Sunday, June 25, 2006

Glory, Despair, Likeness

At the cottage last week, I read Nabokov's Despair. The last chapter notes some of the earlier working titles of the narrator's manuscript, including "The Likeness", all of which are abandoned as the enormity of his error dawns on him.

My PhD thesis was called Likeness and was an attempt to determine the nature of concepts through the homologies of knowledge and power. In the end, I decided that these homologies are summarized in our suffering.

I'm now starting Nabokov's Glory. Maybe we learn everything when it's too late.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is your "Likeness" in a published form for others to access and read? I'd very much like to give it a look, if possible. Apologies if you've addressed this elsewhere in your blog, and I've not been attentive. Many thanks!

Thomas said...

No. There are too many things "wrong" with Likeness as a text to publish it. I've thought about a restatement of some kind, but it's probably not going to happen.

Maybe I should post some kind of summary on my blog. That's actually not a bad idea. Thanks.