Vladimir Nabokov, Gennady Barabtarlo (editor) · 1964-65 (cards); 2017 (book) · EPUB · Calibre ID 2515
Resurfaced in The Dated Slip (2026-10-10).
Role in the triad
The experiment: dated cards as lab equipment to test Dunne’s ‘reverse memory’; the second memory surprising its author (1968 note on a 1964 card).
Why this book
118 Oxford cards used to catch time running backwards; his own dream taxonomy sits on an undated card filed out of order; the log thins, misdates November as October, and ends in a dream of the dead.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “One hundred and eighteen handwritten Oxford cards, now held in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library, bear sixty-four such records, many with relevant daytime episodes.” (Part 1, Chronic Condition)
- “time’s progress is not unidirectional but recursive: the reason we do not notice the backflow is that we are not paying attention.” (Part 1)
- “Nabokov jotted down his dreams the way he did his novels—on small, lined Oxford cards whose growing stack he rubber-banded” (Part 1, Nabokov’s Experiment)
- “This is my first incontestable success in the Dunne experiment.” (card of Oct. 20, 1964, Part 2)
- “Very exact clock time awareness but hazy passing-of-time feeling.” (Part 2, Curious features)
- “This is nice! Had quite forgotten this when inventing Ardis. March 4, 1968” (Part 2, record 2)
- “Dreamt of Cyr. first time since his death in April.” (card of Dec. 29, 1964, Part 2)
Themes
Ada · Ardis · dream log · Dunne · insomnia · Oxford cards · precognition · reverse memory · serial time · taxonomy of dreams