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

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internal evidence of Invitation to a Beheading
suggests that, even though Cincinnatus may not go
through the experience of actual physical death, his
mind is yet capable of apprehending what mental ex-
periences the end might bring with it, and the same
applies to Mr. R. in Transparent Things.
Cincinnatus can talk about his experience, and to
a degree he can even convey to the reader an idea
of his "real" world. Mr. R. and Ada and Van remain
somewhat vague about the nature of their experiences
and certainly give no indication of what it actually
is that they have come to know. The reason is that
their experiences are impossible to put into words.
Mr. R. says of his that if he could put it all down
in a book and explain his "total rejection of all re-
ligions ever dreamt up by man and [his] total composure
in the face of total death... that book would become
no doubt a new bible and its author the founder of
a new creed. ""95 But he admits in the same breath that
this is impossible because one "can never express in
one flash what can only be understood immediately. "96
Van takes pains to explain that what he and Ada ex-
perience is "nowness"97 or the "true Present"98, and
he makes yet another attempt at an explanation:
It would not be sufficient to say that
in his love-making with Ada he discovered
the pang, the on', the agony of supreme
'reality'. Re ity, better say, lost the
quotes it wore like claws in a world where
independent and original minds must cling
to things or pull things apart in order
to ward off madness or death (which is
the master madness). For a spasm or two
he was safe. The new naked reality needed
no tentacle or anchor; it lasted a moment,