Sunday, January 29, 2012

Nabokov and Bakhtin

I am a little confused as to what is meant by polyphony.  Because I am unfamiliar with Dostoyevsky's works, I am not sure if i fully understand how it can be applied to Nabokov.  I believe that "Natasha" has some beautifully lyrical moments.  One being, "The thermometer was warm, alive--the column of mercury climbed high on the little red ladder."  And, "Baron Wolfe grew taciturn and grimaced at the ferocious noise of the automobile horns, while Natasha seemed propelled by sails, as if her fatigue sustained her, endoww\ed her with wings and made her weightless, and Wolfe seemed all blue, as blue as the evening."  This recurring sense of weightless dizzyness begins to skew the readers perception of reality.  Later on Wolfe and Natasha reveal that their stories  are mere fantasies, and the reader is unsure of what is plot and what is in the mind of each character, including the father's dreams, and the trip to the country. 




questions on Bakhtin: Bakhtin provides some explanation for this assertion by insisting that consciousness can only realize itself, however provisionally, in dialogue with the other.
I am unsure as to what exactly he means here. 

cut up

We figured we'd test the bungalows
They were a replacement after a major fire in our hills
We wouldn't miss the waning of the hard wood floor
Here there's a gentle ripple of the tides
The sound in relation to the fan is dreamy, mesmerizing
We think hallelujah
Nothing left but a maggoty shelf of burning ash
In which we fear
She describes the curve of the coast with her signature glossy syntax and verbiage
The east side faces the home of a distinguished war vet who tells tales of different seas