#VladimirNabokov120
illustrations by Jason Novak, captioned by Eric Jarosinski
Saul Steinberg, “Portraits and Landscapes,” The Paris
Review, no. 195 (Winter 2010), pp. 27-36:
“Just a few days after Nabokov’s death, there was an
invasion of butterflies out in Springs, Long Island. It probably happens every
year. But the reason I noticed the butterflies this time was the presence—or
the absence—of Nabokov.
“While I was riding my bicycle, in fact, I had the pleasure
of traveling with one of them: a monarch, one of those orange-and-black
butterflies that migrate from Canada down to Mexico. It was right beside me, we
were moving at the same speed, and the butterfly was at the same height as my
head. The proximity of the butterfly transformed me into an airborne head, a
cherub or a seraph, one of Raphael’s angels composed solely of a head and
wings.”
