The Last Blog

Wow.... i cant believe that today is that last day that our class will be meeting. like i had said last time, i cant think that we have done all the discovering, and all the learning a class can about Nabokov. I'm just hoping that a lot of what we have been able to learn this year spills over into the capstone class with Sexson and some more discovering will continue to take place. i am sad that we didnt spend more time on ALL of the texts we read...i feel like even though there may have been a hundred and one discoveries (most likely more than that) there is still so much more that can be discovered about Nabokov and his complex , seemingly crazy characters. i will miss not reading Nabokov next semester, but i do know that because of this class i will be reading much more of him. and i really think that i want to do a full re reading of all the texts we read. especially Lolita. and Pale Fire, ha ha ha i guess all four!

there were a couple of really wonderful last minute presentations today. I loved Kari's reading of her screen play, great job Kari! i laughed the entire time and was completely intrigued by all that you did with PF. Jon Orsi did a pretty wonderful impersonation of Sexson today.... i had the giggles throughout the entire time he was in front of class!

I had a great experience learning about nabokov and cant wait to read 'The Orginal of Laura' most likely a christmas break reading. Thanks Sexson for a great ride in the world of Nabokov

Term Paper

My paper is not wanting to copy and paste on here, and i am unable to add any kind of file. so i am gonna try it again tomorrow!

I have to say though that there were some great presentations today! I loved that there were a couple more creative takes on Nabokov. And james with the index.. haha i will definitely have to be reading that, i can only imagine how great that will be to read through. i loved that parker felt brave enough to write a screen play for PF. and the little bit that he did write was great! Sexson said that Kari will be writing one as well so i am excited to hear what she comes up with!

i cant believe that the last class is upon us. i feel like i have learned so much this semester about our novels, but at the same time i feel like there is proabably 1000 more things to learn and be discovered.

Term Paper Presentations

All i have to say is that everyone in our class that presented today was brilliant! i absolutely loved Brittini's own commentary of PF. very creative and full of energy just like her! i was actually slightly surprised that there werent more 'creative' like papers. for some reason i had the thought that most people would be doing something along the lines of Brittini.
Christina did a great job! she is a wonderful writer and it was a treat to be able to listen to her entire paper....
Riley was probably my favorite presentation today. the fact that he was the only person in our class to read Nabokovs latest 'the orginal of laura' and write his paper on it was pretty awesome! and him explaining how it took him 6 to 7 times reading the book to finally feel like he has figured it out juat amazed me! great job! all in all , the presentations were wonderful, and will hopefully help me a little bit while im finishing mine up!

“

'What we have done for ourselves always dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal' Albert Pike
i was actually watching Law and Order i believe... either way one of those justice will be served type shows, and this quote was at the end of the show. right away i thought about Nabokov.... i have been thinking that what i would write about would be how Nabokov has left an immortal existance behind with his writings, and i felt this quote really captured that, but, it made me start to think about Nabokov as a person as well. It is easy to skip by what he was for himself and the close people around him and just get to the point of what he has done for the english literature world. but what was he really like?? what did he do for himself? when he wrote was that all he needed to fulfill the want and expectance all have for their own lives? these questions just kept coming to mind and i couldnt stop thinking about that. of course i can go to wiki and get a "bio" of the author, but nothing really seems to get past what he DID or what people thought of him. Even "Speak Memory" makes me think that he is just an illusive person that no one will ever have to pleasure of meeting someone like him....

Day 1 of Group Presentations

Well i must say that i am glad to have the presentation over with. It is always nice to get something big like that done , and its really great that it is done before thanksgiving break! which is a break that is really needed at this point of the semester.

i thought that all the groups did a wonderful job today. i will confess that a couple things went over my head, but once each group was able to explain their presentation everything fell into place. i guess one couldnt really expect anything less than what the groups did... it is in fact a Nabokov class!
i would have to say my favorite one was group number 2.. at least i think it was group 2! the one that was like a talk show with all the 'main' characters of PF and Lolita. Claire playing hazel was great! she really played the part and all the words that she was writing on the board were great! i loved how the group had thought of all those words to transcribe infront of the class... even though i dont think all the class got them all right away... very 'Knobokovian' making the audience stay on the edge of our seats!

Final paper ideas and group projects!

I think that i have finally decided what i want to write my term paper on. i feel that through out the semester Nabokov has a strong connection to many of his characters, especially Humbert Humbert. they seem to share some of the same aspects of life thinking through their writing and obsessions. and with these aspects i think it is possible for a person to see into their souls, or at least a glimpse into their souls. i feel like it may be far fetched to compare nabokov to Humbert but i have felt that they share something undescribable from the moment we read "Speak Memory" and "Lolita".

as for group presentations, i am very excited! i cant wait to see what all the other groups have come up with and what they have discovered!

I wish that we would have been able to spend more time on TT. i feel like we might have gotten some of what is going on in that complex text, but really i felt slightly sad when we ended class and knew that we wouldnt be discussing it in more depth. hopefully there will be a group presentation or even a term paper that focuses on TT, that will be interresting to see what the classmates have come up with on their own.

well due to the huge amount of snow i have found myself completely snowed in... and therefore not able to make it to the test... i sure hope i can make it up! :)

so i have decided to start Transparent Things.... lets see how that goes... hopefully i can get through it a bit easier than the other Nabokov novels!

Test # 2

read a bolt from the blue!

when does gradus enter the story?

who are the three main characters , according to kinbote....

the daughters.... the alphabetical daughters...

Beauty + Pity = Art

the Vanessa Atalanta

what gives Shades poem reality??

shakespeare and his plays....

kinbote means... what in ZEMBLAN?

the password.... pity

shade predicts his own death.. how?

hazel commits suicude when?

who drives gradus?

ultima thule!

solus rex... sun king....

timon of athens in zemblan was translated by who??

what is zembla?

word golf, and how it works...

the TOILEST??....

the Fountain and the Mountain...

last line of poem..

treason.... kinbote...

not text but....

mrs. goldsworths books

who does kinbote resemble in his eyes?

BretWit

zembla = resemblance

I P H

3, 7, 7, 3

kinbotes wives full name

Ampersand

Now is the time to start really thinking about what to write my term paper on... with so many things that have been discovered and so many things that are waiting to be discovered in Nabokov.... i just dont know what to do! i have thought that maybe i could write about just the index of PF like sexson has suggested... but i again dont think that i have the paitence OR the time to give it any kind of credit it deserves! the fact that emily dickenson's work had been messed around with by her family and how kinbote messes with shades could be a good contrast paper... but i feel like i really want to focus on just Nabokov.... i just dont know where to start!
this entire semester i feel like i have been a scatter brain when it comes to writing about and reading about Nabokov i just dont know if i could really get on a topic that could really make a great paper.... i just have to keep thinking along!

in class today i dont know who said it, or when it was said but the comment that was made really stuck out to me... Mistakes you make are more important than the plans that are followed through.... i really liked this and it made me start thinking about Nabokov and how he wrote kinbotes character. kinbote is so focused on himself... that he doesnt pick up on a lot that is really truly going on around him. maybe he is focused on his plans that went not so well... maybe that is why he has made up a distant northern land in his mind to get away from what he has done in his life. he doesnt look at what mistakes have brought him. and really maybe not enough people really look at what a mistake has broughten into ones life... again i feel like i am all over the place... this is what Nabokov does to me! makes me think all over the place... am i even making sense!? haha

I was really curious about Brian Boyd after Sexson has mentioned so many times in class about his work on Nabokov. i cant imagine having the patience to study and study this author for so long.... although i have enjoyed it this semester... i wouldnt have if i didnt have the help from sexson and all of the people in class.... all theirs thoughts and discoveries have helped drastically in how i have come to find just a little understanding of a man so complicated it seems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Boyd

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/nabokov/speak.html

http://www.bombsite.com/issues/71/articles/2309


these are just a few sites that caught my attention while googling away on my computer.... there is much more about boyd and he just baffles my mind! how one man can concentrate so hard on one author, find so many discoveries and then turn around and say that he has it all wrong... crazy, crazy i say.... i wouldnt be able to keep up with this man if i had to!

SHADE

well i cant figure out how to get a depiction of shade on my blog so i am just going to get pictures from online like we did in class to try and find at least a small resemblance of what shade could look like.... here goes...

in class there was a lot of talk about how generous Shade was..... and i think i have somewhat touched on that subject a little bit, but not to the point where our conversation went today in class. i think that Kinbote can see the generostiy in shade and at times uses it against him.... he tries to get all that he can from shade and doesnt seem to care if shade wants it that way or not.... and really kinbote just takes from shade any time he can, even after shades death.... right away after his death..

another point made in class was that through pictures of shade, Kinbote can see shades soul... if he could see shades soul, wouldnt he know that really the poem has nothing at all to do with kinbote... but again he is the type of person that thinks all things revolve around him.... he really truly amazes me as a character and as a person.... there is no generosity in Kinbote... maybe he latches on to shade because he can see that good in shade and wants to have that same good.... hmm

The color Blue

Well i started to get slightly obsessed with the color RED in Lolita and i am finding myself getting yet again slightly obsessed with another color in PF, BLUE. durring my, oh i dont know, fourth or fifth time starting the commentary over again i started to realize that the word blue, and azure, are all over thenovel. is it a way to express the sadness that follows John Shade around? Blue seems to be a color of sadness or at least for me it does. and throughout reading PF i find myself feeling somewhat sad for shade.... he seems to be a man that just goes along with the flow... and doesnt want to hurt anyones feelings. and not that that is sad, but to have an existance where all one does is try to make people happy and feel that they are so wonderful, like Kinbote thinks he is, is sad to me. again i feel like my thoughts are confusing, but i am getting used to it since i feel pretty much confused everytime i read nabokov, especially PF!

anyway back to the color BLUE. Sexson even in class today, said that it is all over the place.... i have decided i am going to try to count how many times the color in any shape or form comes up in the text to see how many times its there.... for some reason i feel that if i can get myself to count there might be 999 times that it shows up.... but thats just a guess... everything with Nabokov has some sort of twist and weird connection so who knows..... maybe he was particular in how many times he used that color..... ill keep you posted if i can make myself get that crazy about blue while reading...

Minton

Today in class we had the honor of having Gretchen Minton come and speak to our class about Pale Fire and Timon of Athens. then shakespeare play that seems to pop up all over the novel.

It was a real treat to have Minton come and give some great ideas on how Nabokov shaped the characters in Pale Fire.

For me like i have said before in the blog, Nabokov writes about a lot of people and is able to write about people who a reader can connect to. I think one of thegreatest things about Shakespeare is that he to wrote about things and happenings that all people can really relate to... so after having such a concentrated lecture in calss today about two great writers, that at the begininng i would have never found similarities i have!

a minor discovery for myself i suppose but one that i think wil open my eyes a little bit more into the world of Nabokov.

In the handout Minton had printed out for our class she had a quote from Timon of Athens, and when she talked about the quote she had said that in nature, everything steals from everything else. so maybe Nabkov took shakespeares way of writing and turned it into a way for him to writesuch dynamic and interesting characters.... just a thought

The Ladder of Pale Fire

Sexson has been talking about the Ladder of knowledge that as a class we are climbing to get to a full understanding of the work Pale Fire. i feel that i will never get to the top... is there anyway of reaching a point of ful understanding when it comes to Nabokov? i cant imagine. but at the same time, as a reader we are all able to get into the deep thoughts of this illusive writer that seems to pop up everywhere. i dont know if all of what i see and hear throughout any given day is just coincidence .... but i feel that everywhere i look and every time i have a conversation with someone i am taken back to a part in one of Nabokovs crazy , wonderful stories. maybe i am just reading into things far to much but i feel like there is so much about what i read on his pages that are things that happen daily. there is always that one person who makes all things about them, like Kinbote. i mean really does anyone NOT have friend like that? or maybe i just have a couple weird friends... haha but really when i look around a see all that is around me i feel likei can pick out people in a crowd that could essentially be a Nabokov character.

Maybe that is what is so wonderful about reading Nabokov..... his characters have so much realism to them, even HUmbert, they all have something that a reader can connect to , or at least connect to another person.

i realized i really dont have enough pictures on my blog of butterflies... and thats just not right while reading Nabokov... and we all know why.....



i have given some more thought on the beauty +pity = art

and i think a lot of it is that all of Nabokovs characters are full of beauty in their own right and many of the characters one feels pity for, or at least has a pitiful way about them. in the words that humbert writes while speaking of Lolita and the way that Kinbote finds so much beauty in his native country of Zembla there is beauty through out all of nabokovs words and writing.

Pale Fire

Starting Pale Fire has been much easier to read through then Lolita for me.But again i have had to stop myself and re read certain parts of the commentary. i think i have started thecommentary three times already.... but i just find myself reading and then getting lost. obvioulsy because Kinbote, is well CRAZY! but even though he is crazy, the way he writes and assumes all that shade wrote is about him is very entertaining.... and very comical when i sit back and think about how he is able to be so self involed.

After reading through most of the classes papers. i really enjoyed reading Jareds. He had the same type of focus that i did and brought up some great i deas and made me realize, that well, i didn get deep enough or narrowed down enough in my short paper. but that is just a problem i have when writing papers... need to work on that! : )

today in class we talked about Nabokovs definition of art, which is BEAUTY + PITY

i have been thinking about it, and it seems to contradict itself in my mind, but i guess it all depends on what one believes is pity and what one believes is beauty. just like art, these words are very subjective and no one person can say that a piece of art is the best.. just like no one can say that a certain type of beauty is the only type of beauty and so on for pity.. i need to think a little more on this and figure out what i find beauty and pity to be...

Paper #1

Lolita and Red

After reading through "Lolita", and each time finding something new and interesting, a thought came to mind right away, while reading the novel comes back. There are quite a few similarities between Lolita and Red Riding Hod. For years there have been speculation the Red had a type of "daddy complex", that is why her cape was red, why she acted so foolishly with the wolf. While reding "Lolita", there are many times where this same "Daddy complex" comes to mind. Lilita is more than wiling to go along with HUmbert on their little trip to 342 different hotels. Lolita wants male attention and that is very clear while reading with how she constantly tries for Humberts attention. Not that she must try hard, but there are some interesting undertones of whatLolita really wants from HUmbert. The one thing that sat all these thought off was the color red. Right after Humbert and Lolita are intimate or the first time, the word red seems to be very prominent when HUmbert is describing situations and conversations he and Lolita are in.

When HUmbert is describing Lolita sitting in the lobby, "in an overstufed blood-red armchair,"(138), he is stil having thoughts of what he and Lolita had done the previous night. It seems that whenever the color Red is written down, there are strong sexual undertones. it is known that the color Red always seems to beused in the same light of seduction, sensual hapenings, and i sthe most emotionally intense color. With all the little meanings Nabokov has all over his work, it seems very fitting that he chose to use the color Red to give the reader just that much more intense , sexual , and even emotional feeling, since that color is seen in the world as encompassing all those things.

After thinking more about red, one has to wonder if maybe Nabokov could have gotten ideas to write Lolita from Litle Red Riding Hood. Its obvious that throughout the book ther are hints of fairy tales; the way all the places they go to, that are worth being mentioned by Humbert, have names that fit the situation too well. For example, the very first hotel where HUmbert and Lolita are intimate is called the Enchanted HUnters. Isnt the wolf a hunter in the forest that Red is walking through? HUmbert describes himself as such an animal and beast, and even calls himself a beast throughout the story, couldnt he be the wolf? The predators in both stories are prying on young, seemingly innocent young girls. But how inocent is Little Red? And how innocent is Lolita?

After Humbert and Lolita are intimate, HUmbert is very aware that he was not Lolita's first sexual experience and soon after, learns about her first sexual experience. Lolita having these types of experiences and knowing what happens between men and women, seems to almost want Humbert to take her innocense away. She is well aware of what she does to him, granted he shouldnt take anything she does too seriously because of her age. But it seems as though Lolita wants to be grown up, she wants to be a woman, and wants the attention she recieves from HUmbert. Lolita wants to be part of the "grown up world". Lolita is constantly trying to be around her mother and doing things with her mother that would represent her as a more mature older girl. And Charlotte see's this in her daughter therefore wants to separate HUmbert and Lolita. Lolita is what the color red is, sexual, emotionally intense, and seducing. It is only fiting that Nabokov uses this color throughout the novel.

Well all i have to say is that the test was just what i expected... but i didnt quite prepare myself for all of it! of course having tuesday to go over questions was a huge help but geez.... that section where we had to match up words from the text i got a little flustered.... but it turned out ok, i guess :) it just made me feel like i didnt read the text close enough... now i know that when i start reading Pale Fire a closer reading needs to be done.... i think i go a little crazy when i read it too close but obviously that is what needs to be done with Nabokov!

Test # 1

well i think as all of us know... for this first test.... we need to read Lolita.. and expect a Sexson test as well as a test that Nabokov would have given his students... i guess i need to finish the novel, well.. NOW!! im of to conquer Lolita all the way through!

Still reading through Lolita, and for some reason i have to stop, and start again on certain parts of the novel. I get so into reading the words that Nabokov has written and then i begin to lose myself in the words, and after that.. well i dont know where i am in the story and what is going on. so nedless to say, im stil getting through the novel. There is something so captivating in the way that Nabokov writes. there seems to be secret meanings in ALL he is writing and i think that is why i am having a hard time getting through it! every time i think a word has a special meaning behind it, or that a whole scene means something new, thats when i have to step back and read through it again.... it is as if i am reading the first book ive ever read, which is obviously not the case! but in class we sit and talk about all the things that we have discovered and then listening to how Sexson explains all the things that us readers have missed, i think i start to second guess myself in how i am reading it... ok, imjust confusing myself... but i have been ever since i started reading nabokov so nothing new there!

Finally!

After a day of doing nothing with my time but have Nabokov on my mind, i think i have finally found a couple small little discoveries. They arent big but just interesting enough to have kept my interest long enough while looking for them.

The last name of Lolita has always slightly confused me. I couldnt figure out why, Nabokov would spell Haze the way he did as a last name. I have known people with that last name and never had seen it spelt that way. So I spelt it Hayes. Just out of curiosity I looked up Howard Hayes. Since Lolitas fathers name was Howard i though i could possibly find a little something with that name. Turns out that there was a Howard Hayes Scullard. He was a british historian and was one who edited the Oxford Classical Dictionary. that i thought was pretty interesting, Nabokov being a writer and he taking a name of a person who loved words was kinda cool. But then as i looked a little more i found that Howards fathers name was Herbert Hayes Scullard. That little name looked and sounded familiar. not only is it similar to Humbert but it also is mentioned in Lolita when they are checking into the Enchanted Hunters hotel.

the second discovery i found was pretty neat too, i had thought that parkington was an interesting town name and googled that. when i did i found that there was a man named Gersham Parkington who had a very unusual clock and watch collection. could be a coincidence of course but i thought it was pretty cool . Not only that but Gersham means, little surprise.

DISCOVERY

For a few days now, i have been reading Lolita unlike any other book i have ever read. people have gotten up and talked in class about their discoveries and listening has made me feel like i either have let a lot of the story go right over my head, or... that i am somehow just not picking up on this little hints. After hearing some very interresting and great discoveries its even harder for me to read parts of the book because i know i have to find a discovery. i had thought that maybe my "L's" on the page would be a good one, but then Sexson had mentioned it in class so im guessing i wasnt crazy seeing all those "L" words all over the pages. So im still trying to find my discovery. i feel as if right now, i am jsut looking, too hard at words and passages.

What makes a great teacher

"A great Teacher is a wonderful story teller, therefore an Enchanter"
In class the topic of what an artist must have to be "good" came up. Sexson explained that Nabokov believed that an artist must be a good story teller, an enchanter, and a teacher. the most important of the three is enchanter. I then started to think about what my favorite teachers have done to keep my interest or keep me excited about a class. and then it hit me, they have all been enchanters. not only good story tellers, since all my favorite teachers have been English teachers, but they have all been really really good at story telling, which makes them enchanting to the students.
Nabokov is a complete enchanter. with his words he writes in Lolita, i get completely enthralled into the story once i sit down and read. in fact the other day i was in the library and totally read through one of my classes! i was enchanted not only by the story but the words that Nabokov uses. and not only the use of the words, but once i really start reading Lolita i get lost in what is all going on. I start to feel like i am in the story, and Humbert at times. and what is really weird is to start sympothizing with Humbert. once i do start to see things in Humberts twisted mind it throws me off. i always quit reading and then have to go right back to where i stopped, or even a little further! I also start to feel like i am imaging things while reading. For instance when he writes about Lolita there are "L's" all over the page. and i know its not just me, because i finally took my highlighter and highlighted all the L's and words with L's and find that yes, Nabokov has put these letters and words all over the pages that are centered around Lolita. or to better describe, pages where Lolita is discribed.
Nabokov has enchanted me with heis words, and his story and i cant wait to start reading another Nabokov book to see if he has that same ability.

Why Humbert?

In class we have talked about why, why the main character in Lolita is a pedophile. Amanda has written a blog on this question and seems to be very perturbed as to why , Nabokov would want to write about this subject. For me i think that the idea of being so greatly ill with something like pedophilia , would be interesting for Nabokov to investigate. After all the discoveries Sexson has showed us already in class, it is pretty obvious that, Nabokov liked to learn, discover, understand all types of things in life. Even though the subject matter is disturbing and quite confusing for a man who isnt a pediphile to be writing, the book isnt as disturbing as i thought it may have been.

For years i have wondered about Lolita. wondered if i would enjoy reading it. and the wonder simply comes from the fact that it has been talked about, written about, praised, fought etc. over and over again. now that i have finally delve into the book full force to explore the story, i can understand why it has been talked about, written about, praised and fought. there are so many disturbing passages written when Humbert is speaking of Lolita. and i really wonder why? how would a man who wasnt a pedophile write such a confinsing story. and why would he want to. the only answer i have to why he would want to is to out himself in the position of a pedophile to learn more about that type of person. Or maybe he just simply wanted to confuse readers. get them all worked up about a certain subject. he had to have known that what he was writing was going to be fought. that Lolita was going to be seen as not a piece of literature but in some eyes, a disgusting story.

I wish that i could really find out why, but even when looking up information on Nabokov and his writings and interviews he did about this novel almost confuse me more. he doesnt seem to want anyone to know why he wrote the story. maybe it was just for him. a story that tormented, excited, compelled, him to keep going.

Annotation Of Page 75

Four of the annotations made by Appel, on page 75, made me think of a few themes that are throughout the entire book of Lolita. The first annotation he makes is when Charlotte is talking to Humbert and the word "Turk" gets mentioned. Here she is not sure of what race Humbert is , and through out the story, there is speculation on what race Humbert Humbert actually is. Jean Farlow makes specualtions on his race and the manager at The Enchanted Hunters also wonders what race HUmbert HUmbert is.

The second annotation is the word "contretemps" the dictionary definition is: an embarrassing minor disagreement, but Appel defines it as an embarrassing or awkward occurance. when i first read through the passage i looked up the word on the internet because i was confused as to what it meant and it didnt really fit, but then reading the annotation it fit for my understanding better. throughout the entire book i had awkard moments while reading the text because of the subject matter. so much of what humbert writes about is disturbing and awkward in itself, it is hard not to feel awkward while reading.

the third annotation is rattles, i find it interresting that Humbert is speaking of himself in terms of a rattle snake, because fromt he very beginning of the novel i felt he was a snake in the grass... a predator and someone or something that one would want to stay away from.

The fourth annotation is the word rubrique. I dont have this in my notes but im almost possitive that in class we have talked about newspapers and lolita a few times, and also spoke about how Nabokov disliked newspapers so much. and i start to wonder why? why if Nabokov has such a dislike for newspapers would he write so much about them in Lolita, and let alone that but he puts the word in italic letters as to play with the reader. at least when i read and see a word in italics it always peaks my interest and i either look the word up or pay even more close attention to that word and words alike.

All these annotations that Appel gives to the reader are interesting to me, while reading through the story all these things were something that i have picked up on and thought about myself. so to find four points on one page that i have sat and thought about really intrigued me.

My own Butterfly experiences

In class today, Sexson read a passage from Speak Memory, and it got me thinking about my past experiences with Butterflies. As a small creature, if thats what you call a butterfly, i have never really thought much about them since i was very little. My first memory of butterflies, is one that makes me laugh a little now. I hadnt thought of it in so long, i guess because i dont see butterflies that often, and really i cant remember the last time i actually saw one. But, back to my memory, i had to of been about 3 and i was in a daycare program in Helena. I remember always painting and drawing and dancing, so i am guessing it was a kind of art program. One day, and i remember it as if it was yesterday, i painted a butterfly. when my grandmother came to pick me up that day, i showed her and i was extremely proud of my painting. when she took the painting from me i remember her just staring at it and then telling me it was beautiful. to this day, she still has it framed in her house.
My next vivid memory of a butterfly, is one that ironically enough is also with my grandmother. i remember sitting in the big white kitchen she had, at an old and quite enormous butcher block, right in the center of the room. i was coloring and as she asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up i said to her, a butterfly.

My small discoveries of Nabokov

I love pictures new and old, so i tried to find some interresting ones of our author:































I love the picture where Nabokov is turning around and looking at the camera, i thought that was really cool.

*The picture where he is walking was taken in 1965 with his Wife.

Sexson had mentioned this in class but i still find it so impressive that two of Nabokov's texts are on the list of The Modern Library 100 Best Novels, with Lolita at #4 and Speak Memory at #8. To have two novels on a list like that just blows my mind. The novel Lolita was banned in France and censored in the USA till 1958. Since it was published in 55 i suppose the fact that it got uncensored in such a short amount of time is pretty impressive.

Quotes from Nabokov:
*A masterpiece of fiction is an original world and as such is not likely to fit the world of the reader.

*Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know.

*Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.

*I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels some treasured item of my past, it would pine away in the artificial world where I had so abruptly placed it.

This particular picture i chose was my second year at MSU. It was Halloween, and was the first Halloween since i was around six or so that i really cared what i was dressing up as. I had planned my costume for two months, and had ordered my Marilyn Monroe costume at a store in Billings. I am with two of my roommates at the time, one of which i lived with for a total of five years. Mandy, the one dressed like Daisy Duke was my roommate that MSU paired me up with, and like i said lived with her for four more years after our first year in the dorms. When i found this picture at the end of my pictures on Facebook, i started to remember the excitement we all had that night. All of my roommates and I had planned our costumes, and had worked so hard to get them just right! It was as if it was a contest, but for us it was that one night to dress up and be a little crazy. Ever since this Halloween i have been excited to dress up, and have a costume weeks in advance and know exactly what i am going to be. when i look closer at the costumes i remember Maddie's, we had glued on all of the little leaves to her top that had taken her weeks to find. and also had had to sew on all the leaves to her wings.
The house that we are at is the very first house that we had rented after being in the dorms. When we all moved into that four bedroom, one bath , place, I dont think we were anything but ecstatic to have our own place, to be able to do what we please. The picture in the very background, that is dark and can barley be seen, is a picture that has hung in all my immediate family's homes at some point. it is a poster from the boston marathon in 1984 i believe, so two years before i was born, but my mom and grandfather had run in it that year, and my grandpa had framed it. Ever since i was little i have loved that poster, not even knowing the significance of it, but the colors and print i have always loved.

First Blog of the semester!

Sexson said in class, that he wanted a blog on our first memory. It took me only a few minutes to clear my mind, and really think back to my earliest memory. Im probably 3 years old maybe younger, running down the hallway to my grandparents bedroom, because at that time my mother and I lived with them. And i still to this day remember running to their room when i got scared, had a bead dream or jsut couldnt sleep. When i think about it a little bit more i realize that still to this day, they are the ones I run to when I need comfort, help, understanding, affection etc. Its ironic to me that my earliest memory is of me running to them in a time of some sort of need, and that they are still here for me today to run to them with whatever I need.

Other than that, I am very excited to start this class! I havnet started reading Speak, Memory, since that is going to be my weekend fun, but i have looked through it a bit and I think it will be a very interresting read!