Initial Response to TT:

I sat down and read this story in its entirety, which is something that I don't usually do. Overall, I thought it was really strange, but I think maybe when I read it again it will make more sense. A few of the passages I found most interesting/ noticeable/ funny are these:

• "But the future has no such reality" pg 489~ I really liked this for the simple fact that it was so Nabokovian. His dealings with 'reality' have always interested and entertained me, and since this was on the first page of the story, I knew that this was like the others. 'Reality' would be questioned, and I would be confused.
• "We recognized its presence in the log as we recognized the log in the tree and the tree in the forest and the forest in the world that Jack built" pg 493~ This also deals with the delicate balance that is 'reality'. With the repetition and the fictional reference, it alerts the reader to the fairy tale that is about to unfold. Dark and twisted, yes, but a fairy tale none-the-less.
• "He found rather fetching the green figurine of a female skier made of a substance he could not identify through the show glass (it was 'alabasterette,' imitation aragonite, carved and colored in the Grumbel jail by a homosexual convict, rugged Armand Rave, who had strangled his boyfriend's incestuous sister.)" pg 496~ Armand, of course, made me pay attention because of characters like him discussed in the past. Was he a difficult as the Casbeam Barber? As Taxonovich? Who knows! But because of who the author is, it made me pay attention.
• My biggest discovery however is that I believe Hugh Person (You Person) is supposed to be the story of A. Person from Porlock England. I'm not sure why exactly I feel this in my gut, but it seems that because of who A. Person was, and because of what he interrupted, it would make sense to me that Nabokov would create for him and tortuous and depressing life.
• Another part that made me pay attention was that of the tennis game that began on pg 527. Nabokov's obsession with tennis both confuses and intrigues me. Not an avid player myself, I perhaps don't understand the complexities that are involved in playing the game, but it seems to me that VN's obsession is a consuming one. I also thought the line "it had an element of art-for-art's sake about it, since it could not deal with low, awkward balls" was just funny too (pg 527-8).
• "Everyone had secret tensions stored up from infancy. Hugh need not be ashamed of them. in fact at puberty sexual desire arises as a substitute for the desire to kill, which one normally fulfills in one's dreams; and insomnia is merely the fear of becoming aware in sleep of one's unconscious desires for slaughter and sex." pg 531~ This I found very interesting because if it is in one's sleep that you purge your desires kill, and he killed her while asleep, was it something that he subconsciously wanted to do all along? Many subconscious desires manifest themselves in our dreams, so this theory would technically make sense, but then again, I might be reading into things too much...

Those were the passages that jumped out at me on first glace. Deeper consideration and study will need to be put into this to fully comprehend (or to comprehend to my greatest ability) what this means, and why, out of all the passages, I chose these. I have given them surface thought, of the bottom rung variety, but much more will need to be done to help me move up to those ever-present top rungs.