I had not been familiar with Vladimir Nabokov’s contribution to prison literature, as done with his shorter 1938 novel, Invitation to Beheading. In a fictional country with a gothic castle that works as the state’s prison ward, Cincinnatus C. finds himself arrested for the unspeakable crime of “gnostical turpitude”, a crime punishable by good ol’ fashion chop chop--- beheading with a fancy axe. While imprisoned and waiting for the unknown date of his execution, Cincinnatus struggles to come to terms with his life and future death through the act of writing but while also confronting the surrealism of the prison ward and his own imaginative escapades, together invoking a world comparable to Magritte, MC Escher and Lewis Carroll.
It’s a fun book. Not necessarily one that I have a lot to say about though because part of the enjoyment is in each reader’s personal interpretation of Nabokov’s parable. Included with these might be tensions between individuality and society’s pressures to assimilate, a comment on the absurdity of capital punishment, an example of existential enlightenment, the visionary role that must be taken to become an artist, a display of the dangers inherent to statist mentality or the ultimate importance of self will and conscious choice to live a fulfilling life.
While final understanding is to be personal, there are a few things are worth pointing out. First, Cincinnatus is face to face with impending death, which results in an intense inner life to come to terms with the inevitable. In comparison, the piffling concerns displayed by his visitors reveal their outward characters as comical and dream-like, a lack in substance to contrast the internal realism of Cincinnatus. Second, at the final moment of Cincinnatus’ execution, through the act of personal will, his executioners and the entirety of their world disappear. Cincinnatus walks out a free man. And don’t worry, I’m not giving away the ending at all because this is not a novel based on plot. Instead, it’s the stylistic tone and movement of events that lead up to Cincinnatus’ epiphany which create the unfolding experience of the book. Finally, as Cincinnatus moves closer to his final hour, a reader can’t help but share in what such an experience would be like, as is done in other books like Tale of Two Cities and In Cold Blood. As such, reading Invitation to a Beheading becomes an excellent memento mori, and certainly this would be an aspect common to all personal interpretations.
Invitation to a Beheading is by no means Nabokov’s finest work. But, along with his collection of short stories, it is an excellent recommendation to someone who might want to become familiar with Nabokov. Like a lot of people, I started with Lolita and only got about 70 pages into it. Instead it was his short stories that opened me to the dazzle of Nabokov’s synaesthetic language and the fantastical imagination that was always vailable to him, qualities which are both on display equally in Invitation to a Beheading. It should also be noted that Invitation to a Beheading has qualities that are very similar to Kafka’s The Trial, but Nabokov was adamant with his claims that he was not familiar with The Trial at the time of the book’s writing.
It’s a fun book. Not necessarily one that I have a lot to say about though because part of the enjoyment is in each reader’s personal interpretation of Nabokov’s parable. Included with these might be tensions between individuality and society’s pressures to assimilate, a comment on the absurdity of capital punishment, an example of existential enlightenment, the visionary role that must be taken to become an artist, a display of the dangers inherent to statist mentality or the ultimate importance of self will and conscious choice to live a fulfilling life.
While final understanding is to be personal, there are a few things are worth pointing out. First, Cincinnatus is face to face with impending death, which results in an intense inner life to come to terms with the inevitable. In comparison, the piffling concerns displayed by his visitors reveal their outward characters as comical and dream-like, a lack in substance to contrast the internal realism of Cincinnatus. Second, at the final moment of Cincinnatus’ execution, through the act of personal will, his executioners and the entirety of their world disappear. Cincinnatus walks out a free man. And don’t worry, I’m not giving away the ending at all because this is not a novel based on plot. Instead, it’s the stylistic tone and movement of events that lead up to Cincinnatus’ epiphany which create the unfolding experience of the book. Finally, as Cincinnatus moves closer to his final hour, a reader can’t help but share in what such an experience would be like, as is done in other books like Tale of Two Cities and In Cold Blood. As such, reading Invitation to a Beheading becomes an excellent memento mori, and certainly this would be an aspect common to all personal interpretations.
Invitation to a Beheading is by no means Nabokov’s finest work. But, along with his collection of short stories, it is an excellent recommendation to someone who might want to become familiar with Nabokov. Like a lot of people, I started with Lolita and only got about 70 pages into it. Instead it was his short stories that opened me to the dazzle of Nabokov’s synaesthetic language and the fantastical imagination that was always vailable to him, qualities which are both on display equally in Invitation to a Beheading. It should also be noted that Invitation to a Beheading has qualities that are very similar to Kafka’s The Trial, but Nabokov was adamant with his claims that he was not familiar with The Trial at the time of the book’s writing.
[engraving by Alexander Mair, 1605]
1 comments:
I've been enjoying this series, and just linked to this post. I sort of stumbled into writing about The Gift, which is related to Invitation to a Beheading, not surprisingly, since they were written at almost the same time.
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