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Pattern in The
Defense
Ostensibly The Defense is a novel about a chess prodigy and grandmaster who goes mad, increasingly unable to distinguish the real world from the world of chess. More broadly, and more germane to an understanding of the evolution of Nabokov's work, The Defense is a novel about patterns in life and in art. As Nabokov writes in the foreword to the English language edition, My story was difficult to compose, but I greatly enjoyed taking advantage of this or that image and scene to introduce a fatal pattern into Luzhin's life and to endow the description of a garden, a journey, a sequence of humdrum events, with the semblance of a game of skill, and especially in the final chapters, with that of a regular chess attack demolishing the innermost elements of the poor fellow's sanity.In reading a text as finely crafted as this, it is especially important to notice and note details, especially, one might say, those that initially appear unimportant or downright irrelevant. To fully appreciate Luzhin's madness, its overwhelming and terrifyingly plausible development from the simple distractedness of someone prone to dwell on the "abstract" patterns of chess to the full-blown insanity of someone incapable of distinguishing the game from life, a reader must, in effect, notice everything Luzhin notices, and much more besides, since even poor Luzhin is not directly privy to all the harbingers of doom with which fate, impersonated by the author, imbues his existence. Of course, such attentiveness is sometimes only possible in retrospect, once the reader realizes that this object, person, or image, or some vaguely distorted version thereof, has been met with before, often only fleetingly and many pages previously. Here, as with all of Nabokov's works, rereading is imperative, and is practically programmed into the text itself. In addition to allowing Nabokov to subtly and convincingly depict the erosion of Luzhin's sanity, the artful use of pattern also serves as a means for conveying another of Nabokov's favorite themes, and one which suffuses his entire oeuvre: the otherworld--the realm or realms somehow accessible to our own dimension, but most often invisible and all but intangible. Surprisingly, students and scholars of Nabokov came to appreciate this central theme relatively late, after attention was called to it by the author's widow, Vera Nabokov. Although the theme of the otherworld is secondary in The Defense, its presence is crucial to the plot, especially in Luzhin's maturation and in his meeting with the woman who subsequently becomes his wife. As you read, watch for patterns. Pay special attention to imagery that is geometric or has some more overt relation to chess. In addition to reading and rereading each assignment, read each chapter aloud if possible. As I wrote in the pseudolecture about Mary, Nabokov's prose has the musicality of poetry, and hearing it, or at least hearing it in one's head, is an essential aspect of appreciating his work. Read each assignment at least twice and then complete the corresponding study questions. At the end of the course, respond to one of the two essay questions. In a traditional classroom, it is customary for people to raise their hands when they wish to comment or ask a question. Here, all you need do to get my attention is click on the butterfly and send me a message. When you've completed the course, I ask that you respond to the questions on the Evaluation page. |