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