Posts tagged "At"

“Unquenchable Russia”, or Forbidden Themes in Nabokov’s Prose

“…What I feel to be the real modern world is the world the artist creates, his own mirage, which becomes a new mir (“world” in Russian) by the very act of his shedding, as it were, the age he lives in” . Such an answer Nabokov once gave to an interviewer who was interested in his opinion regarding the modern world and contemporary politics. The book which contains this interview as well as many others, is entitled Strong Opinions, and, indeed, Nabokov is well-known not only for his brilliant fiction but for his original, independent and uncompromising views on creativity, art and the place of artist in the world. Whenever interviewed, he avoided discussion of “general ideas” such as social, political and moral issues and asserted that such global concerns lay outside the realm of art: “A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me. I don’t give a damn for the group, the community, the masses, and so forth… There can be no question that what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art . A work of art, for Nabokov, is a world in itself, brought to life by one’s creative imagination. It leads its own independent existence, unrelated to its historical surroundings and realities. In the introduction to his Lectures on Literature Nabokov explains once again: “…The real writer, the fellow who sends planets spinning and models a man asleep and eagerly tampers with the sleeper’s rib, that kind of author has no given values at his disposal: he must create them himself. The art of writing is a futile business if it does not imply first of all the art of seeing the world as the potentiality of fiction” . In this statement, visions of cosmic grandeur and an obvious reference to the story of Adam and Eve reflect a parallel between creator-artist and creator-God. In one of his interviews Nabokov explicitly brings out this comparison: “A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only of recombining but of re-creating the given world” .

Nabokov’s position is, to a degree, a reaction to the situation in Soviet Russia, where demands of the state dominated the needs of a human being, where the individual was suppressed by the collective and details by generalities. He asserts once again the power and independence of personal creativity, the ability of one’s imagination to build worlds of its own, and makes a sharp distinction between a work of fiction and everything outside of it, including the personality of its creator. “Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both truth and art” .

Nabokov insisted on a specific approach to literature from the readers as well. He renounced the usual tendencies of identifying oneself with a book’s characters, searching for clues to the social and political realities of the time the work was written, or trying to form “general ideas” about a book without absorbing all its specific details. Emotional involvement, he pointed out, could also prevent the reader from objective appreciation of the work “…A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle even though we must keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading” .

Nabokov avoided formulating his ideas under the famous slogan “art for art’s sake” just as he avoided labels of all kinds, but this well-known phrase can undoubtedly be used to describe his views and attitudes towards literature. In this hierarchy of values, aesthetic concerns dominate all others, and the influence of a great work of art on its reader is limited to a “tingle in the spine”. However, it remains to be seen, to what extent Nabokov’s ideas penetrate his own fiction; whether his novels are entirely a product of his creative imagination or a result of the deep personal experience that saturates them with great intensity.

Nabokov changed countries and languages during his creative life, and it is interesting to analyze whether these changes affected his books. Comparing two of Nabokov’s novels, The Gift, written in Russian mostly in Berlin of the 1930s, and Pale Fire, written in English at a much later date, can provide an insight into these questions.

As Nabokov mentioned in the foreword to The Gift, “the main heroine” of the novel is Russian literature, and the main character is a writer, an emigre author Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, who shares many autobiographical details with Nabokov. Like Nabokov during his post-Cambridge years, Fyodor lives in Berlin of the 1920s, writes poetry and makes a living by giving lessons in English and French. He leads, for the most part, a solitary existence, devoting his time first and foremost to literature. Happy childhood in St. Petersburg, love of butterflies and chess problems, synesthesia, – all this Fyodor has in common with Nabokov. Description of certain episodes mirrors incidents from Nabokov’s own life, depicted much later in his autobiographical book Speak, Memory, – for example, the story of a childhood illness: high fever, obsession with numbers and a huge Faber pencil, given as a gift by the mother.

Perhaps, the most significant trait that Fyodor shares with Nabokov is passionate love of literary language, faith in the power of the written word: “Since there were things he (Fyodor) wanted to express just as naturally as unrestrainedly as the lungs want to expand, hence words suitable for breathing ought to exist” . Fyodor reflects on his youthful interest in rhyme and meter, analyzing the very mechanisms by which words interact and fit together like pieces of a puzzle to form the harmonious whole of a poem. Fyodor shares Nabokov’s dislike of generalities such as social issues or psychiatry. When he briefly considers the possibility of fulfilling his acquaintance, Mme. Chernyshevski’s yet unvoiced request to write about her son, he explains his aversion to the idea as follows: “I would have become enmired involuntarily in a “deep” social-interest novel with a disgusting Freudian reek” .

Most clearly, Fyodor’s (and Nabokov’s) views on literature are expressed in Fyodor’s (imaginary) conversations with Koncheyev – a fellow emigre poet, the only one whose work he admires and whose opinions he considers valuable. When Fyodor and Koncheyev leave a literary gathering and walk together down the street, a unique, brilliant dialogue, filled with allusions to various works of Russian literature, takes place between them. “…There are only two kinds of books: bedside and wastebasket. Either I love a writer fervently, or throw him away entirely” , – declares Fyodor, and the two proceed to discuss what, in their opinion, is the best and the worst in the works by famous Russian writers. Both are utterly uninterested in “general ideas” or the moral significance of the writings they talk about (aspects which always attracted Russian critics and gained new importance in the Soviet period), and all they do is lovingly point out purely artistic findings of this or that writer. They praise Leskov’s Jesus – “the ghostly Galilean, cool and gentle, in a robe the color of ripening plum” or “the gray sheen of Mme. Odintsev’s black silks” in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Speaking of dismissed Dostoyevski, Fyodor notes: “In the Karamazovs, there is somewhere a circular mark left by a wet wine glass on an outdoor table”, – and that, for him, is the only thing “worth saving” . As for several writers known for their beautiful depictions of nature, Fyodor ruthlessly criticizes them for mistakes in their descriptions of natural phenomena: “My father used to find all kinds of howlers in Turgenev’s and Tolstoy’s hunting scenes and descriptions of nature, and as for the wretched Aksakov, let’s not even discuss his disgraceful blunders in this field” . All these statements obviously echo Nabokov’s own approach to literature, with his love of detail, his insistence on accurate knowledge of the natural world and dismissal of any other criteria in judging works of literature.

Nabokov’s belief in the power of deception and invention in creating fiction frequently finds expression in his attempts to mislead the reader, to establish this or that false move in the development of the plot, which, after a few pages, turns out to be an illusion, a figment of the character’s imagination. The whole exchange between Fyodor and Koncheyev proves to be such an illusion: “Whose business is it that actually we parted at the very first corner, and that I have been reciting a fictitious dialogue with myself as supplied by a self-teaching handbook of literary inspiration?” However, the significance of this non-existent conversation in the novel is not limited to expression of opinions on art and display of Nabokov’s mystification devices. It shows the extent of Fyodor’s loneliness, the absence of interlocutors with whom he could share his extensive knowledge of literature and love of language: the degree of detachment from the surrounding world. In his book Speak, Memory Nabokov describes the way native Europeans were perceived by Russian immigrants in Germany or France: “These aborigines were to the mind’s eye as flat and transparent as figures cut out of cellophane, and although we used their gadgets, applauded their clowns, picked their roadside plums and apples, no real communication, of the rich human sort so widespread in our own midst, existed between us and them” . The Gift recreates that atmosphere of cultural and human isolation in which Fyodor has to dwell. Deprived of his own cultural environment, Fyodor feels nothing but resentment towards the German-speaking world he is trapped in. “The Russian conviction that the German is in small numbers vulgar and in large numbers – unbearably vulgar was, he knew, a conviction unworthy of an artist” , – and still he cannot help it, as he directs all his irrational hatred at a German who pushes him in a bus (and who, ironically, turns out to be a Russian).

Like Nabokov, Fyodor is trilingual, but his French and English in his current situation serve a purely utilitarian purpose, whereas Russian remains the language of his soul and his art. Riding a bus to one of his tedious teaching jobs, Fyodor thinks of himself: “…there he is, a special, rare and as yet undescribed and unnamed variant of man, and he is occupied with God knows what, rushing from lesson to lesson, wasting his youth on a boring and empty task, on the mediocre teaching of foreign languages – when he has his own language, out of which he can make anything he likes – a midge, a mammoth, a thousand different clouds” . This is why there are hardly any examples of word play and language switch in The Gift.

On the way to yet another hateful lesson Fyodor becomes completely immersed in the memories of Russia and his past life there, – memories ”swift and senseless, visiting him like an attack of a fatal illness at any hour, in any place” . The warm, sunny vision of the Russian countryside after a short summer rain stands out in such a sharp contrast with the surrounding colorless reality and the upcoming encounter with a hopeless pupil, that Fyodor ends up skipping the lesson and going home to his writings. This is another theme expressed in The Gift with great emotional power – the theme of nostalgia, longing for the lost homeland. Whenever faced with the question about Russia during his interviews, Nabokov gave replies such as “all the Russia I need is always with me” or “exile means to an artist only one thing – the banning of his books” . Sometimes, however, he speaks of Russia quite differently: “In the first decade of our dwindling century, during trips with my family to Western Europe, I imagined, in bedtime reveries, what it would be like to become an exile who longed for a remote, sad and (right epithet coming) unquenchable Russia, under the eucalypti of exotic resorts. Lenin and his police nicely arranged the realization of that fantasy” .

References to Russia in Nabokov’s novels, particularly The Gift, bear a trace of an overwhelming and bitter sense of loss, coming, undoubtedly, from personal experience. Like Nabokov, Fyodor transforms his inner world into art, and his poetry, born out of childhood memories, justifies, as he says, the years spent in exile. But even creative fulfillment in literature cannot fully relieve Fyodor of his nostalgia, which sometimes becomes almost a physical sensation: “For a long time he had wanted to express somehow that it was in his feet that he had the feeling of Russia, that he could touch and recognize all of her with his soles, as a blind man feels with his palms” . Again and again, he imagines an impossible return to his familiar and changed country: “And when will we return to Russia? What idiotic sentimentality, what a rapacious groan must our innocent hope convey to people in Russia. But our nostalgia is not historical – only human- how can one explain this to them?” Immediately following these lines is one of Nabokov’s central thoughts expressed through the words of his character and given a somewhat ironic ending: “It is easier for me, of course, than for another to live outside Russia, because I know for certain that I shall return – first because I took away the keys to her, and secondly because, no matter when, in a hundred, two hundred years, I shall live there in my books – or at least in some researcher’s footnote. There; now you have a historical hope, a literary-historical one…”

In this passage, there are two distinct perspectives on Russia, two different ways of perception – that of an artist and that of a simple human being, and it is the more independent, proud and detached position of an artist that Nabokov prefers to present to the world. He always vigorously protested against being identified with his characters, and, perhaps, it was his way of concealing that part of himself, which contained his own human feelings and dreams, often painful, often helplessly irresolvable. Nevertheless, just like in one of Fyodor’s childhood memories colors leak into his vision of letters and irrevocably affect his perception of language, this private and forbidden world of Nabokov inevitably enters his fiction in various guises and through different characters. Besides the theme of nostalgia, there is another highly personal development of the plot in The Gift, and it is Fyodor’s relationship with his father. Konstantin Godunov-Cherdyntsev is an explorer who is also very absorbed in his occupation and uninterested in the major upheavals that occur in Russia. In 1917, despite the troubled situation in Russia, he departs on one of his expeditions and never returns. It is another loss that haunts Fyodor: even though there is hardly any hope of seeing his father again, he keeps dreaming of his return, imagining that one day he would meet his father on the street, or hear a phone call… In one of the most poignant episodes in the novel, the phone rings, after all, in the middle of the night, and Fyodor rushes to the house of his former landlady along the streets of Berlin which suddenly become transformed into a beautiful, mysterious world somewhat reminiscent of St. Petersburg in a white night. Fyodor enters the room and sees his father. “With a moan and a sob Fyodor stepped toward him, and in the collective sensation of woolen jacket, big hands and the tender prickle of trimmed mustaches there swelled an ecstatically happy, living, enormous, paradisal warmth in which his icy heart melted and dissolved” . And again, almost unbearably this time, the whole scene turns out to be one of Nabokov’s false twists, and Fyodor wakes up from yet another dream to a cold and empty morning.

Nabokov denied a work of art any kind of “truth” aside from artistic one, but the episode with Fyodor’s father radiates with human truth: warmth, longing, vulnerability, the void of shattered hopes… One just has to remember the tragic death of Nabokov’s own father, to understand where all this is coming from.

In The Gift, covers are often transparent, and its hero is presented from multiple angles. He is not just a writer who “treats life as a possibility of fiction”, he is a human being who sees the world through the prism of his own experience, his own joys and sorrows.

The Gift was the last novel Nabokov wrote in Russian. In 1940, he immigrated to the United States and, since then, wrote his major works only in English. The change, as he said, was not easy: “My complete switch from Russian prose to English prose was exceedingly painful – like learning anew to handle things after losing seven or eight fingers in an explosion” . Pale Fire, one of Nabokov’s English novels, was written partially at the end of his stay in America, partially in Switzerland, where Nabokov spent his later years. The novel has important structural and thematic similarities to The Gift. Like The Gift, where a whole separate chapter is devoted to Fyodor’s biography of Chernyshevsky, a book on its own, Pale Fire contains a work of literature within it – a long poem written by an American poet John Shade. The rest of the novel is a commentary, which for the most part has nothing to do with the poem itself. It is an elaborate story of remote Zembla, whose king has been swept off the throne by the revolution and fled the country. Gradually, it becomes clear that Charles Kinbote, Shade’s neighbor and the author of the commentary, is himself the fugitive king. Therefore, as in The Gift, there is a theme of exile and a theme of creativity, though in Pale Fire they take quite a different development.

As Kinbote explains, “the name Zembla is a corruption not of the Russian zemlya, but of Semblerland, a land of reflections, of “resemblers” . Zemblan language resembles several European languages at the same time. There are obvious traces of Russian in it, and some words are borrowed almost unchanged: for example, there is a picture of bogtyr (bogatyr’ in Russian) in a Zemblan history book, and there are “stone-faced, square-shouldered komizars” (Russian: commissar) maintaining order on Zemblan streets after the revolution. Besides, French and German can be vaguely discerned in other phrases. “Minnamin, Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan (my darling, God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty)” , – a Zemblan nurse says to Kinbote, and one hears, besides the Russian “alkat’” and, possibly, the English “pernicious”, “mon amie”, “Gott”, and the first person of the German “mochten”.

Nabokov in his interviews stressed that Zembla is not Russia, and, indeed, there is another Russia in the novel, a totalitarian state that contributes to the Zemblan revolution. Kinbote talks about “the tainted gold and the robot troops that a powerful police state from its vantage ground a few sea miles away was pouring into the Zemblan Revolution” . Kinbote’s constantly talks about Zembla, but his memories of it lack that depth of human feeling, which marks Fyodor’s nostalgia. Even though Kinbote repeats again and again “my Zembla”, “dazzling Zembla” , tenderness that shines through the best pages of The Gift, is missing from his story. It is essentially a story of himself and his escape from the country. For a king, Kinbote shows a remarkable lack of interest in the revolution that struck his country and the possible causes which led to it. He is more preoccupied with aesthetic and literary pleasures and calls the whole business of politics “a tiresome subject” . As for the revolution, all he can say about it is that it was “tedious and unnecessary” . In Kinbote’s attitude, there is some of Nabokov’s own indifference towards social and political issues. On the whole, the theme of exile is treated in the novel with certain coldness and detachment, but there are passages, which by their warmth and profound lyricism can be compared to The Gift. For example, Kinbote comments on his roommate who gets up early in morning and plants flowers with a very curious name: Heliotropium turgenevi. “This is the flower whose odor evokes with timeless intensity the dusk, and the garden bench, and a house of painted wood in a distant northern land” . Even aside from the reference to Turgenev, it is clear that this land, for Nabokov, is no other than Russia, – not the monstrous police state in the vicinity of Zembla, but the real, immortal, beloved Russia of Nabokov’s memory. And this short passage retains more emotional freshness and power than colorful descriptions of Zemblan mountains that have no counterpart in the author’s childhood recollections.

It seems that, to Kinbote, being in exile means not so much the loss of the homeland as the loss of his name and title (which he now has to hide), and thus partially the loss of his identity, and in this way his isolation and detachment is more complete than that of Fyodor in The Gift. One of the critics of Pale Fire interprets his behavior as follows: “…he is trying to get the poet John Shade to confirm his identity, to validate the Zemblan reality which is his hope of salvation by turning it into a poem” . With maniacal persistence Kinbote keeps talking with Shade about Zembla: “I mesmerized him with it, I saturated him with my vision, I pressed upon him, with a drunkard’s wild generosity, all that I was helpless myself to put into verse” . Kinbote calls his relationship with the poet “friendship”, but, in fact, he cannot care less about Shade as a human being with his own hopes and sorrows. While commenting on the poem, he utterly neglects the parts about Shade’s wife and daughter. Sybil Shade, who protects her husband from his neighbor’s intrusions, for Kinbote, is just as annoying obstacle in the way, and to him, the tender lines that Shade devotes to his wife are nothing but “embarrassing intimacies” . Kinbote haughtily deals with the theme of Shade’s daughter, Hazel’s, suicide, obviously a very painful and personal subject for the poet, as if it was merely a stylistic device: “The whole thing strikes me as too labored and long, especially since the synchronization device has been already worked to death by Flaubert and Joyce” . When Kinbote feels lonely and afraid in his empty house, he wishes that Shade had a heart attack, – just to have an excuse to come over and escape loneliness and fear. At the end of the novel, when Shade has been mistakenly shot by the assassin, his “friend” is in no hurry to call for help: instead, he rushes to hide the poem, which, he thinks, contains the story of his own life.

In comparison to Kinbote, John Shade appears to be a much more appealing character, and he possesses some traits that bring more human warmth into his image: he can be lazy, he likes hearty meals, brandy and wine; he loves his wife and daughter and is generally more tolerant towards people who are not as bright and talented as he is. Nabokov gives his character some of his most cherished thoughts. For example, Shade, who is also a teacher of literature, expresses his views on teaching: “First of all, dismiss ideas, and social background, and get the freshman to shiver, to get drunk on the poetry of Hamlet or Lear, to read with his spine and not with his skull” . However, since Shade’s personality is seen in the novel only through Kinbote’s uncaring eyes, his inner world is more or less concealed from the reader. It is only through Shade’s poem that one can glimpse into the questions, which preoccupy the poet. The poem, on the whole, is a painful, difficult search for meaning, an attempt to make sense of the whole puzzle of human life and death, to find a way of transcending one’s mortality. No human thought or emotion can relieve one from being trapped in one’s own finite world. Everything fails except art: art for its own sake, art that contains a unique, perfectly harmonized inner reality, which can be perceived as a reflection of a greater pattern:

I feel I understand

Existence, or at least a minute part,

Of my existence, only through my art,

In terms of combinational delight…

“Combinational delight”, indeed, is important not only in Shade’s poem but in the whole novel. As in The Gift, artistic detail is a focus of concentration in Pale Fire, but here attention is focused on an even subtler level where language itself is analyzed. Pale Fire is an example of extremely dense prose where individual words are more than just carriers of meaning: they become, in a way, themselves a subject of the novel. One of Shade’s warmest images of his family together is a memory of the evenings when both he and Sybil helped their daughter to understand really obscure words from her English textbook. A difference of one letter in the words “mountain” and “fountain” becomes crucial in the story of Shade’s attempt to penetrate the mystery of the hereafter. The book is filled with examples of word play, often involving several languages, and references to numerous works of literature (some of which are likely to be Nabokov’s own inventions). In Shade’s poem, there are such peculiar combinations as: “Fra Karamazov, mumbling his inept all is allowed” , which is a mixture of Alyosha Karamazov, Raskol’nikov, and, perhaps, Italian painter Fra Angelico with his intensely spiritual religious art. But nobody in the novel is more involved in digging into words than Kinbote. He is constantly preoccupied with deciphering literary allusions, musing over interplay of words, meanings, rhymes and sounds. Nabokov mentioned in his lectures that a dictionary should be a necessary attribute of a good reader, and, ironically, Kinbote, who can hardly be called a good reader, dutifully follows the lines of Shade’s masterpiece with his dictionary. For the most part, he is obsessively searching references to Zembla and his own life story in the poem, but sometimes he simply takes aesthetic pleasure in certain lines of it:

“Lines 131-132: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain by feigned remoteness in the windowpane.

The exquisite melody of the two lines opening the poem is picked up here. The repetition of that long-drawn note is saved from monotony by the subtle variation in line 132 where the assonance between its second word and the rhyme gives the ear a kind of languorous pleasure as would the echo of some half-remembered sorrowful song…” Shade’s commentator genuinely enjoys the magic of words, and so does Nabokov, whose multilingualism, artistic sense and incomparable mastery of language found full expression in the creation of the truly marvelous poem, as well as other parts of the novel.

Perhaps, the refined world of literature allows Kinbote a way of escape from his troubled personal reality, and so it does for Shade, and, to a degree, for Fyodor in The Gift, and, ultimately, for Nabokov. In his commentary, Kinbote recounts an episode when someone in the presence of Shade tells a story of a mad railroad worker, who “thought he was God and began redirecting the trains”. “That (“mad”) is the wrong word”, – he (Shade) said. – “One should not apply it to a person who deliberately peels off a drab and unhappy past and replaces it with a brilliant invention” . Still, comparison of Nabokov’s novels shows that the most “brilliant invention” becomes truly alive only if the light of one’s own human experience, however “drab and unhappy”, illuminates it from within. In Pale Fire the walls sheltering Nabokov’s private world of memory and feeling are thicker than in The Gift, and the novel follows more closely Nabokov’s ideas of art as elegant deception, an entirely invented world which should be approached on aesthetic rather than emotional grounds. This is the major difference between Pale Fire and The Gift.

Time is likely to be one of the factors behind this change: Pale Fire was written almost twenty years later than The Gift, as greater and greater distance separated Nabokov from his Russian past with which he had stronger emotional bond than with the years spent abroad. Another important factor is, probably, language. Nabokov was very proud of his English works and repeatedly called himself an American writer, but sometimes he provided his readers with unexpected revelations such as: “My private tragedy, which cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern, is that I had to abandon my natural language, my natural idiom, my rich, infinitely rich and docile Russian tongue, for a second-rate brand of English” . In another interview, when asked which language he considered the most beautiful, Nabokov replied: “My head says English, my heart, Russian, my ear, French” . It is possible to say that for him Russian conveyed emotional power, while English had more of an intellectual appeal, and this is one of the reasons why Pale Fire, written in English, appeals to the brain more than it does to feelings.

One of the most striking confessions that bridges Nabokov’s inner world with his public self exists in a poem. An Evening of Russian Poetry, written in English in 1945, is a rhymed presentation of a public lecture which Nabokov gives to an audience of American students, predominantly female. Russian poetry is the theme of the lecture, but Nabokov approaches it in the way typical for him: he does not talk about schools, trends and periods. Again, he speaks of letters, shapes, individual intricate details, and hidden tenderness shines through his words, staying invisible for his listeners. They ask him questions about his favorite trees and stones, echoing that insensitive critic from The Gift, whose “discussion of Koncheyev’s book boiled down to his answering for the author a kind of implied questionnaire (Your favorite flower? Favorite hero? Which virtue do you prize most?)” In Nabokov’s discussion of Pushkin and Nekrasov everything merges and melts together: the sky and the grass, the beauty of verse and human feeling, – and inevitable theme of exile. Nabokov speaks of memories, saying openly: “I must remind you in conclusion that I am followed everywhere and that space is collapsible” . His private tragedy is lost on his young listeners, whose innocent inquiry prompts what becomes the most remarkable ending of a poem:

How would you say “delightful talk” in Russian?

How would you say “good night”?

Oh, that would be:

Bessonnitza, tvoy vzor oonyl i strashen;

lubov moya, otstoopnika prostee.

(Insomnia, your stare is dull and ashen,

my love, forgive me this apostasy.)

All of Nabokov’s carefully hidden private world that, he insists, “cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern”, is suddenly revealed in these poignant lines: long nights, loneliness, the feeling of guilt over abandoning one’s language and nostalgia for inaccessible, unforgettable, “unquenchable Russia”.

Bibliography

1). Kernan, Alvin B. “Reading Zemblan: The Audience Disappears in Nabokov’s Pale Fire”. Vladimir Nabokov (Modern Critical Views). Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 101-125.

2). ???????, ????????. ???. ??????: ??????, 1990.

3). Nabokov, Vladimir. The Gift. New York: Capricorn Books, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.

4). —. Lectures on Literature. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1982.

5). —. Pale Fire. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.

6). —. Poems and Problems. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1970.

7). —. Speak, Memory. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.

8). —. Strong Opinions. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1973.

Elena Koutcherova
http://www.articlesbase.com/fiction-articles/unquenchable-russia-or-forbidden-themes-in-nabokovs-prose-204030.html

I just got back from the year 2137, And I must say that Mexamerida has surely changed, Anyway,heres my query:?

My vehicle runs on Iridium and other components, and I need iridium to fuel it, but theres only one layer of iridium, so I can only go back so far. Not even wit muh tyme muhsheen could I witness the beginning. Are we on a prison planet?
A Mental Prison Planet
I need some iridium too by the way. So if ya have some extree, please let me buy it from you.
What year is this anyway? Please dont say 1980
Gambling is illegal at Bushwood sir!
Actually its in Montana

Did you listen to my songs ? & Heard about how many Super Models I dated ?

Thank you if you did!

Retrieving Public Death Records Online

One of the first public records is Public Death Records. They started in the early 1900′s and form today’s Vital Public Records in conjunction with Birth, Divorce and Marriage Records. As with other public records, Public Death Records is not a voluntary or optional procedure. It is determined and mandated by the discretion of the authorities.

The information that can be derived from Public Death Records includes the personal particulars of the deceased, spouse, children and parents, time and place of death, death certificate, burial and funeral matters. It is also customary to insert an obituary into death records, especially when the deceased had been a distinguished or accomplished figure.

Some of the information contained in Death Records Search is actually quite private and people are known to be sensitive about it. That’s why there can be restrictions on their accessibility and use, death records being public records notwithstanding. Other than that, Public Death Records are by and large freely available from government agencies and private sources alike.

People Find Death Records for a multitude of reasons and purposes most predominant of which are catching up on long lost friends, tracing family trees and researching specific individuals. They are also widely used in Genealogy and other historical studies and are a primary resource for the Police and other enforcement bodies in their criminal investigation work.

Different states have different laws governing the access and use of Public Death Records. Furthermore, the death record databases of the various states are not linked. That means if it is not known which state precisely is the subject’s state of residence, a state by state search would have to be conducted in order for the search to be exhaustive. Having that said, records within each state however are uploaded onto a central state repository.

Death Records Search are very popular. They can be requested at any delegated government agency by mail, telephone, fax or walk-in. These days, the online option over the internet is also offered by the majority of public offices. Not surprisingly, Death Records Online has become the most popular way of retrieving Public Death Records.

Although we can Find Death Records essentially free of charge from public offices, the setback is it usually requires queue and waiting period. The format of records among different agencies is also not standardized so they can be potluck in that sense. For more purposeful searches, people would be better-served with fee-based professional information providers which are abundantly found on all major search engines.

Ben Dave
http://www.articlesbase.com/genealogy-articles/retrieving-public-death-records-online-718859.html

How your Daily Life Can Change the World

Today’s world is reaching a crisis point, and while many of our social structures are still intact for this moment, there will come a time when major changes will need to occur in the way we are living our lives on a day to day basis. This bold statement is shared not to create alarm and fear, but rather to awaken a sense of responsibility within all of us. This awakening has already begun, and most people are now aware that our current way of life is causing harm to the precious Earth we live on. The question now for many of us is … what can I do?

Our lives are already chock full of challenges. Just managing the day to day realities of life is for many of us a full time job. The growing complexities of life that have developed from the accelerated pace of change can at times feel overwhelming. We hear news reports of natural disasters, wars, poverty, disease, environmental pollution, and a seemingly endless number of new challenges … the amount of overwhelm can cause us to numb ourselves, and shut ourselves off from the realities that are happening around us.

How then do we help our struggling world? What can we do? The answer to this question lies within our hearts, and is much bigger and more important than we may realize. There are certain obvious things that we can do on a daily basis to conserve energy, recycle, and be more environmentally conscious. Thankfully, more and more people are stepping up and creating change in their daily habits in this way. This helps a great deal towards beginning to reverse the cycle of abuse to the Earth and lack of respect for her resources. There is a larger change that needs to happen however, that is at the root of the world’s problems. It is one that we all participate in unless we choose not to, and this has to do with our consciousness.

Consciousness? How can that affect the world situation? You may be wondering just how changing our awareness can affect things. Isn’t that in the realm of the metaphysical, for people who wear robes and chant and do strange spiritual practices? Dearest ones, taking responsibility for our consciousness is not just for those with a spiritual awareness. Our consciousness affects the world we live in, whether we are aware of it or not. The thoughts and energy we put into the world have an impact, and our consciousness creates the actions and choices we make on a daily basis.

Just how did the world get into the state that it is in now? It all started with where our collective consciousness has been. Humanity has been involved in developing our individuality, and in experiencing the world of physical reality without much attention to the larger whole of which we are a part. This was a necessary step in our evolution, but now times have changed. We’ve gone as far as we can in developing our individuality and unique identities.

Unfortunately, as we’ve explored our individuality, we have made choices that do not take into account the affects that our actions have on the larger whole. We’ve chosen to use energy resources that are finite, and that cause pollution of the Earth. We’ve chosen farming practices that remove the essential ingredients from our food, in favor of mass production. The lack of nutrients from our food has increased our health problems, but our healing practices have attempted to fix the symptoms without addressing the root causes. We’ve chosen to pursue individual wealth that brings prosperity to us and our families, but leaves the majority of humankind suffering in poverty and starvation.

All of these challenges we now face started with a consciousness that had forgotten our essential connections to the larger whole of life. We are divine beings that entered into physical reality in order to learn, and now at this crucial time in the evolution of humanity, we are beginning to learn how to reconnect with ourselves, with each other, and with the Earth. We are beginning to learn that our thoughts create our reality, and that what we think and feel matters as much as what we do.

One of the great spiritual truths shared with us by all spiritual teachers and religions is that we are all connected. We are a part of God, who lives within us. In the same way, all others in our world are equally a part of God, and are an essential part of the essential whole of life. Therefore, if we harm another, we ultimately harm ourselves. If we prevent others from receiving what they need, we limit ourselves because we are constricting the free flow of God’s light and life force.

These concepts are not new, but they have been mostly in the background of human consciousness, which up until this point was focused on pursuing more individualized goals. Times have changed, and now the only solution that can be found to the problems of today’s world is to work together, and to reconnect ourselves with our divine eternal nature as souls.

When we are no longer separated from the divine source of all light and love, our relationship with ourselves and with others changes. We are no longer alone, seeking to get our needs met, and competing with others who all are trying to get their needs met. Instead, we go within to connect with our hearts, to understand who we are, and what our purpose is for being on the Earth at this time. Each soul is present on the Earth for a reason, and when we discover and fulfill that purpose, our life makes a positive contribution to the world and in the process our own needs are met and fulfilled.

When we realize that our consciousness matters and has an impact on others, we take responsibility for our thoughts as well as our actions. Are you holding a grudge towards someone in your life? With an awakened consciousness, you realize that holding on to this grudge is creating a blockage in the free flow of light and love in your life, and you take steps to heal this pain you are carrying. You may not be able to let go of the pain right away, but your intention to let go, rather than to hold on, opens up the energy of healing. In the larger network of human consciousness, you’ve just created a small pocket of light and love, which enters the atmosphere of the Earth and strengthens the love and light present in the world. This small pocket is like a candle, which lights other candles that it comas into contact with.

On the other hand, if you choose to hold on to your anger, blame, judgment and so on, the emotions you are holding onto contribute to the cloud of negative energy that is present around the Earth during this time. You feel entitled to be angry, and refuse to budge. You may even act out your feelings and create disharmony or even harm to others. In this way your choice contributes to this very same energy pattern which is prevalent in so many of today’s world conflicts and wars. Anger, blame, judgment, entitlement, and the unwillingness to compromise are all fed by the daily thoughts and feelings of others.

Do you see the choice you have each day, and at each moment? Your consciousness either adds to or detracts from the presence of love and light on the Earth. The love creates a feeling of harmony, and of possibilities and hope. The love opens up new possibilities and ideas, and can help us find creative solutions to the world problems.

You are a part of this love, and your daily choices can support and strengthen the many positive actions of change now happening in the world. In this way your daily life can change the world, and can help others to awaken, heal and contribute positively as well. You are blessed to be present at this monumental time in the Earth’s history, with an unprecedented opportunity to grow, learn, heal, transform, and to participate in creating a New Earth.

Mashubi Rochell
http://www.articlesbase.com/new-age-articles/how-your-daily-life-can-change-the-world-263699.html

Voices Can Change the World

Voice talent Dave Christi runs an organization comprising of professional voice talent working towards bringing awareness and an end to one of the worlds most evil atrocities, genocide, particularly, the genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

A genocide literally means that an entire group of people, or, in many cases, the majority of a population, is annihilated without just cause. The motives behind these genocides often revolve around religion, politics and ethnicity with hate as the catalyst.

Genocide is defined as: The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group

You may recall the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. At the time, Canadian Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire was in the then war-torn Rwanda with a UN peacekeeping mission. While he was there, he heard that there was going to be a genocide. In this country, there are two distinct groups of people, the Hutu people and the Tutsi people, the latter being the minority and also considered the aristocracy.

To give you an extremely brief summary of what happened, the Tutsi people suffered a genocide at the hands of the Hutu while the world turned a blind eye. Between April 6th and July 16th 1994, over 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children along with moderate Hutus were slaughtered over a period of 100 days – a massacre which has been likened to a modern Reign of Terror.

I happened to have the opportunity to attend a moving presentation a couple of years ago that screened a documentary about the Rwandan genocide in London. Major Brent Beardsley, who served as the personal staff officer to LGen Romeo Dallaire in Rwanda, was there to share what he saw of the massacre first hand and how if the UN had only continued to provide support to their peacekeepers, the genocide may have been stopped.

Several survivors from the genocide were there and spoke that evening, many of whom were the only living members of their family, letting us as Canadians know how much it meant to them that Romeo Dallaire and his troops did not pull out or abandon them when the United Nations and the rest of the world did.

Romeo Dallaire and his troops defied the UN in order to defend the people of Rwanda, and the battle they fought has made the term genocide very real.

The question Romeo Dallaire asks is “Are all humans human? Or… are some humans more human than others?”

What is going on in Darfur is eerily familiar… it is a genocide.

In our human history, we have seen genocides before Darfur and Rwanda, although, sometimes they are known by other names. Remember what happened to the Jewish people during World War II? The Holocaust, as termed by the British government, is a genocide. Millions of Jewish people were brutally murdered by the Nazi regime.

History repeats itself, but as we also know of history, we can learn from it to change the world. While it is true that not everyone can be at ground zero, there are things that you can still do from home.

When I heard about what Dave Christi had started, my heart broke for the people of Darfur and I wanted to see his purpose and the mission of his colleagues uplifted and shared with you.

I was fortunate to have an interview with Dave earlier this week.

Stephanie: What inspired you to start this project?

Dave Christi: A while ago, I happened upon an article online about a recent trip that a celebrity had taken to Darfur. Then another person on another trip. Then another and another. I wondered, “What’s going on in Darfur?” I always knew that there were problems in Africa, but I never knew to what extent. A quick Internet search later, I found more information.

I was horrified. Not just by the atrocities happening there, but by my own ignorance of the gravity of the situation. I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t heard more about this on mainstream national news outlets.

I petitioned my congressman and signed the petition to the president and so on, but I didn’t feel like I was doing enough. I don’t have sacks of cash lying around, so I decided to donate my talents as a voiceover artist and copywriter. Then, I figured there may be one or two other voiceover talents that would like to contribute in the same way.

Stephanie: Do you offer services to charitable organizations directly, or do they need to find you first and ask?

Dave: The website and concept are both still in their infancy. My vision is to offer voiceover services to non-profits that may need a PSA read, or a presentation narrated.

Also, since I am a writer, I am putting together a series of PSAs for radio. As far as I can tell, there is a serious LACK of media coverage of this genocide. I’ll be contacting human rights organizations to ask them what we can do to help.

Stephanie: How many people are involved with the project?

Dave: This is the truly amazing part. I made this project public when I had the first PSA script written. That was on Monday, December 11. Just a few days later and I have over 20 voiceover talents who have helped on the PSA and many more that have expressed an interest in donating their voices for future projects.

I am now looking for others that can help with administration.

Stephanie: Do you have a mission statement?

Dave: Not an official statement, but the mission is 3-fold:

1. Donating voiceover work to non-profits who raise money/awareness for the crisis in Darfur.

2. Drive website traffic through our website to sites that accept donations.

3. Creating effective PSA’s to distribute to radio stations to help raise public awareness of the crisis in Darfur.

Stephanie: Do you have a blog to promote your project?

Dave: The entire website is setup on blogging software. I found this the easiest way to organize the fluid content of the site. So, yes, a blog is in place.

Stephanie: What is the demand for a service like yours?

Dave: I feel the demand could be quite great. Like any “for-profit” business, charities need to market themselves. This means they need voice work. UNLIKE a “for-profit” business, charities don’t have large marketing budgets. Every penny they have to spend is one less penny that goes toward their cause. If an organization like ours can lower their bottom line just a bit, I feel like we’ve been successful.

Stephanie: What does a typical client of your service look like?

Dave: Right now there is just one focus. Darfur. I am running the organization as a one man show right now. If I’m successful with charities that help Darfur, then I’d like to expand to domestic children’s charities.

Stephanie: Do you have a case study on hand that people could relate to?

Dave: The only case study I have right now is my own. The abuse of human rights in Darfur as been going on since 2003. Why was I unaware until the end of 2006? Why is it that my local and national media saw fit to educate me on every tedious detail of TomKat’s relationship, yet the stories of the suffering of the Darfuri people go unaired and unpublished?

Stephanie: How would someone go about getting a talent to record their message? Can clients pick their preferred voice from your base of volunteer talent or do talent view opportunities and respond if interested?

Dave: Right now I am collecting names of those interested in donating and I’m still researching charities that would need work done. Come to think of it, Voices.com has a lot of experience in getting voices and people who need voices together.

Stephanie: What qualifies to be recorded for free through your service? Are there any restrictions?

Dave: I want to ensure that the charities that use Voices for a Change are legitimate. In the US, that would simply mean faxing a copy of their 501(c)(3) to us before they would be given access to our services. The other requirement is that their charitable efforts go toward delivering relief to, raising public awareness for, and encouraging media and government response for the genocide in Darfur.

Stephanie: How can people get involved?

Dave: Even those who do not wish to donate their voices may still help the people of Darfur. Talk to your congressman. Talk to your local media. Talk to your friends. Be A Witness said it very well; “You can’t stop a genocide if you don’t know about it.”

Stephanie: Thank you Dave for your time and for sharing this mission with us at Voices.

Dave: Thank you for the opportunity.

Stephanie Ciccarelli
http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/voices-can-change-the-world-97280.html

Basic Idea About the Data Recovery Methods

The computer hard drive crash is the gravest nightmare which may occur to anyone who is totally dependent upon computers for his/her day to day activities. When anybody talks about the hard drive crash, it usually implies problems into the computer system. The extent of hard drive crash could be ascertained only when data is retrieved.

Basically there are two types of hard drive damage could take place- the physical damage and the logical damage. These both types of hard drive crash are totally different from each other and have varying impacts on the hard drive and your data.

Physical hard drive crash

As the name implies, physical hard drive damage refers to the actual damage to physical components of your hard drive. After physical damage the hard drive becomes unrecognizable by the BIOS and it requires repairing or replacement of components for smooth running.

Logical hard drive crash

On the other hand, logical hard drive crash occurs due to file system corruption, operating system corruption, hard drive formatting, incorrect registry entries, damaged system files, virus attack and so forth. In case of logical damage, the physical hard drive components remain intact.

Most of your data could be easily recovered if you have a proper backup of your important data. Data backup is extremely significant and all of the computer users should implement it regularly.

Though, backup can save your life savings- data in grave situations, but most of the users do not understand it worth to make backup. When the data loss occurs, they do not have any way to perform data recovery and may fall in disastrous situations.

At this point of time, data recovery comes into action and helps you in salvaging your most critical business data. Data recovery is the life saver for all the data loss victims.

According to the reasons of hard drive crash, the  data recovery solutions are also varying. In case of physical hard drive damage, the data recovery service will work. However in case of logical crash, you can perform Do It Yourself data recovery using data recovery software.

Stellar Information Systems Ltd is the leading provider of both data recovery solutions i.e. data recovery software and data recovery service. Best quality  data recovery software  of Stellar are available for all computer operating systems. The personalized data recovery service of Stellar is the best of data recovery industry and is offered in Class 100 Clean Rooms by highly qualified and experienced data recovery professionals.

shally spears
http://www.articlesbase.com/data-recovery-articles/basic-idea-about-the-data-recovery-methods-702451.html

A Nontoxic Approach To Alternative Treatments For Head Lice

We are fortunate that we now live in a world that for most ailments there is a medicinal cure. Many age-old complaints are being treated, or at least their symptoms can be treated, so they do not bother people anymore. But as the medicines get better so does the bacteria get stronger and become more immune to it. Head lice have been around forever and recent advances in medicine brought about a variety of treatments that has been able to get rid of them. Unfortunately, head louse can from time to time adapt to these medicines, so when this happens it is time to turn to alternative treatments for head lice techniques.

No More Chemicals

Alternative treatments for head lice are a surefire way of treating them, and alternative treatments will also help reduce the need for the chemicals found in medicine off of your head. Many of them are found to be harmless, but there is at least one (lindane found in the medicine Kwell) which is known to be toxic, in particular to children and seniors. If using an alternative treatment for head nits it can be cheaper than purchasing medicine, but first you should know some techniques to get rid of the head nits without the use of medicine.

One of the quickest and easiest methods to naturally remove head lice is to warm up a towel in your dryer for 20-30 minutes. Wrap the warm towel around your head, and the heat should be sufficient to kill both the lice and their eggs, ending the infestation in a matter of minutes. It does leave a bit of a window open for some nits (louse eggs) to survive if you’re not careful. Therefore, you can consider another option for an alternative treatment for head lice like olive oil. Massage olive oil into the scalp and let it sit there for ten minutes before washing out. The Olive oil smothers the head lice so they can’t breathe. If you do use olive oil, you’ll also need to perform head lice egg removal.

The best method in carrying out head lice egg removal is by using a warm towel, and then proceeding with the use of olive oil to ensure that none of them hatch. When combing through the hair use a nit comb or if you do not have one a very fine toothed comb. As you can see, there are several easy and cheap methods for alternative treatments for head lice, and they don’t involve rubbing toxic chemicals into your scalp. As always, you’ll need to check for nits every few days for a couple of weeks to make sure that none survived, but you would need to do that as well if you used medicine.

Gloria Gangi
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/a-nontoxic-approach-to-alternative-treatments-for-head-lice-549315.html

Have you ever seen just how deep the rabbit hole really goes?

Have you ever felt like all that you see is an illusion and a something much grander is going on something they don’t want us to know about. Something that many of us fear but in truth is not scary. Have you ever wondered if reality is fantasy and fantasy is reality? Could we be living on a prison planet.

Did you ever wonder why there are so many endless contradictions in the judeo-christian bible? Do you want to know why? The reason for this- is its nothing but a book of false promises. Although, most Christians are taught to be good sheep of the pasture and not to question. One thing about sheep though is they can easily be driven off a cliff. The bible was and is nothing more than a tool to remove spiritual knowledge from the populace, and to enslave you. Here is an interesting quote made in the 16th century (1475-1521) by Pope Leo X of the roman catholic church: "It has served us well, this myth of Christ". I think that pretty much sums up everything in the Christian religion; it’s nothing more than a HOAX!

Everything in the judeo-christian bible has been stolen from the Ancient Pagan religions that predated it from a few hundred to several thousands of years. The bible is full of spiritual allegories that were stolen and corrupted into real places with real beings, this was done to deceive you and keep the truth hidden. Additionally, EVERY major story in the bible was STOLEN (derivatives or copies) from the Ancient Sumerian and Ancient Egyptian cultures. Here are some examples: The story of Adam and eve, the great flood, the story of moses, the story of Mary and Jesus, this was STOLEN from Isis and Horus in Egyptian culture. That fictitious Nazarene is about the biggest joke there is, and a slap in the face to the human race. That Nazarene isn’t real at all; in fact it was stolen from some 18+ crucified pagan gods, such as Odin who hung from a tree and was born again

This knowledge has been deliberately withheld from the populace, to keep you enslaved and living in a total lie. Those at the top (the Jews, and the catholic leadership) know the truth, and they DO NOT want you to obtain this knowledge, but to remain servile. If you are interested in learning much more than you ever thought possible as a human being, the TRUTH that has been deliberately withheld from you and STOLEN from the original religions- then go to these websites that are listed below. I must tell you though; once you know the TRUTH you can never again be deceived by the LIE of Christianity. Stop the LIE with me, pass this on;

http://www.exposingchristianity.com

http://www.joyofsatan.org

Shopping Nightmare

I was arrested for Trespassing on 3/19 and 6 weeks later charged with battery and disorderly conduct. The stories of the Security Guard from Jewel Foods and Monterrey Security guards was totally different from what they wrote in their incident report, the Chicago Police Report was different, their written statements were different and on 5/16/2009 their testimony in court was totally different from all the evidence. I was found not Guilty of Trespassing, Battery and Disorderly Conduct.

This entire incident started because I questioned the customer service of Jewel Foods and I was denied a manager by the Jewel Foods Security Guard. When the Guard denied me a manager he smiled as if it was a joke. I told the security guard, “What do I have to do? Do I have to go down the street and get some of my rich white friends and come back so you can open up the self check out line? That comment made the Jewel Security Guard mad and he followed me to the grocery line and blocked me in, knocked my orange juice out of my hands, grabbed me by the arms and pushed me out of the line. I was pushed to register #3 where I was picked up and slammed to the concrete floor where I yelled for help because I was in pain. I was dragged from register #3 to Register #10 by a Jewel Food Security Guard by one handcuff which cut into my skin and I was dragged by a Monterrey Security Guard by the other arm. I was yelling because I was in pain because of the slam to the floor and the handcuff cutting into my skin while I was being dragged. The security guards were trying to pull me into the Loss Prevention Office which the customer did not allow that to happen because they witnessed the security guard touching me for no reason.

A customer called 911 and once the Chicago Police arrived the customers were trying to explain to them what happen but refused to listen. The customer who called 911 tried to explain to the Chicago Police Officer he called 911 and the officer choose not to listen. In the Chicago Police Report it states, The Reporting Officer Was responding to a battery: The customer who called said, “They are beating this guy up in front of Jewel.” I’m wondering why did the Chicago Police refused to take a statement from the customer? Did the Chicago Police look at the video evidence?

I went to court on 4/30 to fight the Charges of Criminal Trespassing and the Jewel Foods filed an additional charge of Battery and Disorderly Conduct.

3/19 Criminal Trespassing to Land: “KNOWINGLY REMAINED UPON THE LAND OF JEWEL FOODS LOCATED AT 1224 S. WABASH AFTERRECIEVING NOTICE FROM OWNER/OCCUPANT.AGENT TO DEPART.”

4/30 Battery: The Security Guard signed a complaint in Court claiming Battery. “Intentionally or knowingly without legal justification made contact of an insulting or provoking nature with the complainant in that the defendant swung fist at complaint hitting complainant in the arm.”

4/30 Disorderly Conduct: The Cashier signed a complaint in Court claiming Disorderly Conduct. Knowingly acted in such an unreasonable manner as to disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peach in that the defendant was screaming and yelling which prevented the complainant from performing her duties as a cashier for Jewel.

Go to Youtube and type in “Jewel-Osco Security Guard Gone Wild”

Video #1 and 2 will show the Security Guard following me to the grocery line.

Video # 3 will show the Security Guard grabbing me and pushing me out of the Grocery Line.

Video # 4 will show the Security Guard lifting me up from behind and slamming me to the floor.

Video # 4, #5 and #6 will show I was dragged by the security guards.

Video # 7 will show I was dragged and jerked by the handcuff and arrested by the Chicago Police Officers.

The Trespassing Charges

The security guard told the judge he told me in the Grocery Line that if I could not keep quiet he would have to tell me to leave. The Judge asked the Security Guard, “So you gave the defendant a condition?” The security guard said, “Yes.”

1st My attorney asked the security guard to read the Trespassing Warning in court and when he read the warning he did not know what time it was given to me. There’s two different times on the warning.. 1st It states it was given to me at 1:15am and 2nd It states it was given to me at 1:25am. There was no way I received any Trespassing warning because at 1:15am I was grabbed and pushed out of the line and slammed to the floor at. Then I was dragged from register 3 to 10 by one handcuff.

2nd The trespassing warning also state, “The above named person was advised that if he/she returns to said premises that he/she would be in violation of this Trespass Warning and be subject to arrest.” In order for the Trespassing Warning to be valid I had to leave and come back onto the Premises I was band from.

3rd My attorney asked the security guard the following question to show I was illegally detain with warning.
A: Where was my client standing? The security guard replied in line.
B: What was on my Client left side? The security guard replied, a pop machine and a candy rack.
C: What was on my Client Right side? The security guard said the self-check out line.
D: Who was standing behind my Client? The security guard said he was.
F: My attorney said, “If my client wanted leave out of the store would he go in the direction you were standing which is behind my client or would he go in the direction the customer were facing. Better yet, would it be easier to say the only Exits would be in the front of the store and not the back? The security guard said the only Exit would be the front of the store?

My attorney said, if you were blocking his rear, the pop machine and the candy rack is blocking his left, the self-check out line was blocking his right and the 10 to 15 customers in front of my client was blocking his front which prevented him from Exiting the Store, please explain to the courts if you gave my client a trespassing warning to leave, how was he going to leave if he was blocked in? The security guard could not answer.

4th The security guard said they gave the Trespassing Warning to the Chicago Police after I was arrested and assumed they gave it to me.

5th In Jewel and Monterrey Security they lied about the security guard was telling me to leave several times and that never occurred.

6th The Security Guard from Monterrey Security was asked why did he sign his name on the Trespassing Warning as a witness? He said I was in the parking lot and I did not know what was going on?

The charges were dropped because it showed he blocked me in, he had no reason to stop follow me to the grocery line which he told the judge he did not follow me, the times were wrong and in order for the trespassing warning to be valid he would have to word it correctly, give it to me directly and time must match.

Battery Charges:

1: The Video Evidence shows I never swung at anyone.
2: The Judge looked at the Video Evidence and said, “It clearly shows the security guard grabbed the defendant and there is not proof of the defendant swinging according the the video evidence.”
3: The Security Guard from Monterrey Security wrote in his statement, “At this point the man dropped to the ground of his own will and started to scream.”
4. In court the Security Guard told the Judge he could not remember because it’s been so long but later said, “1st it look like he dropped to the ground on his own. 2nd it look like Christopher Mendoza laid him on the ground and 3rd I did not have a clear view.”
5. The video evidence shows I was slammed to the floor by Jewel Loss Prevention and Monterrey Security Guard was standing directly in front of me.

On May 16, 2008 Christopher Mendoza told the Judge that I swung at him with a bag of Pistachios Nuts and when he blocked my swing with his arm and the Pistachios Nuts when everywhere on the floor. The Monterrey Security Guard support the story also.

March 19, 2007 Christopher Mendoza wrote in his Loss Prevention Incident Report, “He Gestured as if he was going to strike me, I blocked his arem and tried to handcuff the subject. Kerry Kielbon (Monterrey Security) assisted me.”

March 19, 2007 Christopher Mendoza told the Chicago Police, “At this time subject was asked to leave premise, subject refused stating he would make a scene if security touched him subject was asked again to leave and refused, at this point security attempted to place subject into customdy, scuffle ensued while handcuffs were being placed on offender.”

April 30, 2007 Christopher Mendoza filed a complaint in court stating, “Intentionally or knowingly without legal justification made contact of an insulting or provoking nature with the Complainant in that: The defendant swung fist at complainant hitting complainant in the arm.

May 16, 2008 Christopher Mendoza told the judge I swung toward his face with a bag of Pistachios and he blocked the swing with his arm which made the bag of Pistachios fall on the floor.

My attorney asked where did the allege swing take place and the security guard was not able to give that information. My attorney asked did this take place after you tried to arrest my client or before you tried to arrest my client? The Security Guard from Jewel Foods said, “It took place before I tried to arrest him.” So my attorney said we should be able to see Pistachios Nuts everywhere on the floor, Correct? The Jewel Food Security Guard agreed?

We showed the Video Evidence from Line #1 Which show no punches were thrown and it clearly showed he grabbed me and pushed me out of the line. We paused the video which showed I had Pistachios in my hand and we showed the floor area where Pistachios show have been and there were not Pistachios on the floor because I had the bag in my hand. We showed Video Evidence from Line #3 which show the Jewel Foods Security Guard picking me up from behind which holding my arms in the air. We pause the video and it showed I had Pistachios in my hands and there were not Pistachios on the floor. We were about to show more of the video and the Judge said, “That’s Enough.” I’m sure she was in disbelief of what happen and the video showed they were lying..
The judge looked at the video and said, It clearly shows the security guard grabbing the defending and pushing him out of the line. There is no proof showing the defendant swing at anyone and there are no Pistachios on the floor.

The Jewel Security guard was asked if I was handcuff and he replied, “No”. The video evidence showed the security guard dragging me from lane #3 to lane #4 and you see customers taking pictures with their phones because he was dragging and jerking me by the handcuff.

Disorderly Conduct:

The Jewel Food Cashier claimed my yelling for help and 911 stopped her from doing her job. The video evidence clearly show she never stop working and did not witnessed the incident.

The cashier wrote the following statement on 4/3/2007: “I was the only line open and the line was long and customers were complaining about the line but there was no help I had no extra bodies to perform the job.”

The cashier did not show up to court on April 1, 2008 and on May 16, 2008 my attorney asked to have the disorderly charge dropped but a Manager in the Loss Prevention Department said Linda Williams passed away. The Judge allowed the Disorderly Conduct to stay because the Loss Prevention Manager stood in her place. The charges were later dismissed because there was no proof of Disorderly Conduct I did not need to show any video evidence to prove my innocence.

Jewel Foods and Monterrey Security tried to intimidate me not to come to court and I was harassed for about 8 months. I was also told by the Loss Prevention Manager if I sign a letter no to file Civil Suit they would drop the charges. The Loss Prevention Manager also stated, ” Beside, I’m 22 and Zero when I come to court.” I told him the charges are weak and false and I’m going to fight this in court.

On May 16, 2008 I was offered a plea of 3 months supervision from Jewel Food Loss Prevention. I was also offered to plea no Contest and to stay out of Jewel. I told my attorney no because I did not do anything wrong and I would rather fight this in court.

On May 16, 2008 I was found Not Guilty of all the charges filed against me.

I was found not Guilty of Criminal Trespassing to Land
I was found not Guilty of Disorderly Conduct
I was found not Guilty of Battery

The Court Transcript will show the Security Guards lied from day 1 and 95% of their statement was conflicting.

Joseph Robinson Jr

It’s All About People, Process, and Technology. Technology is Dead Last in the Order of Importance When it Comes to Security

The recent and explosive growth of the Internet and technology has brought many good things such as e-commerce, collaborative computing, online markets and new avenues of sharing and distributing information. But each side has its counterpart, and with the technological advances came hackers. With this dark side and the many security breaches that are associated with it, companies, governments and individuals are afraid of hackers breaking into their servers or networks, stealing valuable data, collecting passwords and intercepting financial and credit card information.

And many times this can become reality. Recently, there has been a flurry of security breaches among large organizations such as Western Union, that reported a security breach on their Web site that let loose the credit-and debit-card information for 15,700 customers. Another recent hacker case is a 16-year-old youth, who admitted hacking into military and NASA computer networks. His activities caused a three-week shutdown of NASA’s systems and a security breach of a military computer network which protects against conventional, biological, chemical and nuclear-weapon attacks. That’s just a small sampling of actual hacks. Most industry watchers agree that only a handful of security breaches are ever reported.

For a long time, most computer network crackers hacked a system for the same reason: “Because it’s there.” But that’s no longer the only reason or even the dominant one. More hackers now do it because “It’s where the money is.” In the past decade, hackers have changed from script kiddies who hacked websites and spread worms to professionals sponsored by foreign governments and organized crime. Modern hackers want more than infamy. They exploit new technologies to crack systems or hack into computer systems and hold data for ransom. Hackers today commit real crimes, sometimes for significant financial gain.

To safeguard themselves from the modern hackers, most companies and government agencies that want to uncover network and system security vulnerabilities have two choices: they can hire a team of penetration experts to scan and probe their systems and uncover their vulnerabilities, or they can wait for a malicious hacker to come by and exploit them. Unfortunately, many times it is the latter. A security analysis or penetration test, performed by a security consultant, would produce a report or security posture assessment, detailing all vulnerabilities found and the actions needed to remedy them and minimize the risk of being the victim of a successful hack attack.

The security consultant or penetration expert can be a “white hacker”, someone who uses ethical hacking to discover vulnerabilities within a network or a reformed “black hacker”, who once was an active part of the dark side and used to exploit the identified security holes. The subject of whether it is ethical to use former hackers to evaluate a network’s security is a topic that is often hotly debated – and for many reasons.

Ethical hackers or security consultants typically have very strong programming and computer networking skills and have been in the computer and networking business for several years. Their base knowledge and expertise is augmented with detailed knowledge of the hardware and software, project management skills and methodology which are necessary for the actual vulnerability testing, as well as when reporting after the test was performed. In addition to that, ethical hacking seminars, courses and certifications are being offered to IT professional to broaden their horizon and skills in these fields. But many times these hacking courses and seminars only provide a very limited insight, outdated hacking or only basic hacking techniques. Their main purpose is to educate professionals but not to create a new generation of hackers. The goal is to fill security holes, not exploit them.

A disadvantage that white hackers or security consultants have over hackers is the real world experience and the insight knowledge. There are many things that cannot be taught in a seminar or learned from a book. The most obvious advantage former hackers have, is the real world hacking experience. As each network system differs based on various network defenses and configurations, the hack approach will be unique and only someone with plenty of real world hacking experience can efficiently go from using one technique to another as required by the present situation.

Another positive aspect of hiring reformed hackers as security consultants is that staying up on the latest security exploits, vulnerabilities and countermeasures is part of their job. A good hacker has a level of security knowledge that goes far beyond that of most other IT professionals. Keeping up with the latest exploits and countermeasures is a full time job and although the IT professional has an acceptable level of security knowledge, they must focus most of their attention on the day to day responsibilities of keeping the network up and running. To make up these “deficiencies” many white hackers and security consultants rely on automated and commercial vulnerability and penetration software, that can provide needed security reports, but their functions are limited. The huge differences can be seen when comparing the results from an automated scan and a hacker assessment or professional penetration test.

But before a company makes the decision to hire a reformed hacker, one needs to evaluate the negative sides. Certainly there are several types of hackers that can be found. One kind oft them are the “gray hats” – the unpaid tinkerers who find flaws to improve security for everyone. They are the best hackers, because their passion for tinkering drives their excellence and they do not break the laws. The black hat hackers – the criminals – break the law and feel justified doing it. They are the kind of hackers who seek to increase their fame in the hacker community, while others want to prove at any cost that their targets’ security is vulnerable. Black hats wreak havoc not only by their own actions but also by drawing attention to weaknesses that they and cybercriminals can exploit. The last and worst kinds of hackers are the cybercriminals, who perpetrate the worst crimes. They are paid to use existing tools and techniques to steal confidential personal, government or industry information, and particularly financial data. Cybercriminals usually work for foreign governments, organized crime or independently.

The probably biggest negative in the decision making process is trust. Which hacker will you hire and how much can you trust them? The main premise of security is deciding who you trust and then locking out everyone else. When hiring a hacker as a security consultant, because of network’s security concerns, paradoxically the trust goes to the criminal. Not only is it the trust factor that plays a major role in the decision making process but also the impact the decision might have on customers and shareholder. How will the customers react, if they knew a former criminal was hired to test the security of a system or database that contains all personal and financial information? Someone with a questionable morale and judgment, is not someone who should have control of a corporate network with sensitive data. In most cases hackers, and that is what makes them hackers, do not appreciate or respect standard business processes and structures. A disgruntled hacker with inside knowledge of a company’s networks could create a nightmare scenario.

Hackers are like adventurers, motivated by intellectual curiosity. “The more secure you make your systems, the more you attract them. The hacker mind-set is like exploring space, except they’re exploring the network. If that essential curiosity on finding out how things work, which is what causes people to be hackers, goes away, then you don’t necessarily want that person as a hacker or security consultant. However, just because a hacker has the desire and capabilities to explore a network, does not necessarily make them prepared to build a secure network and fix identified vulnerabilities. Breaking into things, does not always mean knowing how to fix them. These are two different skill sets. Once security threats have been identified, these need to be communicated including the potential business processes affected by the vulnerability, along with a list of impact assessments and countermeasures. Besides technical knowledge, the hacker will need to have experience in business processes and management, to relay his findings to the company.

Another hey factor to consider before making a decision who to hire as a security consultant, is to know that no computer system is ever completely secure, especially when considering the human factor. Spending astronomical amounts of money pursuing total security, by hiring security consultants and eventually becoming dependent on them, is not going to help. Some corporations in some industries must guard against intrusions from tech-hungry foreign governments – in particular China, France, Israel, Japan, Germany and Russia – that converted their cold-war spy machinery into “economic espionage” units, but that does not apply to all businesses. A realistic set of goals of what to expect from a security consultant need to be set first.

But no matter what the decision is and if the company hires a professional security consultant or a reformed hacker, the real threat will be still there. Any hacker, who wants to exploit a system will always try to use the path of least resistance. This path of least resistance is often through the front door. The front to door can be “identified” as the area over which businesses may have the least control: people. People are the weakest but first link when it comes to security. With good social engineering skills and not very well trained employees, disgruntled workers and ex-employees, a hacker can get enough information to access a system, insert malicious codes that contain keystroke and network sniffers and other means to collect information. The hacker just “exchanged” his keyboard with social engineering. And this is a part of security where a highly educated security consultant or a reformed hacker will not be able to help you.

Dasha Deckwerth
http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/its-all-about-people-process-and-technology-technology-is-dead-last-in-the-order-of-importance-when-it-comes-to-security-703665.html