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

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when he starts writing his tale, he cannot distinguish
between reality and fantasy any more. This is the real
problem, and the story he writes, with its whole intricate
and inextricable chaos of truth and fiction,
is the expression of this process. One cannot take the
events of the story at their face value, because the
borderline between real and fictitious events is too
blurred; it is impossible
cisely invention sets in.
combine into a picture of
of Hermann's mind, and on
nificance, whether or not
It was said above that
to say at which point pre-
All the same these events
the gradual disintegration
this level they acquire sigthey
are real.
Hermann's failure partly re-
sembles that of Luzhin in The Defence, and like
Luzhin's it can be explained through what has emerged
from the analyses of Pale Fire and Transparent Things:
It is possible for man to look back on his past and if
he has an artistic mind, he will perceive in his past
some ordering principle that coordinates events and
incidents; behind the seemingly chaotic surface of his
life he will perceive a clear and meaningful design.
But it has also emerged from Transparent Things (and
Luzhin's failure has proved it) that it is not for
man to anticipate fate and to try and shape his future
himself. Luzhin, although he sees through the pattern
of his past, fails when he tries to influence its completion,
and even the omniscient artist in Transparent
Things, who knows everything about his hero's past
and has a very clear idea of how its design might be
completed, is extremely cautious and avoids all direct