''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
- 360 - as the "[passing] from one state of being into another. "39 Neither of them sees death as the end of everything, nor does Cincinnatus C. His view is perhaps the most optimistic of all. Grim though his view of life is, death is for him an awakening, a passing on into a better and more real world. He can therefore cross out the word "death" in his manuscript (IB, 190), and the epigraph of the novel by the imaginary poet Delalande is fully applicable to Cincinnatus' experience. His imagination and his art have shown him a way out of the prison of this world and this life and out of the prison of time, and has furnished him with proof of his immortality. It must be remembered at this point what power Nabokov attributes to the imagination and to art and what belief he has in their ability to answer questions that both science and philosophy have left unanswered. Cincinnatus' intense imagination prepares the ground for an insight that surpasses common knowledge. Imagination and art with him (and with Mr. R.. ) become vision, so that, even though he does not experience death physically, his mind is yet able to apprehend the mental experience death may bring with it and find therein salvation and peace. Krug, although a philosopher, never attains this knowledge and this comfort. Confronted, as has been stated, with very concrete harassments, which prove too much to cope with, locked away in a very material prison, he also fails to overcome the metaphysical doubts and harassments that torture him.
- 361 - He speculates about time in much the same way as Nabokov himself and other Nabokov characters. Like Van Veen, for example, and Mr. R. he denies the exist- ence of the future: "... the basic element of the future... is its complete non-existence" (BS, 39). Like Nabokov himself and like Van Veen, he abhors the thought of the eternal nothingness after life: My intelligence does not accept the transformation of physical discontinuity into the permanent continuity of a non-physical element escaping the obvious law, nor can it accept the inanity of accumulating incalculable treasures of thought and sensation, and thought-behind-thought and sensation-behind-sensation, to lose them all at once and forever in a fit of black nausea followed by infinite nothingness (BS, 87-88). This, it is true, is followed by the remark "Unquote" (BS, 88), but it fits in with Krug's other ideas on the same theme. The quotation just used in connection with Invita- tion to a Beheading continues on a much less confident and optimistic note: .. * death is either the instantaneous gaining of perfect knowledge... or absolute nothingness, nichto (BS, 155-156), and it seems that it is this idea as much as his con- Crete sorrows that drives Krug mad, or rather, induces the author to take pity on him and cause instantaneous madness. Unlike the artists, unlike, also, Cincinnatus C., the philosopher sees no way out of the prison of this world and out of the prison of time, and he sees no way of coping with and overcoming death: Krug could take aim at a flock of the most popular and sublime human thoughts and bring down a wild goose any time. But he could not kill death.
- 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
- Page 357 and 358: - 349 - the river we see him fishin
- Page 359 and 360: - 351 - inspired by a picture on wh
- Page 361 and 362: - 353 - do not conceal them must di
- Page 363 and 364: - 355 - also the only one who can i
- Page 365 and 366: - 357 - (IB, 26) and only his doubl
- Page 367: - 359 - Cincinnatus no longer what
- Page 371 and 372: - 363 - ADA Ada1 has more than any
- Page 373 and 374: - 365 - combine to form the surface
- Page 375 and 376: - 367 - ... a string of stock scene
- Page 377 and 378: - 369 - more confusing by the great
- Page 379 and 380: - 371 - of aspens; they embraced,..
- Page 381 and 382: - 373 - aux caprices de son age. «
- Page 383 and 384: - 375 - pipes into "borborygmic con
- Page 385 and 386: - 377 - Swann et la Lesbie de Catul
- Page 387 and 388: - 379 - in quite a new light and de
- Page 389 and 390: - 381 - of a comic strip cartoon [1
- Page 391 and 392: - 383 - and van's divans and cushio
- Page 393 and 394: - 385 - ernized barracks for misfit
- Page 395 and 396: - 387 - (385). Van himself is calle
- Page 397 and 398: - 38-9 - "Don't forget normal adult
- Page 399 and 400: - 391 - Ada have an equally profoun
- Page 401 and 402: - 393 - her, and telling himself "t
- Page 403 and 404: - 395 - agents from an alien countr
- Page 405 and 406: - 397 -. - cribed by Aristophanes i
- Page 407 and 408: - 399 - stored in their minds, of a
- Page 409 and 410: - 401 - Since nature was traditiona
- Page 411 and 412: - 403 and the Present. Like his cre
- Page 413 and 414: - 405 - way one may wish and try to
- Page 415 and 416: - 407 - liberated from "Numbers and
- Page 417 and 418: - 409 - his own memory of the Past,
-<br />
360<br />
-<br />
as the "[passing] from one state of being into<br />
another. "39 Neither of them sees death as the end of<br />
everything, nor does Cincinnatus C. His view is<br />
perhaps the most optimistic of all. Grim though his<br />
view of life is, death is <strong>for</strong> him an awakening, a<br />
passing on into a better and more real world. He can<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e cross out the word "death" in his manuscript<br />
(IB, 190), and the epigraph of the novel by<br />
the imaginary poet Delalande is fully applicable to<br />
Cincinnatus' experience. His imagination and his<br />
art have shown him a way out of the prison of this<br />
world and this life and out of the prison of time,<br />
and has furnished him with proof of his immortality.<br />
It must be remembered at this point what power<br />
Nabokov attributes to the imagination and to art<br />
and what belief he has in their ability to answer<br />
questions that both science and philosophy have left<br />
unanswered. Cincinnatus' intense imagination prepares<br />
the ground <strong>for</strong> an insight that surpasses common knowledge.<br />
Imagination and art with him (and with Mr. R.. )<br />
become vision, so that, even though he does not<br />
experience death physically, his mind is yet able to<br />
apprehend the mental experience death may bring with<br />
it and find therein salvation and peace.<br />
Krug, although a philosopher, never attains this<br />
knowledge and this com<strong>for</strong>t. Confronted, as has been<br />
stated, with very concrete harassments, which prove<br />
too much to cope with, locked away in a very material<br />
prison, he also fails to overcome the metaphysical<br />
doubts and harassments that torture him.
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