Publicity for Nabokov Website

My latest website for the library, Nabokov at Cornell: Celebrating Lolita's Fiftieth Anniversary, is now featured on Cornell's front page. Yay!



http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/lolita/

Interests Meme Results

Camping

I have loved camping since childhood. My family took several weekend trips each year, and I always had a great time. I'd lose myself by a secluded brook, building a dam out of rocks and mud, constructing tiny huts downstream out of sticks and leaves, and fabricating adventures for my world's tiny denizens. Of course, these adventures often involved the dam giving way, and destroying all in its path. Luckily I was a somewhat benevolent god, and always provided escape boats (blades of grass) for my little friends.

My brother and I would often go canoing for hours, exploring the remote banks of winding rivers, collecting strange-looking rocks and sticks, and capturing frogs and small fish, only to lose them all when one of us inevitably decided to tip over the canoe. Nothing has ever tasted better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a cold glass of milk, devoured in the shade of a tree as I sat muddy, waterlogged, and blissfully weary from a day of adventuring outside.

I never did tire of the outdoors and with camping, even at the end of the day, I could remain there, falling asleep to a chorus of crickets and the wind in the trees. Nature has such a different rhythm than the world we've built on top of it. It is one that I will always prefer.

Creativity

I am frequently amazed at the beautiful things people create...how we can take our memories and experiences, and transform them through imagination and skill into something original. Other than kindness and humor, it is the trait I admire most in others and hope for in myself.

Fall

I love the fall. I relish the cool breeze against my face as it swirls the leaves upward around me and raises my eyes to a vision of the trees framing the azure sky with an explosion of fiery hues. It makes me feel alive, to witness the season when all is gathered in. To feel the weight of a coat on my shoulders again, remember the comfort of my body's own warmth, and reflect on where I've been and where I'm going. To know that for all things, there is a time to recede in grace, with a promise of returning from the memory of the earth.

Food

I enjoy food, perhaps more than I should. From the simple comfort of a bag of potato chips enjoyed in solitude, to an elaborate Thai feast shared with friends, I find such satisfaction indulging the pleasure that millions of years of evolution has engineered into our survival instinct.

Laughter

I don't really laugh that much. I tend to smirk, or smile instead. I'm not sure why. But once in awhile something will set me off...usually something juvenile, and god does it feel good to laugh until I can't breath. I think more than almost anything, sharing laughter is what makes people become friends.

Photography

I enjoy photography because it allows me to share with others an image I have found compelling or beautiful, and it reveals to me the visions that others have found worthy of sharing.

Sailing

One of my greatest passions. When I move across the water, powered by nothing but the wind, I start to feel like I'm a part of nature, instead of apart from it. It is perhaps the only application of technology that allows me to feel this way.

Stars

Whether I'm lying on a dock staring up at them, or contemplating the enormity of universe around me, I take great pleasure in being humbled by such a lovely and profound reminder of our own insignificance.

Water

My "element" of choice. I grew up swimming, sailing, canoing, and sloshing through streams, and water has always comforted me. Try floating on your back on a warm summer's eve, gazing up at the sky in a moment of weightlessness, wrapped in the embrace of a silent lake, and you'll see what I mean.

Writing

Writing allows me to construct things that I can't seem to articulate with thought or speech. It's a creative process that I enjoy very much, and I am always happy to discover something about myself that I didn't realize before I wrote it down. It is also a way for me to share parts of myself with others that would otherwise remain hidden behind a curtain of shyness. Some of my most satisfying days are those in which I discover new meaning through writing.

Fire and Ice...or Another Device?

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
But the supposition I most admire
is a transcending upload's demented desire.

But if I had to perish twice
I'd favor a nano-sized bringer of fate
An ever-dividing robotic device
could pile up grey goo 'til all life did abate.


www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html

Stream of Consciousness

Cool water flowing
around my feet, overboard,
wind-blown current bliss.