u/mariasunflower

Rereading the text, and I'm still none the wiser as to this image of the square and the oblong. Can anyone on englighten me a bit?

"“Like” and “like” and “like” — but what is the thing that lies beneath the semblance of the thing? Now that lightning has gashed the tree and the flowering branch has fallen and Percival, by his death, has made me this gift, let me see the thing. There is a square; there is an oblong. The players take the square and place it upon the oblong. They place it very accurately; they make a perfect dwelling-place. Very little is left outside. The structure is now visible; what is inchoate is here stated; we are not so various or so mean; we have made oblongs and stood them upon squares. This is our triumph; this is our consolation.”"

Thanks!

At one end of the gondola, largely oblivious to the coming and going on deck, with his tail thumping expressively now and then against the planking, and his nose among the pages of a volume by Mr. Henry James, lay a dog of no particular breed, to all appearances absorbed by the text before him. Ever since the Chums, during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capital (see The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit), had rescued Pugnax, then but a pup, from a furious encounter in the shadow of the Washington Monument between rival packs of the District's wild dogs, it had been his habit to investigate the pages of whatever printed material should find its way on board Inconvenience, from theoretical treatments of the aeronautical arts to often less appropriate matter, such as the "dime novels"--though his preference seemed more for sentimental tales about his own species than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid. He had learned with the readiness peculiar to dogs how with the utmost delicacy to turn pages using nose or paws, and anyone observing him thus engaged could not help noting the changing expressions on his face, in particular the uncommonly articulate eyebrows, which contributed to an overall effect of interest, sympathy, and--the conclusion could scarcely be avoided--comprehension.

Hello! I want to study what has been written about Nabokov's work in relation to narrative ethics (think Adam Zachary Newton, Anna Gotlib, etc). Maybe even something on Nabokov's politics? If anyone has some recommendations, I'd be really, really grateful.

Thoughts? I find this so fascinating!

I loved the movie Babylon, I'm wondering if any book covers similar ground.

Winston-Salem at #4

https://preview.redd.it/b6z7s4k4t89h1.png?width=440&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8a9d1409cd43ed03912ece8e17684e07757cc57

Great poem for dealing with negative voices (Whether inner or outer voices!)