Saturday, June 4, 2011

Existence

Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.

--Vladimir Nabokov

2 comments:

Thomas said...

This is one of those quotes that walks a fine line between profound and ridiculous, but I rate it "profound."

John said...

It reminded me of string theory, although that isn't why I posted it. I was thinking mainly of the way people want to know what it is all about, or what it means, or what the main story is, when in general we just slide from one episode into another.

Nabokov actually wrote a book, Pale Fire, which is mainly a long series of footnotes purporting to explain a poem that is never explained.