everything has to be figured out and reinvented.

必须弄清楚每一件事情然后再创造
In that afterword to this book, Nabokov says he had to invent america.

因此这本书完成后纳博科夫说他要再造美国
That's because he didn't know it already;

这是因为他还不知道
it wasn't given to him.

他也不喜欢这里
Now, in a way this is a terrible state,

某种程度上这种状态很糟糕
a state of discontinuity with the world you exist in.

一种与你生活所在的世界有间隙的状态
But it has a payoff, kind of,

这是这要付出某种代价的
a payoff which is the possibility precisely of inventing,

这代价就是精确虚构的可能性
and this is visible everywhere in this book.

这种可能性在书中随处可见
One example is the transformation of housework.

家务的改革就是一个例子
This is on page 179.

翻到第一百七十九页
"My west-door neighbor"-- west door--"who might have been a

"我西门的邻居" 西门 "可能是