• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Vladimir Nabokov: The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight

Still,
That's great news to hear!
Really it is. :)
And your avatar is always so calming.
so thanks for stopping in. :)
I'm just about asleep at my keyboard here, so it is going to be a very early night for me. But maybe another visit from the big White Rabbit. One can hope.
CU whenever,
And that's a guarantee,
Peder
 
Peder said:
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?
Click to expand...
To me this has the best feel of all. I keep thinking of the line from As You Like It
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
Click to expand...
WS
 
pontalba said:
To me this has the best feel of all. I keep thinking of the line from As You Like It WS
Click to expand...
Well Pontalba,
TOES!
I can only say that great minds are thinking alike, because I had considered that for a new tag line before settling on the one below.
But, yes, those lines from Shakespeare sure do come to mind, and there is no doubt that Nabokov knew his Shakespeare! Moreover. they fit like a glove! And that would make perfectly natural all the puttings on and taking off of masks and false characters (LeCerf/Ninka) throughout the entire story, wouldn't it? Or not? My Shakespeare is shaky at the moment and I don't have a copy handy.
Peder
 
You defintely get the last laugh, Pontalba, :D
Cuz I'm tired and fallin into bed, right now!
CU tmw
Peder
 
Peder
1. V is Sebastian? He has been Sebastian all along!
Click to expand...

Last week I took on a new client at work and he is Russian, he is called Sebastian but he spells it SeVastian.:eek:
 
Gem said:
Last week I took on a new client at work and he is Russian, he is called Sebastian but he spells it SeVastian.:eek:
Click to expand...
Yes, Nabokov does say that Sevastian is the Russian spelling of Sebastian.
But is V a mask of Sebastian? Or is it the other way around?

Or neither.......:eek:
To me it seems as though they really are two seperate entities and that V was overshadowed by his Famous and Charming and Mysterious older half-brother.

Why was V rushing so slowly to Sebastian's death bed?
Hmmmm....
 
Gem said:
Last week I took on a new client at work and he is Russian, he is called Sebastian but he spells it SeVastian.:eek:
Click to expand...
Gem,
Confusions among different alphabets. (I am bold to venture.)
The Russian (Cyrillic) letter that looks like English "B" is pronounced with a "V" sound. So that Sebastian is reasonably pronounced Sevastian in Russian (with liberal allowance for the fact that the other letters of Sebastian in Cyrillic don't look much like their English equivalents I don't think, so you might not actually recognize Sebastian, or Sevastian, when written in Cyrillic.)
The reverse direction of being called Sebastian while writing his name Sevastian simply sounds like his accommodation to English practice. Such as being called Peter, even if one writes it Peder.
Clear?
As mud?
Peder
 
Gem said:
Peder,


Clear :D

Pontalba,


Most likely neither.
Its so intricately weaved that its so difficult to figure out.
Click to expand...
Gem,
Amen, to difficult to figure out.
I keep wondering why, if that really is Sebastian's mask clinging to him, he is so unhappy about it. It would be the brother he always admired, so what would the problem be? Is there something wrong with being Sebastian all of a sudden?
Doesn't figure for me, :confused:
Peder
 
Peder I didn't feel as though V was unhappy. More like it was a strange sort of surreal experience that he hadn't quite got the hang of yet. Almost a dreamy kind of............Oh, is this really happening?, or am I imagining this.

Not unhappiness, but Acceptance of what Was.
You know how in a dream, it all makes sense somehow, even though when we awaken, it is totally off base and illogical, and makes no sense whatever? V was still in that "dream state", where everything made sense. Even if it didn't.

Have I made myself perfectly clear as mud? :eek:
 
pontalba said:
Peder I didn't feel as though V was unhappy. More like it was a strange sort of surreal experience that he hadn't quite got the hang of yet. Almost a dreamy kind of............Oh, is this really happening?, or am I imagining this.

Not unhappiness, but Acceptance of what Was.
You know how in a dream, it all makes sense somehow, even though when we awaken, it is totally off base and illogical, and makes no sense whatever? V was still in that "dream state", where everything made sense. Even if it didn't.

Have I made myself perfectly clear as mud? :eek:
Click to expand...

Mud is good. :)
 
pontalba said:
Peder I didn't feel as though V was unhappy. More like it was a strange sort of surreal experience that he hadn't quite got the hang of yet. Almost a dreamy kind of............Oh, is this really happening?, or am I imagining this.

Not unhappiness, but Acceptance of what Was.
You know how in a dream, it all makes sense somehow, even though when we awaken, it is totally off base and illogical, and makes no sense whatever? V was still in that "dream state", where everything made sense. Even if it didn't.

Have I made myself perfectly clear as mud? :eek:
Click to expand...
Yes, Pontalba,
I actually thought your explanation was perfectly clear last night. I was just gaining some time to look at the passage in the cool clear light of morning with the benefit of some sleeping-thought.
And I think you are correct.
He is not sad or unhappy necessarily; the 'clinging' feel of the new mask is simply the feeling of its as-yet unaccustomed newness.
So.....
Would you perhaps then say that the one secret he learned too at his brothers death was actually the result of his brother's soul passing to him, without his even hearing the last spoken word he was hoping for? And that it was therefore really the secret that the brother intended for him to hear, had he been able to speak it? And that moreover it was the secret of The Doubtful Asphodel? That souls live on?

Your go, :)
Peder
 
V already knew. He simply didn't know that he knew. We (all of us) take information into our mind constantly. We don't always process it at the moment of contact, but its there and a sight or sound or, yes a dream can bring it out into the open. Sebastian had already told V in a hundred ways how he felt about him.

V required acceptance from Sebastian, as far as I can see the reason he rushed so slowly to Sebastian's bedside was firstly he craved and needed acceptance and understanding and downright acknowledgement of his "Big Brother". He put every rock and barrier in his way because he was afraid he would not receive it.

To me the "Doubtful Asphodel" simply represents Nabokov's own doubts as to what death means.
 
pontalba said:
V already knew. He simply didn't know that he knew. We (all of us) take information into our mind constantly. We don't always process it at the moment of contact, but its there and a sight or sound or, yes a dream can bring it out into the open. Sebastian had already told V in a hundred ways how he felt about him.

V required acceptance from Sebastian, as far as I can see the reason he rushed so slowly to Sebastian's bedside was firstly he craved and needed acceptance and understanding and downright acknowledgement of his "Big Brother". He put every rock and barrier in his way because he was afraid he would not receive it.

To me the "Doubtful Asphodel" simply represents Nabokov's own doubts as to what death means.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm, Pontalba,
Could be.
Sounds like I need another night's sleep. :)
Peder
 
pontalba said:
V already knew. He simply didn't know that he knew. We (all of us) take information into our mind constantly. We don't always process it at the moment of contact, but its there and a sight or sound or, yes a dream can bring it out into the open. Sebastian had already told V in a hundred ways how he felt about him.

V required acceptance from Sebastian, as far as I can see the reason he rushed so slowly to Sebastian's bedside was firstly he craved and needed acceptance and understanding and downright acknowledgement of his "Big Brother". He put every rock and barrier in his way because he was afraid he would not receive it.

To me the "Doubtful Asphodel" simply represents Nabokov's own doubts as to what death means.
Click to expand...
Well, Pontalba,
Can't say yes, can't say no. :confused:
I am assuming you meant that Sebastian's affection for his younger brother was clearly there, even through his aloofness. Which I would agree with. And also that V was still quite likely afraid that he would not receive it when he reached Sebastian's bedside, which likewise is entirely plausible. So I wonder whether, even at the end, V feels any degree of acceptance from Sebastian, or whether his final realization of a "secret," amounts to a version of "Life goes on," as he concludes that he's now never going to receive the acknowledgment he wished. In which case, his desire to rid himself of the mask might be seen as his desire to be "done with it," to finally put Sebastian behind him and "get on with it" with his own life. In which case the refusal of the mask to wash off, simply ends the story on the unresolved note that V will never be free of Sebastian. That might indeed be called an ultimate "existential" ending with the protagonist left completely unresolved and on-stage alone in the muddle of life.

For myself, simply as a matter of preference, I was trying to get all loose ends wrapped into one larger snowball, perhaps against logic, getting the notion of the passing of souls, and also an answer to the doubtful asphodel as well, all included. Like a neat French braid which weaves in an out, over and under, with no loose ends visible anywhere.

That's a story and an ending which sounds like it will be well worth close rereading. But, so far, Nabokov at his most psychological and most obscure I would say.
Ya' think?
Peder
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top