''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
- 299 - nary and complicated by making not only the words look "self-conscious", which he avowedly likes to do (56), but the sentences, the structure, and the contents as well. At the first reading, when the "real" story remains rather obscure, his mannerisms of speech and style seem to unite simply to produce an overall comic effect. At hardly any one point does he refrain from commenting on the accepted stylistic conventions, which he has to follow himself to a certain degree, and on the conventional narrative patterns which he cannot quite avoid either: he exposes them, rejects them, sneers at them, parodies them. He intrudes into his narrative continually. "Intrusions discussing the book itself or its frailties can range from a 'mean- while' or explicit digression to the most elaborate burlesque of the technique of other authors. "3 Every- thing that this statement allows of can be found in Hermann's tale. There are his comments on his own choice of individual words, on his imagery, on his puns, some of them pleased and satisfied, some of them more critical. 4 There are his comments, mostly ap- preciative, on individual sentences or whole passages 5 and, once, his somewhat puzzled reaction to something he has just written. 6 Not only are there interruptions of the flow of the narrative throughout the book, and digressions; Hermann explicitly draws thq reader's at- tention to them as if they were not quite conspicious enough, and explains why they are there. 7 His comments on conventional narrative devices range from one on the habit that "indiscriminate novel-writers have of
- 300 - rendering a certain sound thus: 'H'm'" (115) to a long discussion of the epistolic form of narration (70) and to the spectacular parody of the opening of a chapter. In fact he offers three openings (Ch. III) all following well established patterns, but all of which he rejects because of the weaknesses he sees in them; and from there he unceremoniously slips back into his narrative without really having opened his chapter at all. He takes the same liberties with the end of his tale, if indeed it can be said to have an end. He toys with no less than four possible endings that occur to him at various stages (the first before he has even de- 8 cided on a title) and which are born of different moods. One of them, although it has almost a touch of probability about it, is no more than an evil dream9, two are just fleeting thoughts, the results of his 10; anxiety one, a lengthy and elaborate one, he wickedly declares to be a parody of Turgenev and Dostoievsky (188-190) and thus makes clear that it is not to be taken seriously either. (It is not the only parody of Dostoievsky, by the way). 11 At the end, the reader is left with the rather odd picture of Hermann-making a speech from his window: "Frenchmen! This is a re- hearsal. Hold those policemen" (222) and is left to wonder what really happens to Hermann and the others. From time to time he makes mistakes. He gets the facts wrong. Various experiences blend, and what belongs to one gets mixed up in his account of another one, so that the time sequence is often overthrown. He does not erase the faulty passages because, he says, that
- 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 and 292: - 284 - tain moments he positively
- Page 293 and 294: - 286 - We thought that he had in h
- 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: - 298 - DESPAIR Despair1, though wr
- 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.
- Page 343 and 344: - 335 - no more than the strange an
- Page 345 and 346: - 337 - clown (IB, 104-105). And th
- Page 347 and 348: - 339 - of the original still shine
- Page 349 and 350: - 341 - each of them. There is Mart
- Page 351 and 352: - 343 - "cleared his throat and sof
- Page 353 and 354: - 345 - and then perhaps we shall s
- Page 355 and 356: - 347 - our own world , and with it
- 300 -<br />
rendering a certain sound thus: 'H'm'" (115) to a long<br />
discussion of the epistolic <strong>for</strong>m of narration (70) and<br />
to the spectacular parody of the opening of a chapter.<br />
In fact he offers three openings (Ch. III) all following<br />
well established patterns, but all of which he<br />
rejects because of the weaknesses he sees in them; and<br />
from there he unceremoniously slips back into his narrative<br />
without really having opened his chapter at all.<br />
He takes the same liberties with the end of his tale,<br />
if indeed it can be said to have an end. He toys with<br />
no less than four possible endings that occur to him<br />
at various stages (the first be<strong>for</strong>e he has even de-<br />
8<br />
cided on a title) and which are born of different<br />
moods. One of them, although it has almost a touch of<br />
probability about it, is no more than an evil dream9,<br />
two are just fleeting thoughts, the results of his<br />
10;<br />
anxiety one, a lengthy and elaborate one, he wickedly<br />
declares to be a parody of Turgenev and Dostoievsky<br />
(188-190) and thus makes clear that it is not to be<br />
taken seriously either. (It is not the only parody of<br />
Dostoievsky, by the way).<br />
11<br />
At the end, the reader is<br />
left with the rather odd picture of Hermann-making a<br />
speech from his window: "Frenchmen! This is a re-<br />
hearsal. Hold those policemen" (222) and is left to<br />
wonder what really happens to Hermann and the others.<br />
From time to time he makes mistakes. He gets the facts<br />
wrong. Various experiences blend, and what belongs to<br />
one gets mixed up in his account of another one, so<br />
that the time sequence is often overthrown. He does<br />
not erase the faulty passages because, he says, that