the clay machine gun
"I beg your pardon, I said, "But this is a typical aspect of human culture in general. It is even present in language itself. In English, for instance, we are the descendants of the past. The word signifies movement downwards, not upwards. We are not ascendants.""Possibly," Timur Timurovich answered. "I don’t know any foreign languages except Latin. But that’s not the point here. When this type of consciousness is embodied in the individual personality, then the person concerned begins to regard his childhood as a lost paradise. Take Nabokov. His endless musings on the early years of his life are a classic example of what I am talking about. And the classic example of recovery, of the reorientation of consciousness to the real world is the Contra-sublimation, as I would call it, that he has achieved in such a mastery fashion by transforming his longing for an unattainable paradise which may never have existed at all into a simple, earthly and somewhat illegitimate passion for a little girl, a child. Although at first--"
"Excuse me" I interrupted, "But which Nabokov are you talking about? The leader of the Constitutional Democrats?"
Timur Timurovich smiled with emphatic politeness. "No," He said, "His son".
"Little Vovka from the Tenishevsky school?" You mean you have picked him up as well? But he is in the Crimea! And what kind of nonsense is all this about little girls?"
"Very well, very well. He’s in the Crimea". Timur Timurovich replied briskly. "In the Crimea. But we are talking about China..."
- Some links related to the author.
- Many thanks to Oren Shavit for the reference and the quote.
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