''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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205
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All those that knew Sebastian have described him
as distant, silent, unsociable, morose, preoccupied,
aloof. This can now be explained if one takes into
account that the process described by Huxley involves
complete concentration, to the exclusion of every-
thing else, on the quest. V (or, as it now appears,
Sebastian himself) at one point formulates the thoughts
that may have occupied Sebastian during his time at
Cambridge:
The inner meaning of grassblade and star?
The unknown language of silence? The terrific
weight of a dewdrop? The heartbreaking
beauty of a pebble among millions and
millions of pebbles, all making sense, but
what sense? The old, old question of who
are you? to one's own self...? (46)
Complete concentration on the last question, so central
to the complex of thoughts and questions in Sebastian's
works, means giving up all attachment to, and involve-
ment in, mundane affairs;. all other feelings, interests,
and desires cease to count. Only thus can the mind
be prepared for the state and experience which brings
enlightenment, and knowledge, and this, it appears,
is how Sebastian attains that knowledge which he
expresses in what are now no longer V's words:
"I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I... " (92): I am I,
the only way in which his oneness can be expressed.
With The Real Life of Sebastian Knight established
as Sebastian's own book things that have been puzzling
so far fall into place and take on a new meaning.
The use of parody is now easier to understand and
at the same time turns out to be even more complex
than it seemed. What Sebastian wants is real knowl-