In Rapture

Now, we're supposed to make some sort of final post, yet I'm not quite sure what to post. Nothing seems final. We've really only finished the semester, That's it. In "reality", if we're all smart, we won't give up on studying Nabokov. We know more about Nabokov than most of the world at the moment, and we can continue our exploration of his style without the hindrance of grades and those people that John Shade disdains. We have the possibility of becoming distinguished because of how much we know about an eccentric Russian's word play. This is our moment to shine.

This isn't for the students that don't read, don't blog, and don't read others journals. This is for the Nabokovians. The Pica inflicted. This is for those of us that don't give a ____ about grades. Those of us that find writing to a teachers degree is ridiculous.

Write for yourselves.

For those of you that have yet to give up, those of you who haven't fallen into a rut of learning what the establishment throws at you, this is your chance to become writers. Do not give up on your Nabokovian Studies- his writing is what striving strives for. This man has mastered the ability to layer stories that I've only seen in Silent Will.

In Nabokov lies the power to make money writing (writing at a level that sells in a society that finds intelligence to be a hindrance) as well as layer in genius that will not hinder the unwashed masses understanding, while simultaneously opening millions of trails of thoughts for the eccentrics amongst us. Imagine being able to enjoy what you write as well as live off of it. This lies in Nabokov.

Now, I just turned 21 for the first (wait....) time and I went out in celebration of classes ending last night.......wow do I hurt. "I'm never drinking again" (Reality)

Thank you to everyone that has enabled me to learn throughout this class. Thank you Doug, Jennie Lynn, Zach of the Saving Bells, Helena of the 10,000 Lakes, Robert, John, Chris scribbles the scribe, Douglas, Sexson, and the many of you I have not mentioned.

I've lived Nabokov. He's in my dreams, my speech, my writing, and he's ventured into my poems. I will leave this class with a poem that wouldn't be without Nabokov, and without this class.


December 1st

As it was when i was once a dramatic piece,

Whence i was but a child, the season my innocence released.

The leaf of the tree that fell from an early snow,

Again am i the sun from which lunatics shadow the glow.?

OF MY LIFE TOLD

With a send, a buzz, a ring,

Of all the twitching thumbs

-And I know those thumbs the most-

When their owners eyes dissolve my repose.

Its tongue asking that which I’m yet to know

But

There is no emotion in its asking,

The clasp of my arm claims no comfort.

I was the Bowl that burned from green to black,

The Pyramids stacked on the Kitchen counter.

I was the Break for tired feet, Their bottoms in seats;

(The Shout that spilt Across the Blacklit Floors)

High heels and Slick shoes spelled my news.

I measured my night in Cabernet’s & Merlot’s.

My Tongue purpled, my cheeks a glow,

The sniffle of Abraham and fake Snow,

The Primes and Pinot Noir,

And still my eyes did not go Afar!

Dinner with Diva’s & wandering eyes

Still I kept Mine from becoming a lie!

I sat through burgers & fries,

Watched women spell out their desires

With a metal board and magnetic letters.

Mine was a bottle of Fetzer.

I am Prufrock etherized across a maple,

I am the conversation at the breakfast table:

“Is he Stable?”

“He didn’t care, not at all, not at all.”

I am the sheath, Hamlet.

I am the back the botkin met.

　

　

　

The Death of this ‘Ship is mine to keep.

The drool that drips

Between sharp teeth, thin lips

& then repeats

The spittle that forms puddles,

Is to long, to deep for me to leap.

(My place is next to your own seat

With feet away from feet,

My hands warming jeans)

　

From whence I was a Dramatic Piece,

This is Death in repeat.

I will not be the Wine I drink

I will not be the dead’s treat.

That night I played myself in Repeat,

The same murmur of friendly aggression

The same friend finding another’s attention,

Again I placed my emotion in the Lethe.

Again my skin felt a daggers teeth.

The pool of Shades tore at my thoughts

My news; The Romans cast lots.

A social berating upon/behind the back.

I am the color the Death Cab lacks.

OH My Lolita! I am Clearly Guilty,

You are My Virgin Mary wilting.

But Lo, you will never understand,

No never,

You will think this a note to dismember,

You will think again I’ve lost my temper.

　

　

OH Boscobel! OH Royal Oak!

My Pages! My Poems!

My Spiraling Tomb!

My Labyrinth to forever Rome!

Thank You

Incomplete Index of Transparent Things

INDEX
Of the Novel
Transparent Things.




To Armand Rave










1556- The shared birthday of Silent William, and pencil lead.
A-Alice, Juliet Moore, The Former Love, The Past
A Boy for Pleasure- A competitor’s novel (of R.) that Phil wishes R. to write.
Adam Von Librikov-(541) See Wellesley College.
Analyst-(531) Something not owned by Hugh. Also see “ask your grocer”
A Play On Words- See Majestic In Chur.
Art- (545) Meaningless word, that Hugh praises “incorrectly” for keeping his Claire alive. (See Lolita’s final passage.)
“Ask your grocer”- Ridiculously stupid term used by Freudians to rob humanity of any self-sustaining mentality outside of its fraudulent singularity.
Ascot- Narrow neckband with wide pointed wings. Traditionally made of pale gray silk.
B- Beata, Busy Witt, “Now”. The Present Mistress. The Present.
Banque Bleue- The Hotel in Trux, home (In A, B, or C, I do not know) to the Tara cataract, that replaces the Locquet as well as it’s neighbor. In a similar story, Armande’s father died demolishing a hotel by a defunct spa.
Blake Twins- Jake and Jack.
Blind Boot- Instrument almost impulsively used by one Hugh Person to crush a ‘large white butterfly’ with ‘papery wings, blotched with black and maculated with faded crimson’. The blind boot thought himself lost, when in fact he was in the pastures (once orchards), where he had Butterflied a kiss on to one Armande’s lips, the spot where he had sought off to find. See butterfly kiss page 525. See Chapter 23.
Boswell- Gentlemen in the 18th century who wrote possibly the most accurate biography in existence. See the Book Pale Fire (Following ode To Vera). See Tamworth. (546)
Bravura- (545) Showy Piece. In this Case, A Citation by R. on Hugh’s unbelievable Freudian dream that he concocted in order to amuse the Dips Hit. Also a musical piece. For a deeper understanding of why this is a bravura, see chapter 20.
C- Claire, V. Armande Chamar. The Future Love. The Future.
Café du Glacier- Café atop a tremendous hike, especially if you are wearing tennis shoes.
Caviar- See Graphite
Charles Chamar- Died during Alice’s demolishing of a hotel near a defunct spa.
Christies and Other Lassies- Great Skier’s autobiography being worked on in the A. by Hugh’s publishing company.
Clarissa Dark- See HAREM
Cool Shrines- Pages 491, 495, 497, 506. 518
CQ- Greek Hunter whom died from his look of lust.
Cunning Stunts-”Avant Garde” hit. The first letter of the first word, should not be switched with the two first letters of the second word.
Denton- (516) A collection of Butterfly’s that were awarded gold and silver medals in the 1900 Paris Exhibition. The Denton’s (Brothers whom the collection is named after, silly) were then commissioned to assemble a collection for England’s Edward VII. Wellesley Mass. now owns the Denton Collection, sporting over 1,500 moths and butterflies. See Wellesley College.
Double Systole- (543) Double entendre relating to the physiological and Poetical aspects of the word.
Female Anatomy- See Cunning Stunts. See Knout.
Dips Hit- A Psychotherapist. A Freudian. See Fraud.
Drakonita- Vlad The Impaler. Vlad III. Count Drake. The Dragon. Count Dracula. The Devil. A Romanian Prince well Remembered for staking 10,000 Turkish Prisoners outside his castle. Also a cableway in Switzerland.
Fantastic In Blur- Play on words relating to Ralph de Laer’s opinions on Electron Spin after it was denounced and then stolen by one Wolfgang Pauli. Incomplete information on Ralph de Laer’s last name.
Figures In A Golden Window- (505) (Aka The Burning Window) Another Novel by R. In Which Juliet, Jealous of her lover, Romeo, leaving her in the A. for his future wife, Vera, sets fire to the Hotel in which the two are staying. The story ends with a beautiful picture (drawn by the Belgian Artist, Plam) of R. and R. jumping out of the enflamed third story window. See also Figurine of a Female Skier. See Julia Moore.
“Fit”- A box containing U’s hiking boots.
Firedrops- (511) Poetic metaphor for an excretion of joy.
Fraud- A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.
German Blond in Black- See Page 496.
Graphite- See pencil lead.
Green Figurine of a Female Skier- See Grumbel Jail. See also U’s Death, Chapter 26 (559). See also Armande (524).
Grumbel Jail- Place in which Armand Rave, The homosexual convict who strangled his boyfriend’s incestuous sister, carved and colored the green figurine of a female skier.
Harold Hall- American Consul In Switzerland.
HAREM-(531) Literally “Has A Rapid Eye Movement” stage during sleep in which 80% of males have sexual dreams (findings of Clarissa Dark). “she investigated singlehanded some two hundred healthy jailbirds whose terms of imprisonment were shortened, of course, by the number of nights spent in the Center’s Dormitory. Well, one hundred seventy-eight of the men were seen to have powerful erections during the stage of sleep called HAREM.”
Harem- Term given to the resting quarters of women in polygynous relationships. It is strictly forbidden to men.
HH- See CQ.
Hidden Jewels- See Caviar. See Julia Moore.
Hotel Ascot- Ugly building of gray stone, brown wood, cherry red shutters, and apple-green aproned valets
Hugh Person- (Corrupted “Peterson” and pronounced “Parson” by some) (503)
Hugh Person Senior- A Dean of a prestigious all boys school in Vermont while he was still alive. Senior, a smelly, pudgy, old man of sixty, was told by the family doctor that a trip to Europe with his son would help heal the pangs of losing his wife. Senior dies in a fantastic blur of Brown, Blue, and Grey, on the other side of the Green veil, due to a roaring Redness that filled his head. Senior dies with an arm outstretched towards a terrible black mess (also a frightful conductor of electricity, mind you reader that Senior hates electric storms) out of reach in the reflecting mirror. Do not forget the trouble that Senior has with his hands.
Immediately- See “Now”. Also see Chapter 21 in its entirety mind you..
Implement- Useless tool of Jack Blake. (525)
Irma- The unlucky shopgirl whom, while laughing, unveils The Posthumous Hugh Senior.
Jack Moore- Hugh’s A. roommate. (No Relation).
Jacques- Hunk of a human, this Swiss boy (being the son of an old guide) spends his time hiking mountains, skiing slopes, and trying to convert young ladies into a virtually all male cast orgy.
J. Major- (512) One of Our Arsonists lovers before dying in a “remote war”. Little is known of his rank.
Julia Moore- Arsonist. Step Daughter of Mr. R. whom deflowered her at the tender age of thirteen. Julia enjoys tall men with strong hands and sad eyes. For a nearly hidden look at Ms. Moore visit page 511. Literary figure known as June.
Kandidatov- The Painter from Alice.
Knout- (541) Correction to the reign of Cnut.
Kronig- See A Play On Words.
La Stampa- “The Press”. A widely circulated Italian Newspaper.
Locquet- Not to be misunderstood for Locket, Locquet is hotel in Trux. Resemblance to U’s mother’s Maiden name. See Ascot if interested.
Love- Morbidly boring topic discussed in Chapter 17.
Lord Byron- Mr. Cypress in The Nightmare Abbey. (506)
Lutwidge- The middle name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He is known by no other names. (515)
Majestic In Chur- Possibly a Hotel in Chur Switzerland that, possibly, Old Kronig managed. See also Fantastic In Blur.
Mauve Snowflakes- Items belonging to Mr. Flankard which Mrs. Flankard wished to be raped under (503).
M. Chamar- Madame Charles Chamar, nee Anastasia Petrovna Potapov (not Patapouf). (No connection can be found linking her to the daughter of Tsar Nichalos II) M. Chamar received her name from her husband after he fled Russia during the Bolshevist revolution.
MM- A place in which only experts should venture (502).
Mondstein Sexy- The name of a pair of ski’s that belonged to Armande.
Mrs. Flankard- Over the hill writess whom finds beauty is beyond the skin. Possible Mental Complex.
Napoleon- Merely a visiting spirit.
“Now”- A thin veneer of immediate reality is spread over natural and artificial matter (490), and when looking down you can make out the phantoms of pale tables and underwater waiters (494).
Onanistic- (525) Subject entertained by the three J’s, Jacques, Jake and Jack. It is the withdrawal of the penis during sexual intercourse so as to ejaculate outside of the vagina. Sodomy.
Opus- A Musical work, or literary composition. (547)
Orange- The Color of Lust. 511, 512, 523, 526
Pauline- Large Woman, Slothlike (probably due to watching so much T.V.), shared the duty of cleaning up after Persons’.
“Pere Igor”- some special shop.
Pencil Lead- graphite is mixed with moist clay that is then placed in a machine (for further information on this contraption visit page 492) and formed into a pencil.
Person Pen- Hugh’s only achievement.
Person Stroke- Tennis move particular to Hugh. “…was executed with a rigid arm and blended a vigorous drive with a clinging cut that followed the ball from the moment of impact to the end of the stroke…” (for further instruction see page 528)
Photocrom- Process initially developed in Switzerland in which a color photo lithograph is produced via a black and white negative. Also known as an outdated method.
Photochrome- See Photocrom.
Plumbeous- To Contain Lead (492)
R.- Fat, Alcoholic, Incestuous (not-technically), Statutory rapist, horrible step father (though are any ever very good?), Fat-Enormously so, Eccentric, Narcissistic, Shade, Expert Specter. Also a novelist.
Romeo & Juliet- Play as old as time, by Silent Will in which a thirteen year old girl is robbed of her life by the mistakes of an overly affection Sixteen year old. See Julia Moore. Also Bravura.
“So-called”- Saying of U’s father.
Scranton- Town in which U’s Uncle receives Senior.
Spine- (541) The reader’s main organ.
Stresa- The Honeymoon of newlywed Persons was spent here. Speculation leads one to believe that Hugh is still possibly a poor performer (as mentioned by a whore early on in his life) due to his inability to shimmy down a mere four stories (534).
Suicide- A form of Account Fakery.
Tamworth- “Black-blotched swine” (509); Also of a pirates beard, Tom Tam is a vile creature that is happily waiting for our author R. to finally switch “publishers” (546) so that he may retain all of our author’s work.
Tara Cataract- A. local miracle of nature in Trux. B. A Defunct Spa.
Tea time- Roundabout when Persons make love.
Telephones- Truly scary contraption to any novice.
The Slender Slut- R.’s alternative would be alternative to ABFP.
The Stag’s- A Book by Mrs. Flankard. (AKA the Confessions of a White-Widowed Male)
Thomas Love Peacock- A Fan Of Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. (506)
3Photes-(497) Three Photo’s, Three Poses. Double, Possibly, Triple meanings.
Poses
Three Tenses- (520) The novel by R. about the blue suited gentleman surrounded by three women whom have never met. T.T. is the tralatition for Transparent Things. The Watermark. See (538). T. T. exists in three realities; the A, the B, and the C. T.T. is told by R. in the B, while existing in the A, and occasionally trying to discern the C. R. tells us early on in T.T. that You cannot fully understand the C due to its rapid changing inevitability.
Toss and Thurn- Imaginary valleys passed through during a restless sleep (532).
Tralala- (509) The part of a song where the soloist is joined by a group of singers. See
Bravanda, See Opus.
Thanatology- (543) Study of Death
Tralalation- A Metaphor. A slip of the tongue.
Trim Metaphor- retracing steps for ghosts.
Trux- A lakeside town in Switzerland. The first visit of U’s with his Father at the age of 22, as well as his second ten years later.
Twenty-two- The price of a cute wristwatch. Also the number of Canton’s on a white cross centered on a wooden plate (497).
U- Boston Strangler.
Versex Palace- The place of Hugh and R.’s first meeting. (507)
Villa Nastia- The humble abode of M. And Ms. Chamar. (Not Anastasia)
Wellesley College- School in Mass. where in the A. Vivian Bloodmark was a professor.
Witt- Town in which Hugh looses his life.
Vera- Armande Rave, The Green Figurine of a Female Skier, Mrs. Hugh Person.
(To Be Continued………)

Transparent Things

T spends a lot of time in Nabokov's mind during this novella of his.
So does the letter 3
313
Backhand,slap,Backhand
Triple Totality
3photo
poses

Transparent Things is a book Three Tenses; Past, Present, and Future.

Hugo (You, Percy, but not pretty) Person is a rather dull man who seeks to understand his past by searching out where his memories existed, and once they're he enters his dreams in hopes of finding what it is he has lost. He ends up loosing his life this way oddly enough after recreating the environment he wanted, wants for his wife, he dies in a fire (that may or may not have been slightly hoped for by one of the author/teachers/ghosts infamous Mr. R.

The Color green does exist throughout the novella,

also do the color's white and red. Now what do we know about these three colors? If you don't understand it now, perhaps Christmas will help you. Or perhaps delving into the Catechism will show you the true way.

Don't Forget the White Butterfly,

The 'dreadful building of gray stone and brown wood, it sported cherry-red shutters (not all of them shut) which by some mnemoptical trick he (You) remembered as apple green.'

Don't forget the Lavender Licking Flame

the green, not brown curtain drawn by Mr. Person on Dr. Person

(and for me, the dentures, those wooden teeth.)

Don't forget Hugh's grey, the love that his clothes have for the color.

and who can forget "Cunning Stunts".............really Vlad?

and i don't know if you noticed the black that seems to haunt women.

or the orange that always seems to be worn (or in a paper bag) by the Lusts of Hugh.

Julia's orange blouse

The discarded bag of oranges carried by the twins (another set of three, hehehe)

The orange peel that marked the place of v-cards being swiped,

though we all know that really only one was making love.

and Good old Chapter 24 (of course its not your fault Mr. R.)

and what about chapter 20? When did you write this Mr. R?

OR do ghosts even exist in our relativity of time?

Can you really slip into our past so easily as stepping upon a rock?

The Royal Oak

As it always seems to be with Nabokov, he never figured puzzles had edges. Everytime I open Pale Fire in search of Our Professor Blue or the dead friend, I end up with pieces that connect but have yet to make any picture. Also, they seem to trail off into a giant X with no fill in between, and the tails find no need in staying linear, no, they loop and lean, sag, and soar, and I've yet to find them taught, with a clear point. Oh The Monarch's Way!

But to the point; Did anyone realize that Kinbote is envisioning the escape of Chalres II of England? Sexson has told us this, right? he wouldn't leave something like that out would he? did he? he did, didn't he?

BOSCOBEL!

In Kinbote's Commentary on page 232, he says these words;

How much happier the wide-awake indolents, the monarchs among men, the rich monstours brains deriving intense enjoyment and rapturous pangs from the balustrade of a terrace at nihgtfall, from the lights and the lake below, from the distant mountain shapes melting ino the dark apricot of the afterglow, from the black conifers outlined against the pale ink of the zenith, and from the garnet and green flounces of the water along the silent, sad forbidden shoreline. Oh my sweet Boscobel! And the tender and terrible memories and the same, and the glory, and the maddening intimations, and the star that no party member can ever reach.

Boscobel, a small civil parish in the east of Shropshire, England has an oak tree, A Royal Oak Tree in which Chalres II hid after loosing the batlle of Worcester in 1651.

Do some easy reading and catch up Wiki Charles II Escape.

If, and when you do read this, I have a favor to ask of you (I am on my own little journey of thought here, so I'll not be doing it at the moment); Find the corelating remarks by Kinbote with a person during his escape to that of Charles II while he is having his "masters" horse reshoed. (HINT: BOSCOBEL TO BENTLY)
Comparable to John Dillinger walking into the cop station and asking the score eh?

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

Where do you think Charles II Ended up fleeing to?....Kinbote?

And if you're one of those naysayers, look onto the next page, Verse 597-608.

Towards the bottom of the page;

"(I am thinking of yet another Charles, another long dark man above two yards high)."

Since I have not made it clear, Charles II was 6'2 during an age when most men stood below 5'10.

RedStaroverBlueSeas

Red Star Over Blue Seas

redstaroverblueseas

redstarover blueseas

Starover

Blue

Star

Over

Blue

Starover Blue

Don't go to this site to find out more:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=384390

Indirectly related or not, I'll Kinbote a passage.

Aside: I was watching the history channel today (while in the middle of doing drawl human nutrition), when on came a segment about WWII (that means world war two), and Hitler's tactics during the winter of '44 (1944). Hitler waged his war during the winter purposefully so as to dissuade the use of American planes when he was taking territories. He wanted drizzly, foggy, rainy weather. He would set up all his mustached schemes months in advance, planning and planning and planning and (To much?) planning but he would not set forth the orders until he knew that the conditions were optimal. Even after loosing the Atlantic Sea Battle (this will wrap up, I promise) to us, Awesome Americans, he left a few of his old U-boats in that Ocean for the soul reason of watching the weather fronts, watching the skies, so as to relay back to old hypocritical half-the-man-he-wanted-to-be Hitler, when the conditions would be correct.

(Did you go to the site?)

(Claws aside, really?)

Now let us take a look at John Shade's first canto, starting at verse 183

The Little scissors I am holding are

A dazzling synthesis of sun and star.

I stand before the window and I pare

My fingernails and vaguely am aware

Of certain flinching likenesses: the thumb,

Our grocer's son; the index, lean and glum

College astronomer Starover Blue;

The Middle fellow, a tall priest I knew;

The feminine fourth finger, an old flirt;

and little pinky clinging to her skirt.

And I make mouths as I snip off the thin

Strips of what Aunt Maud used to call "scarf-skin"

Meet Maud

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

(Military Application of Uranium Detonation)

And if you happen to read the little Russian Interest's Section

you will find a link to Igor Kurchatov

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Kurchatov#Career)

whom happened to study physics and Naval Engineering.

hmmmm.......

And later on we run into Igor in Canto number 3, starting at verse 623;

We heard cremationists guffaw and snort

At Grabermann's denouncing the Retort

As detrimental to the birth of wraiths.

We all avoided criticizing faiths.

The great Starover Blue reviewed the role

Planets had played as landfalls of the soul,

The fate of beasts was pondered. A Chinese

Discanted on the etiquette at teas

With ancestors, and how far up to go.

I tore apart the fantasies of Poe.

And dealt with childhood memories of strange

Nacreous gleams beyond the adult's range.

Among our auditors were a young priest

and an old Communist. Iph could at least

Compete with churches and the party line.

And as full as that passage is of what only Russians seem to be able to write, I'm afraid I'm not going to touch anymore of it tonight.

oh yeah, Kurchatov has a crater on the moon named after him.

Pale Fire: Day 1; In A Distant Northern Land.

"Where's The Party?"

Nabokovians! I certainly hope you've all picked a waxwing to accompany you as we shift the curtaining of the veil.



Lets Shuffle The Cards!



Lets do a little five-finger discounting,



Let us pull the blank from our own eye before chastising Charles Kinbote.





Pale Dy Definition!


a stake or picket, as of a fence.


an enclosing or confining barrier; enclosure.


an enclosed area.


limits; bounds: outside the pale of his jurisdiction.


a district or region within designated bounds.


(initial capital letter) Also called English Pale, Irish Pale. a district in eastern Ireland

included in the Angevin Empire of King Henry II and his successors.


an ordinary in the form of a broad vertical stripe at the center of an escutcheon.


Shipbuilding. a shore used inside to support the deck beams of a hull under construction.
–verb (used with object)


to enclose with pales; fence.


to encircle or encompass.—Idiom


beyond the pale, beyond the limits of propriety, courtesy, protection, safety, etc.: Their public conduct is certainly beyond the pale





Eugene! You're a Genius!



Everyone should think thoughts towards reading Richard Powers powerful novel Generosity. It's about the problem of being too happy; The Happiness Gene!



Beauty and Pity, Beauty and Pity, Beauty and Pity.



The Password is?



Nabokov wishes to creates a norm that centers around Generosity, compassion, and......?



Really? "Really?"



BLOG ASSIGNMENTS STUDENTS!



Read everyones papers, shoes which fit you best, decided upon a pair, and then take a stroll in Kinbote's loafers and leave a commentary on that which best suits you.





Now to more "important" questions (yeah important?)



What is the Elementary meaning of Pale Fire?



Level One: About a poem and a guy who really likes the poem.



Something is rotten in the state of Zembla....... (A distant northern land, of course)



"really"



Fundamentals are the TEXT and INTERPRETATION



It is a Foreword (useless to the poem, purpose filled to to the critic), A Poem ( In Four Canto's with Heroic Rhyming Couplets), 5 sets of twins (All nine of them), A commentary (Very descriptive and on point), and an index (index).



Shuffling....



Shuffling.....



Shuffling...



To This Poem we now must Turn.



You always believe the First Person you here.



Aside: Our Waxwings can be seen if there happens to be autumn.



We Are in a world of UNRELIABLE NARRATORS!



Living On (pale)- beyond the Bars of Life



Make at top 6 list of things that annoy you about Kinbote (He just so happens not to annoy me, but make me laugh)



(So I'm not going to make a list) (You should find him funny too)



Kinbote admits his Craziness (CAROUSELS HERE CAROUSELS THERE)



Popian Lines=(Parallels)=Shadian Lines



Interpret Kinbote Style



This book isn't about John Shade (Well on level 1 it is). It's About Kinbote's interpretations. (my interpretation)



(Literally anyone in literature kindles this blue flame)



Kinbote is correct- this is about Zembla (not the death of Hazel!)(?)(!) ;)

"You can only tell your own story."



Look up Pale! UNDERLINE ANYTHING TO DO WITH PALE!

'Parnassians'

The Lepidopterolgoist Vladimir Nabokov, who is loathed and loved for his linguistic tricks that spill across his infamous novels Lolita, Pnin, Pale fire, And Speak Memory amongst others, is so fascinating to read and reread that when writing you cannot help but slip a few snips of his style into you’re writing; perhaps a few hidden metaphors and meanings to mime his thoughts as your own. So it should come as no surprise to any Nabokovian that his own autobiography would be plum full of precise parallels. In fact, to know this, you need only read the back of Vintage Internationals version of Speak Memory.
Though I doubt ‘Parnassians’ will ever be associated with Nabokov as Waterproof is with Humbert Humbert, our nymphean obsessed hero, looking into the stories that these two words dredge up in our subjects minds shall show a carefully concocted correlation.
In Lolita, rewinding from the two syllables waterproof escaping Charlotte’s fishy mouth, we watch as a gum-smiling Chestnut Mare slowly transfigures into Jean Farlows moon walking with easel and things back towards her center of concealment where she had been spying upon our nymphette lusting hero and his semi-nude wife. Now in forward motion, as Jean is talking to our hero, she mentions how, “She always felt a traitor to Cavall and Melampus…..” Melampus which just happens to be the name of the Greek Hunter Actaeons Hound that viciously rips him apart after he becomes transfigured into a Stag for looking lustfully upon Artemis, the Greek goddess of virginity, as she bathes in a pool amongst other girls (Lolita, 88-9).
Following Farlow and Actaeon in accordance with the water and women Nabokov’s own life seems to have a bit of a Humbertish rub-off. Under similar situations to Actaeon, Nabokov, while a child in Russia hunting for Parnassius Mnemosyne’s, or Parnassians, in the forest Vladimir mistakenly comes across his love interest Polenka bathing nude with four or five other children. He “crept away in a dismal haze of disgust and desire,” but as he is leaving the spring he spouts a description of Polenka that can only be described as “ a nymphean incarnation of her pitiful beauty that were better left alone (Speak, 210)”;
“I saw a strange Polenka shiver and squat on the boards of the half-broken wharf, covering her breasts against the east wind with her crossed arms, while with the tip of her tongue she taunted her pursuers.”
Polenka also just happens to be a Russian spelling of Polina. Polina is the Russian derivative of the Greek name “appolinaria”, which just happens to be Apollo. Polina just happens to mean “one who belongs to Apollo”. For anyone who hasn’t brushed up on their Greek mythology lately, Apollo and Artemis are twin siblings of the Greek gods Zeus and Leto. The “Parnassians’ that Vlad just happens to be hunting for when he stumbles across “one who belongs to Apollo” just happen to nicknamed Clouded Apollo’s.
With happenings justified the realization that the coincidences in Nabokov’s non-fiction are as fast-firing as those in his fiction makes you ponder the possibility that perhaps the “reality” that Nabokov wishes to be left in is a riddle. Perhaps primates drawing bars are really stories bare of enchantment. Maybe Nabokov finds the need to fill in the landscape. But I think he just can’t help himself.

Felt Like Church On Christmas or Easter.

And Thus The Class Room Fills.

Students (studious and not), Nabokovians, Amandatarians, Sexsonians,

Stylists and Murderers alike,

The Jury, The Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, The readers and writers, The copier and scribers,

Here is our notes upon the test that Sexson says he knows best. Thirty-five of ours, for Fifteen of his, but I'm sure his rules will go amiss.

Here's your list:


First!

What is the Name of the Only Hotel (in Part 1 mind you) that our Humbert Humbert and his Lolita stay upon a comfortable double bed?

-The Enchanted Hunters (Two, mind you)

Second!

342! Houses with spouses, and hotels with pedophiles.

Third!

page 31. What is it that Logicians Loathe And Poets Love?

Fourth!

Page 9. You Can Always Count a fancy prose stylist for a murderer....?

Fifthly!

Memorize (Memorize?) the last line (Yes Memorize) of Lolita (Yet not Lolita).

Sixth!

Page 437. Nabokovians! What does Nabokov think he was "really". And you would say,
"a landscape painter."

Seventh!

Who Can Recognize a nymphette? An artist and a Madman (Where does this place you?)

Eighth!

Seeing Colors as Letters, or Letters as Numbers, Or coloring in the lines by the number is? Synisthesia (I truly don't know exactly)

Ninth!

Mustache!

Tenthly!

We're to Nabokov, as Quilty is to Humbert! (How does this make you feel?) (Used?)

Eleventh!

Students! What does Nabokov think about Sleep? Its Repulsive, (and so seems the question!)

Twelfth!

Dolores, Our Lo, Lolita, Ms. Haze, The Dramatist, The Mater Dolorosa! The Mother Mary. The Sorrowful Sevens Sins........

Thirteenth!

What are the names of Jean (Gene!) Farlows dogs! Cavall and Melampus. not melon pus.

Thirteen.1!

How is the story of Acteon and Dian significant

Fifteenthly!

What do you need to pass this class? Memory, Imagination, Artistic Sense, and A dictionary (almost didn't something Nabokovian, but I've been warned once)

Sixteenth!

Nobokovians! something you must know! The Three things that make a writer well;

Storyteller,
Teacher
Enchanter

But in What order? hmmm....

Aside: What's the chance of Coincidence this class around?

Seventeenth! (The Hump!) (The Hump!)

Read James The Rat's Blog (That's this blog) ( I truly hope you know that) (Maybe I'll hint what later for you taker of test only;)

Eighteenth!

What color is the ball that the cocker spaniel is playing with? it's Red. Aside: Nabokov loves white lies. Not that it matters if they're white.)

Nineteenth!

Describe Humbert's Forearms in 2 Words! Hairy and Masculine (Not Sexy)



(Really it's not Sexy)

Twentiethly!

WATERPROOF! O Face! Not Office Space. O! O!

Twenty-first!

Name one of the plays written by Clare Quilty; (I'm not making these up)

The Little Nympth

The Lady that Loved Lightning (Picnics?)

Fatherly Love

The Strange Mushroom (?)

Twenty-second!

How did Charlotte Haze Die? (Now according to SS I told it incorrectly in my blog, but i find not the blog that spurts it wrong.) So read and find for yourself.

Twenty-third!

Reality

Twenty-fourth!

(Picnic, Lightning) don't forget the,

Twenty-fifthly!

What is the difference between satire and parody? Satire is a lesson, Parody is a game.

Twenty-sixth!

In "Speak Memory", What did Nabokov's mother like to collect from the woods?

Super powers in Mario Brothers anyone?

Twenty-seventh!

What is the brats favorite order of genres of films? MUSICAlS (Slapping out one finger), UNDERWORLDERS (Finger Two), and Westerners (The Third Finger slaps lips to silence)

Twenty-eighth!

Who is Jutting Jaw? Who is Dick Tracy

Twenty-Ninth!

Metafiction. Lolita, Don Quixote, And The French Lieutenants Woman.

Thiriethly!

Taxovich

Thirty-First!

(Spoiler! O Faces, Thousand Lakes, and Acteon)

The Casbian Varber, The Classlist, Taxovich, and Our sweet Lo playing Tennis all never made it into the film version! yet they're Vivian Darkbloom's favorites.

Thirty-second!

"The very geometry of reality is what Lolita seemed to represent when she was playing tennis."
-This makes a fool of everything I've ever ridden. ;)

Thirty-Third!

The imitated behavior! Read Page (%.

Thirty-Fourth!

The age that certain artist and madmen find their lovers? 9-14

Thirty-Fifthly! LAST! THANK YOU!

What is the one region where nymphets not found. (Don't say Montana) (You'll be wrong?) (What?)

Humbert Polanski

We seem to have ourselves a modern day Humbert Humbert

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091006/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_polanski

So great

In reponse to the 10,000 lakes, O faces, and Sexson

All Actaeon (which I misspelled earlier) could possibly remind me of was a passage in Speak, Memory in which Nabokov throws in a "nymphean incarnation". It's Section Five of Chapter Ten and begins on page 210. Nabokov cleverly tells of "collecting "Parnassius Mnemosyne", strange butterflies of ancient lineage. While out hunting and- you know what? I'll just type it out for you kind folks because he speaks better than I ever shall.

"My quest had led me into a dense undergrowth of milky-white racemosa and dark alder at the very edge of the cold, blue river, when suddenly there was an outburst of splashes and shouts, and from behind a fragrant bush, I caught sight of Polenka and three or four other naked children bathing from the ruins of an old bathhouse a few feet away. Wet, gasping, one nostril of her snub nose running, the ribs of her adolescent body arched under her pale, goose-pimpled skin, her calves flecked with black mud, a curved comb burning in her damp-darkened hair, she was scrambling away from the swish and clack of water-lily stems that a drum-bellied girl with a shaven head and a shamelessly excited excited stripling wearing around the loins a kind of string, locally used against the evil eye, were yanking out of the water and harrying her with; and for a second or two-before I crept away in a dismal haze of disgust and desire- I saw a strange Polenka shiver and squat on the boards of the half-broken wharf, covering her breasts against the east wind with her crossed arms, while with the tip of her tongue she taunted her pursuers.

I've yet to find a Parnassius Mnemosyne, that wasn't more than a mnemonic.

If you will read along and down the rows of lines, you will find Nabokov telling a story that surely never happened but ends with Polenka telling her friend (YOU and Me?) [look, the young master does not know me] (212), followed by "- and that was the only time I ever heard her speak."

What a poet! What A Poet!

Section Six!

"The summer evenings of my boyhood when I used to ride her cottage speak to me in that voice of hers now."

Read Section Six!

"On a road among fields, where it met the desolate highway, I would dismount and prop my bicycle against a telegraph pole. A sunset, almost formidable in its splendor, would be lingering in the fully exposed sky. Among its imperceptibly changing amassments, one could pick out brightly stained structural details of celestial organisms. or glowing slits in dark banks, or flat, ethereal beaches that looked like mirages of desert islands. I did not know then (as I know perfectly well now) what to do with such things- how to get rid of them, how to transform them into something that can be turned over to the reader in printed characters to have him cope with the BLESSED SHIVER- and this inability enhanced my oppression. A colossal Shadow would begin to invade the fields, and the telegraph poles hummed in the stillness, and the night-feeders ascended the stems of their plants. Nibble, nibble, nibble-went a handsome striped caterpillar, not figured in Spuler, as he clung to a campanula stalk, working down with his mandible along the edge of the nearest leaf out of which he was eating a leisurely hemicircle, then again extending his neck, and again bending it gradually, as he deepened the neat concave. Automatically, I might slip him, with a bit of his plantlet, into a matchbox to take home with me and have him produce next year a Splendid Surprise, but my thoughts were elsewhere: Zina and Colette, my seaside playmates; Louise, the prancer; all the flushed, low-sashed, silky-haired little girls at festive parties; languorous Countess G., my cousin's lady; Polenka smiling in the agony of my new dreams-- all would merge to form somebody I did not know but was bound to know soon."

SPULER?
CAMPANULA?
PLANTLET?-?PLANTLET! Nymphett?

I really hope I'm wrong about what I just read. But maybe you should read chapter 13, Part I of Lolita, and tell me if there aren't a few relations.

The next paragraph is for his wife and about her as well.

Can you believe him?

7th Day_-Go Stag, or stop lolling.

Students in desks too small, In hot rooms, boring rooms,and rooms without technicians following every whim and whimper;

Also to The Teachers!The Storytellers! The Enchanters and Enchantresses!;

Epiphany, by Sexson's definition, is a sudden paradigm of the Divine. It is not always about sleeping with your mother.

ALSO Don't Wait for Sexson- Go for it! (Nike ripoff?)

Read Sam's Blog and find the NY Times article about our Nabokov.

Lolita didn't Flash Peter Pan. (WHAT?) (ah)

James please take down Aubrey Beardsley Pictures -- To-- Priapic; A Giant Flaccid god. Giant God?, Giant Flaccid God? Why Are The Words Capitalized?

Put Up Your Annotations!

If you weren't in class you missed John on the Importance of Style and his beautiful combination of Emo and Goth--GothMo!

I would like to add that emo, or emotional music, was not nearly the die hard thing it has now become. It wasn't until My Chemical Romance (?) came out with there second album ( Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge) that the Gothic Crowd became intermingled with the Emo's, who were raised on bands such as the GetUp Kids, Saves The Day, and Chris Carrabba when Dashboard Confessional was his stage name and not his band name. With the release of Three Cheers, punk scenes, venues, around the world suddenly changed from plaid shirts, beanies, and slacks, to a more gothic, black, chained, face painted, red lipstick, tight pants, or women's pants appeal that generally changed the face of what most underground indie music scenes were doing. You will here a lot of fans of Saves The Day and Getup Kids tell you that Emo is dead, just as Punk died when The Clash Went Commercial.

TO The Amandatarians!

Grand job, keep up the work, be sure to let her know what you think as the novel evolves.

TO Sexsonians!

"No quote is ever quoted, it's only requoted.....?"

(Picnic,Lightning)- Laughter.

Aside: My damn pen keeps running low when it's transparent casing shows it's ruby red ink barely a drip below brimming!"

Sexson is not a lady and he does not like lightning.

John was and is a clean Freak.

DO NOT Read xxvii-xxxii

Read the Rape of Lucrice (spelling?) and Sonnet 129 of Gentle William

READ UP ON ACTEAN!

Have you noticed how much of literate relates to men abusing power? I sure haven't.

LOL.....Look of Lust.

Stopping loling.

P.31 The Books Look Them UP


Who knows who Gordon Pym is? (Edgar Allen Poe Poem) Edgar Allen Poe Poem. Kinda Catchy?

On "H.H.'s Writing": Arthur "Rainbow" Rimbaud

I implore you students to attend this site and search through the biography for the reasoning behind Vivian's and Vladimir's choice of poets.

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/arthur_rimbaud/biography

Read the miniscule poem, 'Novel', and if it entertains you with its jovial schoolboyness, try to read these interesting poems

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/719774.html

'My little Lovers' is an especially Exceptional piece of work as Humbert goes.

Postscript -Anadyomene is a green algae.

Aubrey Beardsley!

(Colleagues! We are studying a book about a pedophile for the writing style, certainly we can view... 'this'... for its artistic merit...if there is any? If you can believe it, this is not the only,) and certainly not the rudest (picture on the Triple Double U. If you can believe it, this artist, became Catholic. Who Knew.) Postscript-Look up Lysistrata if you have not already.

To Amanda

On why Nabokov decides upon a pedophile.

Because you cannot explain the book as being the story about a man seducing his twelve-year old stepdaughter and not come off as a simplistic dimwit.

Funny Games

YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST WATCH THIS TRAILER! (NOT REALLY)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec-70W_K77U



In response to Jared about how Humbert Humbert comes alive in our minds, telling us that we decide whether or not this story of Dolores Haze and Humbert Humbert, that really is so much more, survives! The Character's realization that he is alive! OR dead. Or just stuck in pages. Dead thoughts, like dead pictures.



But the thing about Funny Games, and it is quite a funny movie once you get past your more partial feelings, is that it wants you to play as well, and you certainly do too! Whether or not you want to, this movie makes your play just like it makes the The Indian, The Captains Wife, and Him play too! It sickening and twisting. It's slow to the point that you can see all those things that special effects have blown away, it's more a play than a film.



SPOILER: I have yet to watch this move with people that have understood anything about it. No amount of rewinding makes them happy (no matter who's doing it), no amount of character involvement makes them feel involved, and everyone seems to think that foreshadowing correlates to the same old reward. This is not your average film. If you're the type of person that can't sit still and listen during a movie, this is not for you.

Jared Especially, If you truly loved what you read, you will love this movie.

Sexson, This is your High Brow to Stranger than Fiction.

Don't look up Aubrey Beardsley! Don't Do It!

Lo and behold "my" borrowed prose and "my Lo's" notes.....

Students, Nabokovians, Sexsonians, let us wade these murky waters.

James Merrill's Literary Seances (Excuse the absence) relates to Pale Fire, whom, apparently, James-Mr. Merrill will be mentioning directly in his lecture. You really do not need to go to this 'meeting' of souls on Friday September 18 from 4 to 5:30 in room 34(2?)6 of Johnson Hall, but a blog entry would certainly twirl Sexson's beard.

Annotate A Page! Students! Non of us have yet to do this! Shame on us!

But since we already have the annotations that A.A. has given us go ahead and -"give yourself a gold star for being smart."(Sexson)

James and Kari, Take Good Notes Today.

We've wondered today throughout the memories of Lolita. For those of you who missed (as well as those of us that have been sent back through the semester in hopes of finding answers), We talked of an Old World reserved gentleman, in the "Freedom" of America. Brought over on a reward from his cousin that works in the perfume business, H.H. eventually finds himself coming to the town of Ramsdale via a man named McCoo! Unluckily for McCoo a fire happens, destroying H.H.'s plans. But "luckily" for him a generously "hideous" woman, a Ms. Haze, allows him a place to stay, at an oddly low price of room and board....? He does not wish to stay, odd enough to say, until he reaches the garden full of lilies and a little Lolilie(!) bent down playing around. His lolila. One Humbert Humberts' Lolita.

To put it in the words the words of Ms. Haze (Rest in Piece you troubled soul), " That was my Lo...and these are my lilies."


Students, Students, Students. My mind had wandered off somewhere in the lilies, but just belo' them i have the marking of a few quotes;

"What do you know folks, I just couldn't do it." Sexson quoting Humbert Humbert on his plans of clearing the Haze.

as well as the other;

"Watch A Night of the Hunter." Another Classic in true Lola fashion!

Now, You may not know this, but McFate is in Control- which reminds me of the possibility that some of you may recall a certain Odoyel Clan that asserts their own rule?

But Enough of That!

Now I'm only repeating this Shaman, so you do not have the right to drop me (physically or otherwise) whatsoever.

Nabokovians,

Do not Connect Aubrey (McFate) to the School (Beardsley) in which Lolila is put in by Horrible Humbert.

I Repeat!

Do not Google Aubrey Beardsley.

At the Sake of Sounding redundant,

DO NOT FIND OUT ALL YOU CAN ABOUT AUBREY BEARDSLEY!

Also,

Read the seduction scene carelessly, or else you won't be able to get off the page.


SEXSONIANS!

THE MIDTERM PAPER!

Start it now (and worry about it constantly). it is to be a minimum of 2-3 pages and must be an extremely focused paper!

Topic Ideas:

-Melmouth (H.H.'s car or an alliteration to Melmouth the Wanderer! a 1918 Gothic Novel)

-Sherly Holmes-(is she a dean or a detective?)

-Bluebeard-(it actually doesn't fit....)

-Dracula!

-All the Disney Princesses

"Do not forget about letters to Amanda"
a maximum of 3 sentence responses (For there are never ever answers) to her question:

"Why does he (Nabokov!) choose to write about a pedophile?"

Read Sam's Blog! (Just for Fun!)

I Grow tired and weary of these notes yet I'll press on I suppose.... for all the bars and the barmen......

"The Center Reading" is located at the top of page 283; find it, read it, learn it, love it.

Nabokovians, gentlemen and gentlelaides, lasses, and lads, and pregnant women too; Pay attention to Lolita playing tennis!-see the truth of H.H. sinking through!


QUESTIONS and STATEMENTS TO CONSIDER!

Morality and Style are the same. Ask Percy Shelly.

Sexson never uses answers only responses, feel the murky water.....

"What is the Artist's responsibility."

Nabokov wants to create a sense of Dejavu. Where's Your Dejavu? (If you've taken the subject matter of Lolita seriously, then you might as well waste your time taking this literally as well! Text Smiley Face of Excitement and Mirth!)

4th day, Sept. 10,2009- The "Game" Plan

Notes!

Why does Nabokov find James Joyce so entertaining and delectable?

People, go to Chris' blog for the one, the only, the televised nabokov.

Also People, Go check out Nabokov teaching Cornell Class! or is it Christopher Plumber?

A few things to note to yourself:

Creative Nonficition is (an oxymoron) the artful business of lying.

You never finish anything

You can't read a book, you can only reread a book.

SPINE

Think with your spine!

"Have you ever had a shiver go up your spine?" -Rhetorical

Great Authors

are

Storytellers

Teachers

Enchanters


Lollita

The heroes of the book are methods of composition.

Note: The heroes of the book are methods of composition.

"Precision of Poetry & Intuition of Science"

READ WITH YOUR SPINE!

"We need stories more than we need bridges." -Michael Sexson

The Great Writers are In Search Of Lost Time.

You need to remember, to remember, to remember, so you can remember.

Remember?

(Are

Kushman's Butterflies

This picture, taken by Gail McCintyre during Advanced Performance Exercising (Notice We're all sitting), captures me in a state of being pestered, butterflies whipping around my stomach, by the man whom the head in the right corner of the picture belongs to; Mr. Kandolin, the gym/mathematics/girls basketball coach. During the course of the four years I had Kandolin as a teacher, in two of his three areas (pick for yourselves), he enjoyed the art of coming up to me and poking with his fingers shaped into pincers, talons of sharp pain in my ribs, if only for the excitement of seeing my arms flail into the air acquiring him the position of full nelson that he slipped into like a gleeful boy eating worms when he's been told repeatedly not too. My shirt is untucked, a demerit, a detention if i wasn't a football player, and the truth of the matter is that i don't believe that I own a pair of pants (Rushmore embroidery made, with An S.T.M. in blue below the left pocket) that did not have a three inch split down the groin. Now if you notice, and you should because those three gentlemen are extremely unattractive, they are wearing jeans; Jean wearing is a venial sin while in class, but every once and a while certain good behaviors (such as giving money to the school, nothing so extravagant as saving a child, or another life) would allow "spirit" days, upon which you were allowed to where blue jeans. It puts me in chuckles how a school focused upon teaching about the spirit would don the name spirit upon a day that students all view is an end of purgatory. Now the second gentlemen sitting, whom appears to be hiding behind Doug (who always seems to be in every picture I've ever seen) is chewing, spitting into a Gatorade water cup which he received from a dispenser located in the doorway down the way, hidden behind the basketball receptacle device. Now for all of you, who happen to read this article, if you just so happen to notice what I bring to class that carries from this picture, please tell me how nice my "..." is and that you once found it unattractive but since becoming a Sexsonian/Nabokovian you've really found the beauty in things.

Notes on the 3rd day of Class, September 8th 2009

Chris is an embellisher!

Go to Jana the Giftbearer's blog and read.

Sexson insist that we gain an eye for the unattractive and pay attention to him in class.

Put in a commonplace book (copied lines from books that you just can not help but love!)

"I'm going to do a trick now," So Shaman rattles Nabokov likens to state.

Chapter Four, Page Eighty Four of Speak, Memory: "I appeal to parents: never, never say, 'hurry up', to a child."

Hurrying up

THE ART OF DISCOVERY......

IN.....

GROUP PROJECTS!

Devote yourself to your Nobokavian studies to prepare for your Sexsonian Presentations!

Don't forget;
1. We must, must be informative.
2. We must, must be extra, xtra, traliffically amusing/enjoyable (but more on the
former slant;).
"Reality"! (the terrible clawmarks on Ry)

"Put everything in Quotations for a day, it's fun." -Sexson

Aside: "Getting your mind blown is rhetorical for Shaman."

2nd and second most Nabokov loves to play the game of parody's.

"GO to the Sam Site in Search of the Code."

VIVIAN DARKBLOOM
Vladimir Nabokov........See anything?

Aside Perkin's is low brow.

"real"

THE ENCHANTED HUNTER
THE PLAY?
THE KILLER?
THE KILLED?
THE BLUE'S? (Nabokov has his own blue's clue's! who knew?)

Don't forget you have no life outside of Sexsonian studies.

....See you all in the library....?

On The Road

Now, I am not proud of the way in which I discovered the book that would open my life to literature sitting on a couch in a basement with two old friends (then they were young in age) watching three friends sitting at a U-turn red booth inside a diner next to the beach of Surf City U.S.A. discussing what they should do know that Marissa and Seth had decided to run away with the Labrador faced Ryan, when Seth mentions doing the On The Road thing, and I, immediately that night, look up the book on Amazon/Borders (if you remember how it used to be before the dreadful splitting) much to the dismay of the tall tell story that everyone wishes to share about seeing what they want to do with themselves while on this planet.

If you haven't already figured out the novel that directed my path, than you might as well quit reading (except for you, Shaman, you'll have to suffer through it). It doesn't get anymore entertaining, no one dies, until later, and I'm certainly not going to share that as part of my discovering literature; finding literature was not a healing crucifix that I turned to in a desperate need to fill the gap left by the fleeting of butterflies-no!- I read the book because i was told it was not allowed.

There is, and i forget his name now because back then, when i listened to him, i did not have a memory theater in which to place him (and if you're thinking that my memory theater is broken from my sad display of recollection in class today than you are utterly wrong, I found all fifty), a rapper who sings the lyrics:

"I'm cruising in my Cadillac,
You know I'm bluesin'
reading Jack Kerouac."

And it's in these lyrics that you really find Jack, or Mr. Kerouac, and he's certainly not dusty, (though if you find Nabokov a bit unsettling with his rampant complexity than i recommend staying away from Visions of Cody) not with all the wind that rushed through his hair as he travelled Transcontinental, back and forth, to end up sharing all his stories in bitter detail while drugged out on Benzedrine in front of a typewriter in his mother's basement for two weeks. Then, reading the material never could have seemed more harmless, what with all the mind numbing television we watch.....but nothing had more of an influence in the way I lived through high school. Literature has a way of letting the moths out of the stuffy percentage of our brains.

Now I'll never get the lyrics out of my head. To da lo.

My first memory

It's not true, the memory, that I ever flew down the tree house on a child's tricycle when i was young. I never giggled, I never saw my legs sticking up in the air as the pedals spun a blur of yellow and red while the ground flew by and the forests of pines drew quicker as I neared the end of the ramp leading up to the giant tree fort located in front of the log cabin in the hills that my father built as well. It never happened. The picture of my brothers and I (that rests in the bins of pictures mother has closed up underneath the drawers where the place mats for the living room table go when know one is in need of eating) standing, smiling with our hands atop each others shoulders, in front of the tree fort with the ramp extending behind us. It was never real. An apparent artificial memory. According to the big bother, or brother (my apologies) that was of an age that memory recalls more adequately, the ramp was never ours. It never belonged to the tree fort my father built. It was an addition put on by the new owners who's children have memory of flying down the tree house ramp on their tricycle, giggling, legs in the air, watching the pedals spin a blur of colors while the ground goes by and the forest of pines draws close.