tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3260529726656118434.post3837512619398035169..comments2023-10-06T00:52:04.371-07:00Comments on news from the zona: Taking things seriouslyRoger Gathmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3260529726656118434.post-41519951595378035972009-04-27T12:45:00.000-07:002009-04-27T12:45:00.000-07:00Mr. Arquimbau, I too love speak memory - but funni...Mr. Arquimbau, I too love speak memory - but funnier than Gogol? <br /><br />I beg to differ. Even if Nabokov's book on Gogol is, well, pretty funny.Roger Gathmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3260529726656118434.post-24359651794041973272009-04-27T09:55:00.000-07:002009-04-27T09:55:00.000-07:00Of course, Nabòkov "knew" about the "ludicrous ser...Of course, Nabòkov "knew" about the "ludicrous seriousness of being" - read again the amazing first paragraph of "speak, memory".<br /><br /><br />"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness (...) a young chronophobiac experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth (...) what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin - even that it was empty - as if - in the reverse course of events - his very bones had desintegrated..."<br /><br />"In order to enjoy life - we should not enjoy it too much," he says, seriously funny, funnier than Gògol, because he knows that what makes tragedy ultimately funny is the "narcotic" (as Graham Greene had it talking about fear), the narcotic (dreamlike) (exhilarating) excess of "cruelty," coming not as the "gift" of any stupid notion such as a "devil" incarnate, but from the inherent "absurdity" of life.Roure Vilòbithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17260012679081405504noreply@blogger.com