We have talked about language in Frederick Douglas (did he write his own work? was it written for him? could he really have had that vocabulary? etc.), and we've talked about language in Nabokov (is he pompous? is he showing off? is that just the way that he thinks?)...
... so, my prompt is to write about something, anything basically, that happened this week that amused you or alarmed you or made you laugh, but you must write it the way that you would say it, write it in your own particular patterns of speech. Don't write it the way you would write a paper for a class.
I don't mean that you have to write dialogue; I just want you to use the same vocabulary and the same syntax that you would in normal conversation with a friend.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Passage from Nabokov:
"In those years, that marvelous mess of constellations, nebulae, interstellar gaps and all the rest of the awesome show provoked in me an indescribable sense of nausea, of utter panic, as if I were hanging from earth upside down on the brink of infinite space, with terrestrial gravity still holding me by the heels but about to release me any moment." (Pg. 226 - 227)
I found this passage interesting because it reminds me of a passage at the very beginning of the book: "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness" (pg. 19). It seems to me that in these two passages, Nabokov is acknowledging how meaningless, short, and unimportant one human life is. We are nothing in comparison to the world around us, the universe around us, just as we are nothing compared with all that has come before and all that will come after. He tells us in the very first line of the first chapter that his story doesn't matter, and he reminds us throughout the work. An odd approach to trying to convince someone to care... Nabokov knows that there's no real reason for us to want to read his life story, but he tells it anyway in case we're somehow drawn in. And maybe it's this honesty that makes us want to know more.
I found this passage interesting because it reminds me of a passage at the very beginning of the book: "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness" (pg. 19). It seems to me that in these two passages, Nabokov is acknowledging how meaningless, short, and unimportant one human life is. We are nothing in comparison to the world around us, the universe around us, just as we are nothing compared with all that has come before and all that will come after. He tells us in the very first line of the first chapter that his story doesn't matter, and he reminds us throughout the work. An odd approach to trying to convince someone to care... Nabokov knows that there's no real reason for us to want to read his life story, but he tells it anyway in case we're somehow drawn in. And maybe it's this honesty that makes us want to know more.
Casey McMorrow
"There it lay in wait, a family of serene clouds in miniature, an accumulation of brilliant convolutions, anachronistic in their creaminess and extremely remote; remote but perfect in ever detail; fantastially reduced but faultlessly shaped; my marvelous tomorrow ready to be delivered to me." pg. 213
Jenna Payton
chapter 6, page #119
"From the age of seven, everything I felt in connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion. If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender."
"From the age of seven, everything I felt in connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion. If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender."
Nabokov speaking...
So I had a very difficult time finding a passage we had not already talked about that dealt with memory. Instead I found several interesting passages...
The first passage is on page 188. In this section Nabokov is describing how his school life is so different from his peers. In the final line of the section Nabokov writes "But how on earth could I discuss this with schoolteachers?" I think this sentence is interesting for two reasons. The first being that it draws the reader in, it asks the reader a rhetorical question. The second being that it is a writing technique I do not believe Nabokov has employed thus far in this work.
On page 148 Nabokov describes his memory as "a glass cell" which I think is a very interesting way to think about memories.
The first passage is on page 188. In this section Nabokov is describing how his school life is so different from his peers. In the final line of the section Nabokov writes "But how on earth could I discuss this with schoolteachers?" I think this sentence is interesting for two reasons. The first being that it draws the reader in, it asks the reader a rhetorical question. The second being that it is a writing technique I do not believe Nabokov has employed thus far in this work.
On page 148 Nabokov describes his memory as "a glass cell" which I think is a very interesting way to think about memories.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Nabokov Speaking to His Memory
Well, I had trouble finding a specific quote that demonstrates this... so I'm chosing to write about the title of the work instead... I hope that's okay.
Nabokov's title, "Speak, Memory," evokes a sense of something to come, something about to happen, a sense that a dam is about to let go. I think it is this sense of anticipation that makes this book so engaging for me. I feel like just on the other side of the page some gem will be presented to the reader, and you just have to be on the look-out for it... it's almost like Christmas, but with less mistletoe. I mean, obviously I'm exaggerating, but I really do have this feeling of wanting to know what's next, wanting to discover the next profound statement.
I guess what I'm trying to point out is that by employing this technique Nabokov invites the reader into his private world, which makes each story seem like a gift to us. It is as though he's invited us along for a tour through his memory, and we're privaleged to be there because it's really a private conversation between him and his memory.
Is this making sense?
Nabokov's title, "Speak, Memory," evokes a sense of something to come, something about to happen, a sense that a dam is about to let go. I think it is this sense of anticipation that makes this book so engaging for me. I feel like just on the other side of the page some gem will be presented to the reader, and you just have to be on the look-out for it... it's almost like Christmas, but with less mistletoe. I mean, obviously I'm exaggerating, but I really do have this feeling of wanting to know what's next, wanting to discover the next profound statement.
I guess what I'm trying to point out is that by employing this technique Nabokov invites the reader into his private world, which makes each story seem like a gift to us. It is as though he's invited us along for a tour through his memory, and we're privaleged to be there because it's really a private conversation between him and his memory.
Is this making sense?
Cars
"This informal contact between train and city was one part of the thrill. The other was putting myself in the place of some passer-by who, I imagined, was moved as I would be moved myself to see the long, romantic, auburn cars, with their intervestibular connectiong curtains as black as bat wings and their metal lettering copper-bright in the low sun, unhurriedly negotiate an iron bridge across an everyday thoroughfare and then turn, with all windows suddenly ablaze, around a last block of houses." (Chatper 7, page 144)
1. Periodic sentence?
2. I found this particular passage to be of greater significance than it may seem because of its implications. Nabokov, once again proving his great imagination, places himself in the mind of a stranger and assumes to know, or pretends to know, what they are thinking. The reason I find this so interesting is because I tend to do this myself. Often times, while driving down the interstate, I'll see all different cars: different makes and models, different license plates, different conditions, bumper stickers, and different people inside. Sometimes I can't help but imagine where they might be either going to or coming from, or what their lives might be like. This passage also mentions cars, but cars of a train connecting different countries rather than automobiles without a known destination. I also find it interesting that this is something his memory has captured and retained all these years as an exciting moment in his life, and with so much detail. Cars are literal objects that take us from one physical location to another (whether train or automobile), but can also be used in this instance as a metaphorical transition from one part of his life to another.
1. Periodic sentence?
2. I found this particular passage to be of greater significance than it may seem because of its implications. Nabokov, once again proving his great imagination, places himself in the mind of a stranger and assumes to know, or pretends to know, what they are thinking. The reason I find this so interesting is because I tend to do this myself. Often times, while driving down the interstate, I'll see all different cars: different makes and models, different license plates, different conditions, bumper stickers, and different people inside. Sometimes I can't help but imagine where they might be either going to or coming from, or what their lives might be like. This passage also mentions cars, but cars of a train connecting different countries rather than automobiles without a known destination. I also find it interesting that this is something his memory has captured and retained all these years as an exciting moment in his life, and with so much detail. Cars are literal objects that take us from one physical location to another (whether train or automobile), but can also be used in this instance as a metaphorical transition from one part of his life to another.
autobiography can take many forms
"...poems are autobiography... and comment, the metronomic alternation of anecdote and response."
-Louise Glück
-Louise Glück
Friday, October 10, 2008
Butterflies? No, syntax!
"It is astounding how little the ordinary person notices butterflies." (Pg. 129)
Okay, so this may not seem like a deep and brilliant line... at first!!
No, but really. When I first read it, for some reason it struck me that this is true about almost everything... what I mean is that the things you find really fascinating, regardless of what they are, are never very interesting to most other people. Has anyone ever not noticed this? I'm not talking about liking the Red Sox or watching some popular TV show.... I'm talking about something that is not embedded in our culture. Like, for instance, I find people's syntax really intriguing (which has a lot to do with why I manipulate mine so oddly on occasion). Weird, right? And that's exactly my point... you are not that interested in syntax, so you notice very little about it. Nabokov recognized that many people do not notice much about butterflies. It's the same thing, and I found it interesting that Nabokov pointed it out.
Okay, so this may not seem like a deep and brilliant line... at first!!
No, but really. When I first read it, for some reason it struck me that this is true about almost everything... what I mean is that the things you find really fascinating, regardless of what they are, are never very interesting to most other people. Has anyone ever not noticed this? I'm not talking about liking the Red Sox or watching some popular TV show.... I'm talking about something that is not embedded in our culture. Like, for instance, I find people's syntax really intriguing (which has a lot to do with why I manipulate mine so oddly on occasion). Weird, right? And that's exactly my point... you are not that interested in syntax, so you notice very little about it. Nabokov recognized that many people do not notice much about butterflies. It's the same thing, and I found it interesting that Nabokov pointed it out.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
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.
"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."
"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."
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