'The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour). I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth.

1. Black Stone Meaning

He saw a world that was practically unchanged-the same house, the same people- and then realized that he did not exist there at all and that nobody mourned his absence. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving from an upstairs window, and that unfamiliar gesture disturbed him, as if it were some mysterious farewell. But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse course of events, his very bones had disintegrated.'

Black Stone Meaning

Nov 22, 2011  I loathe Van Veen. Vladimir Nabokov. Ada, or Ardor (1969) (full text available here) is Nabokov’s very long novel about brother-sister incest in an alternate reality.Most people don’t consider it one of his best. The book declares itself as the memoirs of Van Veen, spoiled and successful aristocrat, describing his upbringing on the family estate of Ardis, his long-running love affair with. Apr 21, 2009  First Paragraph of First Chapter of 'speak, memory' by Vladimir Nabokov 'The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. 'The Wood-Sprite' from 'The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov' Although I did not like the essay by Vladimir Nabokov in the book 'The Best American Essays of the Century' I don't think that this lack of affection for one piece of writing-should bias me against him.