How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #10
And now a delightful thing happens. The process of recreating that penholder and the microcosm in its eyelet stimulates my memory to a last effort. I try again to recall the name of Colette's dog—and, triumphantly, along those remote beaches, over the glossy evening sands of the past, where each footprint slowly fills up with sunset water, here it comes, here it comes, echoing and vibrating: Floss, Floss, Floss! (7.3.8)
Here Nabokov's performing his recollection, showcasing his discovery. Is it important that we know how he gets here? What does remembering a dog's name have to do with anything? And more importantly…who the heck names their dog Floss?
Quote #11
It seldom happens that I do not quite know whether a recollection is my own or has come to me secondhand, but in this case I do waver, especially because, much later, my mother, in her reminiscent moods, used to refer with amusement to the flame she had unknowingly kindled. (8.2.1)
Who owns a memory? The storyteller (Nabokov) uses the family's memories for his own purposes. Meanwhile, mom's shaking her fist yelling, "Hey give those back…those are mine"!
Quote #12
"Laid out on the last limit of the past and on the verge of the present, it remains in my memory merely as a geometrical design which no doubt I could easily fill in with the colors of plausible flowers, if I were careless enough to break the hush of pure memory that (except, perhaps, for some chance tinnitus due to the pressure of my own tired blood) I have left undisturbed, and humbly listened to, from the beginning." (15.3.7)
The more we write or tell a remembered event, the more it becomes locked in place. We stop trying to remember more, and just settle for what we remembered once. Sound reliable? Yeah, we don't think so.