InsomnIac Dreams InsomnIac Dreams experIments wIth tIme by compIleD, eDIteD, & wIth commentarIes by GennaDy barabtarlo prInceton UnIversIty press Princeton & Oxford copyrIGht © 2018 by the estate of DmItrI nabokov Compilation, preface, parts 1 and 5, notes, and other editorial material copyright © 2018 by Princeton University Press Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press pUblIsheD by prInceton UnIversIty press 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the UnIteD kInGDom: prInceton UnIversIty press 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu Jacket images courtesy of Alamy Jacket design by Chris Ferrante Owing to limitations of space, all acknowledgments for permission to reprint previously published material can be found on page 191 frontIspIece: Vladimir Nabokov writing in bed at home in Ithaca, New York, 1958. (Photo by Carl Mydans / Time Life Pictures / Getty Images) All images in this book except the frontispiece are from the Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Copyright © the Dmitri Nabokov Estate. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC. all rIGhts reserveD ISBN 978- 0- 691- 16794- 7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017941575 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Baskerville 10 Pro Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ prInteD In the UnIteD states of amerIca 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In memorIam DmItrI nabokov What is Tıme? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not. —St. Augustine, The Confessions, Book XI contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xi 1. chronIc conDItIon 1 Dream, Memory 1 Dunne and His Theory 5 Nabokov’s Experiment 19 2. Dreamer’s loG 33 3. more Dreams 95 Prior to the Experiment 96 After the Experiment 104 In Letters to Wife 107 In the Book of Memoirs 109 4. the art of DreamInG 113 Professional 120 Doom 121 Daytime Impressions 132 Memories of the Remote Past 133 Precognitive 134 Erotic 139 Nested 145 Life Is a Dream 147 Oneiric Realism 148 Father 153 Insomnia 158 vii 5. artIstIc tIme 159 Two Prime Mysteries 159 The Montreux Novels 163 Boomeranging Time 167 Clarity of Vision 173 Conclusion 186 Permissions Acknowledgments 193 Nabokov Works Cited 195 Select Bibliography 197 Name Index 199 Index of Nabokov Tıtles 201 viii contents IllUstratIons frontIs. Nabokov writing in bed ii fIG. 1. Title card of the experiment xvi fIG. 2. Earliest plan for the second book of memoirs 4 fIG. 3. Day one of the experiment 32 fIG. 4. First precognitive dream 36 fIG. 5. Proof of “reverse memory”? 38 fIG. 6. “Things I detest” 51 fIG. 7. A dream with his mother 54 fIG. 8. A dream wafting from his old fiction? 58 fIG. 9. A curious, persistent slip of the pen, taking the experiment back to the beginning 69 fIG. 10. Record of his wife’s dream 72 fIG. 11. His wife’s dream, closely resembling his own 75 fIG. 12. “Three sterile nights in a row!” 83 fIG. 13. Last day of the experiment 93 fIG. 14. Title page of the 1951 diary 94 fIG. 15a. A page from the 1951 diary 100 fIG. 15b. “I ought to write on the sloppy production of dreams.” 101 fIG. 16. An untender dream 103 fIG. 17. Types of dreams 112 fIG. 18. Three levels of comprehending Time 162 fIG. 19. Sketch of a chess problem on the back of a dream record 180 fIG. 20. “Curious features of my dreams.” 188 ix preface thIs book was born of the convergence of two initially separate undertakings: a paper entitled “Clarity of Vision,” delivered at a Nabokov conference in Auckland, New Zealand, and my studies of Nabokov’s records of his 1964 experiment with dreams, as well as his diaries, preserved in the New York Public Library. The latter setting, with its ster- ile, hushed chill soothed by the warmth of the helpful staff, could not be more different from the playhouse of a large university auditorium. The conference was called “Nabokov Upside Down,” and my paper was read on the last day, which happened to fall on the last day of 2011 (O.S.). I have long noticed that dis- cussing Nabokov in public often sets even experts somewhat ill at ease, with the result that almost every paper read at conferences contains, and transmits to auditors, larger than standard doses of crafted humor, summoned as if to cover the uneasiness that this uncomfortable genius causes in a con- temporary mind. My text, however, was straight- faced hu- morless. Its subject was, as is stated elsewhere in this book, a “staggering chance meeting an improbable alternative to chance.” The conference took place in a modern, highly effi- cient building where, in order to save energy, rooms would go dark after a preset period of inactivity within; flail your arms, and the light might come on. This was the metaphor that at the last minute I had prepared to deploy if asked what I made of my observations, hoping that it would not be taken xi for a wisecrack. But I read next to last, there was little time for questions, and nobody raised a hand. The book consists of five parts. The first sets forth the chief psycho-philosophical problem of the function and di- rection of memory in dreamland; introduces John Dunne’s treatise on the subject of “serial Time,” comparing it with the contemporary, although then largely unpublished, re- search by Pavel Florensky; and describes Nabokov’s dream experiment, which was based on the premise and instruc- tions gleaned in Dunne’s book. The second part contains an annotated transcription of Nabokov’s dreams (as well as a number of his wife’s) in the fall of 1964, published for the first time,1 which he recorded following precise instruc- tions as set in Dunne’s Experiment with Tıme. Part 3 adduces descriptions of dreams from Nabokov’s American and Swiss diaries and letters, both before the 1964 experiment and after, which allows me to extend the observations and conclusions derived from the experiment (inconclusive as they are) to Nabokov’s more general sleeping and specific dreaming experience and its place in his fiction. To this end, part 4 collects various fabricated dreams one encounters in Nabokov’s books, both Russian and English, grouped under the categories that he defines in his experiment, with the addition of new rubrics as required: Nabokov’s charac- ters appear to have a broader range of dream variety than did their maker. The last part defines and enlarges on the subject of Nabokov’s view of time as a primary structuring condition of existence and specifically of the intricate co- operation of memory and imagination in life and in fiction writing, with often an unpredictable outcome: precognitive verging on prophetic. 1. A small selection appeared, with my introduction and brief commentaries, in the Tımes Literary Supplement (October 31, 2014). xii preface Special thanks are offered to Dr. Isaac Gewirtz, curator of the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library, and librar- ians Mr. Joshua McKeon and Miss Lyndsi Barnes, for their skilled and obliging assistance in my research; to Mr. Andrew Wylie and Miss Kristina Moore, of the Wylie Agency repre- senting the Nabokov Estate, for permitting me to publish my findings; and to the Research Council of the University of Missouri, for a grant that supported some of the associated travels. I would be wanting in courtesy if I did not expressly say that I am grateful to Professor Brian Boyd who suggested an idea that went into the third part of the book, and I can- not deny myself the pleasure of publicly thanking my wife for her excellent advice to compile what was to become part 4, without which the book would have been so much leaner in substance and plot. Forty years ago Nabokov registered his gratitude to Princeton University Press that, upon acquiring the Bollingen Series, brought out a much revised edition of his monumen- tal translation and interpretation of Eugene Onegin. I, too, am indebted to the generosity of that excellent press for con- senting to publish this slim book and to Miss Anne Savarese, executive editor of literature, for her unfailing enthusiasm, a large number of suggested improvements, and proficient management of the entire multitiered process that has made this book a material reality. I am thankful to Dr. Daniel Simon for his lint- roller thorough copyediting of my text; to Mr. Christopher Ferrante, whose artistic taste and skill turned it into a handsome thing; to Dr. Kathleen Cioffi, Senior Production Editor, for her imperturbable attention to smallest details and textual crotchets; and to my daugh- ter Maria Sapp, who caught a number of important flaws at page-proof stage. I want to make special and uncommon mention of the reader whom the press engaged to review this book for preface xiii them and who went far beyond the usual reference duty and combed my text with utmost attention, so that no levell’d malice Infects one comma in the course I hold. I owe this anonymous colleague more than I can express. Gennady Barabtarlo xiv preface InsomnIac Dreams fIGUre 1. The title card for the dream- recording experiment Nabokov began in October 1964. part 1 chronIc conDItIon Dream, memory Tıme is . — but this book is about that. — J. W. Dunne, An Experiment with Tıme on october 14, 1964, in a grand Swiss hotel in Montreux where he had been living for three years, Vladimir Nabokov started a private experiment that lasted till January 3 of the following year, just before his wife’s birthday (he had engaged her to join him in the experiment and they com- pared notes).