastian's mask clings to my face, the likeness will not be washed off. I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we both are someone whom neither of us knows.

Just an illogical thought occured to me Silbermann???

 

[Peder]

Peder Well in a weird way (is there any other in Nabokov ) it seems to me that it is.....I guess a psychological detective story wrapped up in a memoir that is not the "author's" own. Hah! Try placing that on the bookstore shelves.

And yes, I had to go back and reread to make sure I hadn't missed the answer couched in another manner. Although I still say that the last line of the book is an answer in itself. Just an illogical thought occured to me Silbermann???

Pontalba,
I've been mulling that last sentence on and off since I read it. It seems to me to connect with the other strange sentences leading up to it
:

Whatever his secret was, I have learnt one too, and namely: that the soul is but a manner of being -- not a constant state -- that any soul may be yours if you find and follow its undulations. The hereafter may be the full ability of living in any chosen soul, in any number of souls, all of them unconscious of their interchangeable burden.​

The two taken together really seem to un-anchor and float free any answers to the question "Who was Sebastian?" Or even, "Who is V?"
Which means I'm baffled, because once those questions don't have answers then almost any interpretation is possible for the book.
I'm still trying to figure out if Nabokov intended the ending to be that open-ended?

And you ask: Silbermann?????
I answer: Silbermann?????
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Peder

Waallll.....the person mentioned above was never properly explained or appeared again outside of that particular incident. Which may not be of vital importance, as Nabokov does use "throw away" characters. But still...........was it Silbermann that in actuality was the author? Using V as a "front man"? I said it was illogical.
Maybe I've read too many detective stories.
But I still kinda like the idea of the whole character of V being a front. A Mask.

 

[Peder]

Peder

Waallll.....the person mentioned above was never properly explained or appeared again outside of that particular incident. Which may not be of vital importance, as Nabokov does use "throw away" characters. But still...........was it Silbermann that in actuality was the author? Using V as a "front man"? I said it was illogical.
Maybe I've read too many detective stories.
But I still kinda like the idea of the whole character of V being a front. A Mask.

Well, Pontalba,

I am definitely not the guy who is going to disagree with you and say no!

Let me add two other thoughts that have been kicking around as I have been falling asleep..

!. It was the guy in the funny whiskers (his mask)who just happened to wander into the hotel lobby in The Prismatic Bezel who was the deceased who had disappeared; and

2. Clare said in a sentence that is almost impossible to find (p.70):

A title must convey the colour of the book -- not its subject.​

Which, if I could change that to say "the theme of the book -- not its subject," then I could understand it better.

But, either way, the title of the book is "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight," so what was the real life of Sebastian Knight? Somehow not just the narrative of his earthly biography, I wouldn't think -- that would be the subject of the book. Wouldn't it? Leaving what for the colour/theme of the book?

Peder

 

[pontalba]

Peder wrote: Which, if I could change that to say "the theme of the book -- not its subject," then I could understand it better.

But, either way, the title of the book is "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight," so what was the real life of Sebastian Knight? Somehow not just the narrative of his earthly biography, I wouldn't think -- that would be the subject of the book. Wouldn't it? Leaving what for the colour/theme of the book?

What you say makes perfect sense.....Could a Nabokovian "message" or "color" be as simple as nothing is as it appears? Nah, too simplistic.....or that anything we think we know is Doubtful? Thus The Doubtful Asphodel.
Or is Nabokov implying that this, the life we live here on Earth now, is not the real life, that the Real Life comes later?

 

[Peder]

What you say makes perfect sense.....Could a Nabokovian "message" or "color" be as simple as nothing is as it appears? Nah, too simplistic.....or that anything we think we know is Doubtful? Thus The Doubtful Asphodel.
Or is Nabokov implying that this, the life we live here on Earth now, is not the real life, that the Real Life comes later?

Pontalba,

Or that his real life transcends his earthly life,
Or that his real life is now found in V,
Or that V has become Sebastian by having followed his undulations in life and experienced his feelings
Or that his real life now lives on in V
Or that his real life was always both their lives simultaneously,
Or that his real life has always been there and occasionally comes to Earth in a particular person called Sebastian, another time as V, another time as who knows? And who knows who in previous times?
Or that neither V and Sebastian are their real lives, just people who some preexisting souls have inhabited,
Or that V was really just telling a story of Sebastian living and dying and it is all in V's imagination
Or,
Or,
Or,​

I frankly am at sea in trying to narrow it down. And that is what I meant that it comes unhinged completely if allowed to float freely; anything then becomes possible.
So, answer: All of the above? Which seems awfully like a cop out.
But that's how it seems tonight.
He painted us a painting which was not a painting but which contained all the different methods by which different paintings could be painted? I seem to remember that from someplace. /Oy, groan, sigh/
Or that Sebastian would write a story whose genius and greatness consisted in its gaps, which lesser writers would feel impelled to try to fill in? Another random recollection. And this is an example of such a genius story?
Got me!
So far,
But never say die
Peder

 

[pontalba]

OK, I'll narrow it down like this. I think that Nabokov didn't know, and left it open to the interpretation of the reader, and that, in the end is why the Asphodel is Doubtful. Because Nabokov himself was doubtful. He was Hopeful, but doubtful. IMHO
But WDIK?

 

[Peder]

OK, I'll narrow it down like this. I think that Nabokov didn't know, and left it open to the interpretation of the reader, and that, in the end is why the Asphodel is Doubtful. Because Nabokov himself was doubtful. He was Hopeful, but doubtful. IMHO
But WDIK?

Pontalba,
Well there I think you are right on the mark!
I believe Nabokov was indeed hopeful.
Someplace in Speak Memory -- toward the end of the chapter on his mother and her simple beliefs, I think it was -- he said something like we may not know what awaits us, but we at least know that we are marching in the right direction. That's a good thought to try to mesh with the outcome of the story!
Peder

 

[StillILearn]

If there is a heaven, then you two will surely get to sit down and drink a cup of coffee (or two) with the man himself (and maybe also with his wife) and be able to ask him about a million questions.

I myself sincerely hope that this is so. And that I will get to be there too!

 

[pontalba]

I have Speak Memory on the shelf, and need/want to get to it. But for VN to leave the way open to so many interpretations, it had to be for a purpose. And that was the last most logical explanation.

All the putting on and removing of masks in both this novel, and its interior novels though seems to be a seperate entity although they lead to the Doubt. They are the layers of the cake, the layers that give credence and substance to the end.

Discomboblating as it is.....

 

[pontalba]

Well my dear SIL, we can sit down and have that cup of coffee together right now, and chew over all of Nabokov's pearls!
Come on!

 

[StillILearn]

You two truly do the man's work justice. I'm just enjoying reading what you're coming up with.

 

[pontalba]

Well, you know what they say don't ya?
The more the merrier.

SIL didn't you say you'd read SK?

 

[Peder]

You two truly do the man's work justice. I'm just enjoying reading what you're coming up with.

Hi SIL,
Glad you got here for the fun.
Who knows? We may be rewriting the novel completely into a way he never intended ..... but better ... lots better...... j/k j/k
Why not join in with your version of the ending. We can run with it, for sure!
The masks have me baffled completely. They definitely have to be saying something definite. Duh?
OTOH the migration of Sebastian's real life for continuation in V seems easy to me, and doesn't need masks at all.
So to me it feels like a puzzle with one piece left over. Or maybe half the pieces left over, for that matter.
Well, maybe a mask that won't come off is a simple way of saying V is now Sebastian. But that seems too simple as an artifice.
Gotta sleep on it.
Cu all tmw,
Peder

 

[Peder]

Found a few more thoughts in the hopper this morning, put there by some White Rabbit overnight I think.

1. V is Sebastian? He has been Sebastian all along! In his unspoken admiration for his brother from day one, even when Sebastian brushed him off while helping with the homework, his thoughts and feelings were still and always with Sebastian. He doesn't phrase it as a self-discovery, but he does now realize it. So has he finally found his real identity, and is the 'real' title of the book therefore really Identity? The book's colour, its theme?

2. Or, building on the thought that he always craved Sebastian's recognition or even mere acknowledgment, perhaps he now feels that Sebastian has settled his cloak on his own shoulders and nominated him for the recognition and acknowledgment he always yearned for. So is the real title Fulfillment? Or Recognition?

3. Or, for Steffee, is the real title Doppelganger? I ask seriously. But Steffee you have warped our thinking forevermore. Just remember that, however far you may wander, you are still the favorite doppelganger for all of us. Best regards.

SIL we need your flair,
Peder

 

[StillILearn]

Still's Noboflair has flew for the nonce, but fear ye not, my friends. Still will flail -- I mean prevail -- and get back in the game once again.