''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
- 285 - suitable to this novel: the author's omniscience and the creation of the piece of art were only possible through the insights that this very piece of art un- covers. This time, then, beyond exposing his technical skills, the author also allows glimpses of the wisdom that makes creation possible. The two constituents of the creative power shine through the book and the book becomes one of the author's transparent things. All his life... our Person had experienced the curious sensation... of there existing behind him - at his shoulder, as it were - a larger, incredibly wiser, calmer and stronger stranger, morally better than he. This was, in fact, his main 'umbral companion'... (98), and he is at one point .. conscious of something or somebody warning him that he should leave Witt there and then for Verona, Florence, Rome, Taormina, if Stresa was out (98-99). This mysterious "umbral companion" is of course the omniscient author who always accompanies his invented character and admits that it is difficult to abstain from at least attempting to "[steer] a favorite in the best. direction" (92). However, he knows he must be careful because he might cause injury to others: The most we can do... is to act as a breath of wind and to apply the lightest, the most indirect pressure such as trying to induce a dream that we hope our favorite will recall as prophetic if a likely event does actually happen (92). He leaves the decision to Hugh, though. Hugh does not heed his shadow and his warning. He stays at Witt, he pursues his quest, he moves to another room, and that very night dies in the fire.
- 286 - We thought that he had in him a few years of animal pleasure..., but after all it was for him to decide, for him to die, if he wished (99). This is surprising in view of the fact that it might reasonably be expected of an omniscient author that he should have absolute power over his created char- acters, that he could at any chosen moment influence their actions, make them follow the course of action that seemed best to him or make them avoid another one, that he could, in short, manipulate and determine their destinies. It seems unusual to allow them the liberty that Hugh is seen to enjoy. The author denies that he has the right to exert any such direct inter- ference: this "does not enter our scope of activity" (92). Behind this stands another of Nabokov's convictions, which concerns the third of the "three tenses". From the first he makes it quite clear that he can only be concerned with the past: "Transparent things, - through which the past shines! " (1) Their past, shining through the present, lies open to him, but he knows nothing about their future. In fact he feels that the word future is as much in need of quotation marks as "reality" and "dream". Like Van Veen, in Ada, he denies to the future any concrete reality: "The future is but a figure of speech, a specter of thought" (1). i This being so, it is impossible to make any predic- tions about the future of a person's life and destiny. It is neither "a chain of predeterminate links", nor
- Page 241 and 242: - 234 - commentary, and they also o
- Page 243 and 244: - 236 - forbidden knowledge of whic
- Page 245 and 246: - 238 - than he thought it was46: B
- Page 247 and 248: - 240 - following the road of its r
- Page 249 and 250: - 242 - actually sees Kinbote, lose
- Page 251 and 252: - 244 - emerges that the man whom h
- Page 253 and 254: - 246 - sions, shows that even the
- Page 255 and 256: - 248 - superficially is about. He
- Page 257 and 258: - 250 - "really" Kinbote who has wr
- Page 259 and 260: - 252 - standing' of the poem do no
- Page 261 and 262: - 254 - Shade mentions a famous fil
- Page 263 and 264: - 256 - is left-handed (180) and he
- Page 265 and 266: - 258 - The sea's a thief, whose li
- Page 267 and 268: - 260 - much a person even on the l
- Page 269 and 270: - 262 - In the relationship between
- Page 271 and 272: - 264 - even for his own death. It
- Page 273 and 274: - 266 - TRANSPARENT THINGS An old N
- Page 275 and 276: - 268 - the name as if it were simp
- Page 277 and 278: - 270- Armande that has brought him
- Page 279 and 280: - 272 - a conscious effort. Things
- Page 281 and 282: - 274 - intention either to convey
- Page 283 and 284: - 276 - past with utmost precision
- Page 285 and 286: - 278 - Hugh Person ignores a vague
- Page 287 and 288: - 280 - the wall which in his wakin
- Page 289 and 290: - 282 - thus opening the view into
- Page 291: - 284 - tain moments he positively
- Page 295 and 296: - 288 - The thought throws more lig
- Page 297 and 298: - 290 - That Nabokov does consider
- Page 299 and 300: - 292 - which strangely prefigures
- Page 301 and 302: - 294 - become no doubt a new bible
- Page 303 and 304: - 296 - It probably is Mr. R. 's ph
- Page 305 and 306: - 298 - DESPAIR Despair1, though wr
- Page 307 and 308: - 300 - rendering a certain sound t
- Page 309 and 310: - 302 - I have grown much too used
- Page 311 and 312: - 304 - dimensions of artistic crea
- Page 313 and 314: - 306 - when he starts writing his
- Page 315 and 316: - 308 - in its capability of photog
- Page 317 and 318: - 310- next morning, none would bel
- Page 319 and 320: - 312 - To the end, then, he remain
- Page 321 and 322: - 314 - tangible double of himself,
- Page 323 and 324: - 316 - this attack of his second s
- Page 325 and 326: - 318 - ... the ruddy horror of my
- Page 327 and 328: - 320 - only a limited number of su
- Page 329 and 330: - 321 - BENDSINISTER INVITATIONTOAB
- Page 331 and 332: - 323 - the Dark Comedies of the Tw
- Page 333 and 334: - 325 - and that one has first to p
- Page 335 and 336: - 327 - the absurd fate he himself
- Page 337 and 338: - 329 - perhaps in some archaic let
- Page 339 and 340: - 331 - this fantasy with bits of L
- Page 341 and 342: - 333 - in the solution it offers.
-<br />
285<br />
-<br />
suitable to this novel: the author's omniscience and<br />
the creation of the piece of art were only possible<br />
through the insights that this very piece of art un-<br />
covers. This time, then, beyond exposing his technical<br />
skills, the author also allows glimpses of the wisdom<br />
that makes creation possible. The two constituents<br />
of the creative power shine through the book and the<br />
book becomes one of the author's transparent things.<br />
All his life... our Person had experienced<br />
the curious sensation... of there existing<br />
behind him<br />
- at his shoulder, as it were -<br />
a larger, incredibly wiser, calmer and<br />
stronger stranger, morally better than he.<br />
This was, in fact, his main 'umbral companion'...<br />
(98),<br />
and he is at one point<br />
.. conscious of something or somebody warning<br />
him that he should leave Witt there and<br />
then <strong>for</strong> Verona, Florence, Rome, Taormina,<br />
if Stresa was out (98-99).<br />
This mysterious "umbral companion" is of course the<br />
omniscient author who always accompanies his invented<br />
character and admits that it is difficult to abstain<br />
from at least attempting to "[steer] a favorite in<br />
the best. direction" (92). However, he knows he must<br />
be careful because he might cause injury to others:<br />
The most we can do... is to act as a breath<br />
of wind and to apply the lightest, the most<br />
indirect pressure such as trying to induce<br />
a dream that we hope our favorite will recall<br />
as prophetic if a likely event does<br />
actually happen (92).<br />
He leaves the decision to Hugh, though. Hugh does not<br />
heed his shadow and his warning. He stays at Witt, he<br />
pursues his quest, he moves to another room, and that<br />
very night dies in the fire.