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

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TRANSPARENT
THINGS
An old Nabokovian mechanism is again at work in Trans-
Parent Things': a seemingly simple plot gives occasion
for a very individual discussion of metaphysical problems.
In this novel the quest centres on the reality of
life, but it is pursued even further, and for a moment.
Nabokov (or, his spokesman Mr. R. ) steps beyond the
boundary put up by death. Besides, Nabokov evolves yet
another method of uncovering the pattern of a person's
life, that "true reality" of a life normally covered up
by its seemingly chaotic "average reality". The problem
of time is touched on, anticipating one of the central
issues of Ada; and Nabokov establishes again that insights
on all these points are given only to the artist.
But he does not keep his insights to himself. He
passes on as much of his knowledge as is possible, and
opens up possibilities for the reader to follow his
example. He offers his art as a refuge, as it were, and
he takes the reader as far as the point where it becomes
impossible even for an artist to communicate what he
knows, because, as he admits himself, there is a kind
of knowledge which cannot be put in words.
Luzhin in The Defence and Shade (and Kinbote) in
Pale Fire are artists in their respective fields; Hugh
Person in Transparent Things is decidedly not an artist.
He works in various capacities in a great American
publishing firm, as "research assistant, scout,
associate editor, copy editor, proofreader, flatterer
of our authors" (23), and he "steered into production"
(24) the novels of the intriguing Mister R. All this