Bakhtin's Polyphony and Nabokov's "Natasha"

The first time I heard about the concept of polyphony was upon reading a selection from Hubert Selby Jr's novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn. The novel ends in a rapid crescendo of competing character voices, each distinct, but somehow all the same. Bahktin describes polyphony as a "plurality of independent and unmerged voices, and consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices". Polyphony is also described as the ways in which the discourses of self and the other interpenetrate each other. It's interesting to take these concepts to heart when reading Nabokov's bizarre short story, "Natasha". The characters, Wolfe, Natasha, and her father Khrenov each experience fantasy as a part of their immediate reality. Wolfe tells florid tales of international travel that he later admits are all lies; he uses these descriptions and adventures into the unknown to try to show something about himself (even if what he's trying to show isn't exactly true). Natasha's interplay between herself and the mystical other is even more complex; while she is willing to admit that her religio-spiritual visions are untrue, she still witnesses a vision of her fathers ghost at the end of the novel. It was fascinating to see the various ways in which Nabokov manipulates our view of these characters within such a short span of time. Reality is as complex as the fantasies spun in the minds of these characters.