''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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terms. However, for Cincinnatus, and Ada and Van
it possesses at best a "relative reality". The life
in which they find themselves caught - "imprisoned"
in the case of Cincinnatus - has here no more than the
status of "average reality". The ways in which they
transcend it may differ from each other-, but they
do transcend it (and. so does Mr. R. ) and obtain an
insight into some ultimate "true reality" beyond our
existence.
In Cincinnatus' case it is a process of awakening
from dreams and through his art destroying the world
around him that brings him face to face with a "true
reality" which has all the appearances of the Platonic
world of Ideas, and of which our life and world is
only a "clumsy copy"92. Cincinnatus' experience is
based in his imagination, which may cast doubt on its
validity. He imagines even his own death (as do Mr. R.
and John Shade) and gains from this the conviction
of his immortality, and again the evidence of his
experience may be doubted. But, as has been seen, it
is Nabokov's thesis throughout that the artist's
imagination or "creative fancy" is the only way to
knowledge, and that it is reliable. To quote Nabokov
once
more:
Whatever the mind grasps, it-. does so with
the assistance of creative fancy, that drop
of water on a glass slide which gives
distinctness and relief to the observed
organism.
93
In another context he speaks of the "lamp of art"94
that makes things visible which remain otherwise con-
cealed from our perception and knowledge. Thus the