Truth/Honesty in Nabokov

In the opening pages of his autobiography, Nabokov announces the following:

"What I have not been able to rework through want of specific documentation, I have now preferred to delete for the sake of overall truth." (Pg. 14, second paragraph)

I found this remarkable for two reasons.

1 - This contrasts distinctly with they way that Mary McCarthy openly admitted to including error/fictionalization which she provides commentary on in her italicized responses to chapters.
2 - This implies that we are supposed to believe every word of Nabokov's narrative. Can we possibly do that? What about places that veer into imagination quite obviously? I suppose that we can believe these passages are true at least in that they may really have happened in his mind, but we cannot necessarily believe that they happened in actual reality. This, of course, begs the question of what "actual reality" is and where the line between reality and imagination occurs. Perhaps much of what we remember is imagination, as our imagination colors our every interaction. Or perhaps not. I can't answer that question for all of us.

What I can say is that Nabokov asserts that his entire autobiography is truth. This does not mean, to my mind, that there is no fiction or imagination at work... it simply means he is not creating any of his story out of nothing; everything he writes is based in fact or memory that he believes is fact.

APS Posting for Jenna

Chapter 2, pg. # 35)
"The confessions of a synesthete must sound tedious and pretentious to those who are protected from such leakings and drafts by more solid walls than mine are. To my mother, though, this all seemed quiet normal."

APS Posting for Evan

"I do not agree with the assertion that McCarthy used the italics to simply allow the reader to have further insight. I know that I have commented on this blog saying that allowing the reader to gather more information was the point to the italics, however after further reading I no longer feel that way. Instead I contend that she uses the italics because it is theraputic to her. I say this because throughout the autobiography the italics begin to get smaller and smaller as she gets more used to being completely honest. This is finally confirmed in the last chapter, "Ask Me No Questions," where she doesn't even need italics anymore. She has grown throughout the telling of her tale and she sees no more need for the italics. Although it is easy to see why the italics can be seen as a way of letting the reader in, it is truly a theraputic way for McCarthy to grow."

the correlation of color, letter and sound

i'd just like to go back to what erin wrote on wednesday.....

i really enjoy reading about how certain letters evoked very specific colors in Nabokov's mind. for me, sometimes its the smallest detail about a person, or a unique quality in their perspective that i find most intriguing. i love how he shares this personal quirk with us. in regards to his coloring of letters, i especially found it interesting because i've had many a conversation, about what certain days, months, words and emotions conjure up as far as color goes. but i had never really broken words down so far as to think of how letters might appear individually.

it wasn't until i reread the passage erin had posted, that i started to think Nabokovs' assignments of color were not random. if you read aloud: "alder-leaf f, unripe apple p, pistachio t", for me, there's a very obvious connection between the sounds of the color words, and the sound of the individual letter. in my opinion, Nabokov's pairing of color with letter, might all have a foundation in alliteration.