transparent things

After reading, then re-reading Transparent Things, I began to notice many different patterns that seemed to fit with the idea of transparency and the different objects and people in the short story. The idea of transparency goes beyond just looking directly at an object, but being able to see through it.

Until reading this story, I do not believe that I ever looked at an object, such as a pencil, and wondered about the complete history of it. (Nabokov would disagree about most novices on this subject matter) "When we concentrate on a material object, whatever its situation, the very act of attention may lead to our involuntarily sinking into the history of that object. Novices must learn to skim over matter if they want matter to stay at the exact level of the moment. Transparent things, through which the past shines!" (489) I would not classify myself as a novice, because when I look at any object, I'm usually in the present mindset, rather than trying to figure out its makeup, history or past experiences in life.. (if objects could be looked at as even having any past experiences) I find it bizarre that Nabokov wants a person to look at an object and see it as having a history, but also be careful to not break the tension on the surface, for one could get lost in their own childish thoughts about all the different qualities and histories rather than just remaining in the now.

If a person sinks beneath the surface, then they are not looking at something for how it really is in it's present state, and my sinking past the tension, one is getting lost in a moment. Is Nabokov trying to suggest that one must not get lost in their thoughts for the answer is always obvious at the top? If one can stay on the surface rather than getting lost amongst the others that are only able to look up at you through the water, then the person on the surface is above everyone else? Does being on the surface of the tension make everyone apparent rather than transparent, to those that have to look through everything? (I found this whole idea rather confusing, and ive gone over many different times whether or not Nabokov wanted, or did not want people to look into the history of the pencil, rather than just writing with it....)

Anyways, each chapter that I read had different patterns within it, that did not particularly carry on to the ones that followed. Chapter 2 of the book, we are introduced to Hugh Person, and we are also introduced to many 'things' that did not seem to have histories explained (like Nabokov did in speak memory with his descriptions of his pictures) but instead he only pointed out the apparent qualities of these 'things'. The pattern that I found in this chapter was a repetitive theme of color+relatable object. For example: gray stone, brown wood- both objects that one would already know their colors, however, he pointed out the obvious.. Also: Cherry-Red, Apple Green, Grassgreen, Skyblue, blank-bluish wall, apple-green again etc. Every time a color was mentioned in the chapter, there was always a relatable object right next to it. It was always about the appearance of things, rather than deeper thoughts. Like the receptionist- blond bun, pretty neck.

I only noticed this pattern in chapter 2 after I read chapter 3, and was no longer reading about green leaves or blue water... a new pattern had arrived. This chapter I called the noun and adjective chapter because it was a little more descriptive than just the obvious color-object pattern, and dove a little deeper into the well-being of an object. This chapter was also more depressing for all the adjectives used to describe these objects were not what I would consider light hearted ones. For example: shadeless lamp, broken umbrella, faceless old pencil, cheap pine, dingy lilac, plumbeous plum, moist clay, pressed caviar, fleecy fat-giver, crystalized carbon, felled pine, solid pencil. This pattern I noticed because it was not in ch 2. It seemed as though Hugh, who was explained in a nice way as a tidy-man, was only noticing the imperfections and negative aspects of objects in the room that surrounded him.

Chapter 4 continued the patter of material objects with grim descriptions, such as old stairs, drap and cheap, pale tables, blocks of blackness, debility and despair, lone greif, evasive matter, wrestled the venitian blind, wet pavement, badly folded, disgusted silence, scorn, wrenched umbrella, discourtesy etc... however, this pattern differed from the last for it dealt more with his emotions at the moment, rather that the present state of the objects themselves. He did not like where he was, and his description of this place strongly suggested that.

Then in chapter 5 Nabokov repeats the pattern of color, but like the last chapter, he uses color when talking about a person, not himself, but about women. And every time color was mentioned, there was always a direct correlation between himself and a woman. -- Blonde in black, green figuring of a female, brown curtain (when half drawn disclosed elegant legs), transparent black of a female...

"Hugh, too, was twenty-two and had always been harrowed by coincident symbols." (497) Im not sure if all these differnt patterns I found were on purpose or not, however, they all stood out to me for different reasons for they never really completely followed to the next chapter. Using colors to explain both objects, then women.. then using adjectives of objects to explain both the poor conditions of both things and his personal mental state at the time. The ideal of a dreadful obejct carried on to later in the story when he was referring to his fathers dead body- he was looking at it at the surface, calling the body an object, rather than looking at it in a transparent light seeing it as his father who had a past and life. By looking at things just from the surface, one avoids diving deeping into thought, and avoiding getting lost into the abyss, if only for a moment.

Anyways- getting back to the first quote- "transparent things of which the past shines..." I enjoyed how Hugh only gave us the physical descriptions of objects, but after thinking about these objects in the story in a transparent light, their past began to create itself in my head while reading, making me read this story as Nabokov would call a novice- but maybe thats what he wanted.