Word: luzhin
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...game of chess, the queen, capable of moving multiple spaces in any direction, is the most agile and powerful piece on the board. It is perhaps because the game lends itself to such a strong female protagonist that a movie about chess, The Luzhin Defense, was chosen to kick off this year’s Ninth Annual Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema, which began yesterday...
...that does not help. As the hours slip away and you see life passing you by, you remember the real chess paradigm, Nabokov's Luzhin, the genius who finally apprehends "the full horror and abysmal depths of chess" and goes quite bonkers. And you know you've got to stop...
...beast. This is also true in much of Nabokov's fiction. The delectable nymphet Lolita has a cruel, popsicle heart. The exquisite sensibilities of her middle-aged lover Humbert Humbert are grotesquely twisted by lust. Charles Kinbote, whose magical memories feed Pale Fire, is hopelessly mad, as is Luzhin, the chessmaster in The Defense...
Many years ago, when I was 17 or 18, living in China, my father introduced me to books of Vladimir Sirin, which was Nabokov's pseudonym at that time. The first books that I read were The Luzhin Defence; King, Queen, Knave; Invitation to an Execution and some delightful short stories written in Russian. I kept all of his books for years, reading them over and over until they resembled worn-out library books; unfortunately, I lost them in a fire during the war in Manila...
...production is remarkably finished for a repertory company opening night. Every element works toward lucid characterizations. Everingham stands the characters in close confrontation: Raskolnikov (Paul Glaser) who murders to test a philosophy, stands in a limp full shirt and baggy trousers next to John Lithgow's ramrod prissy Luzhin, the rich, hollow financee of Raskolnikov's sister. The lines of character like the lines of John Braden's sets are balanced, clear and instantly defined. Bea Paipert creates two brief roles, the hunched, old pawnbroker Raskolnikov kills and a crazy madam at a police station, in maybe three minutes...