Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0026811, Sat, 16 Jan 2016 13:13:46 +0300

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Re: NABOKV-L Digest - 14 Jan 2016 to 15 Jan 2016 (#2016-15)
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The most exact name.... "My MOST DIFFICULT BOOK"
Therefore - that in Russia there is such concept "Light reading" and of the same sense it is possible to tell "Heavy reading" - but it is clumsy both unreadable and unpronounceable in and here Difficult Reading - just right
Thanks, your very old friend and admirer
MARRYING
And happy New Year
Zhenya (on April 12 to me 75 years will knock - you represent...)


>Суббота, 16 января 2016, 0:00 -08:00 от NABOKV-L automatic digest system <LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>:
>
>There is 1 message totaling 597 lines in this issue.
>
>Topics of the day:
>
>  1. RES: [NABOKV-L] Moving from yellow slacks to the purples and VN's kzspygv/
>     Witt.
>
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>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 03:16:57 -0200
>From: Jansy Mello < jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM >
>Subject: RES: [NABOKV-L] Moving from yellow slacks to the purples and VN's kzspygv/ Witt.
>
>P S: I noticed, for the first time, how HH described the drawer where he
>kept his diary after Charlotte forced it open: it was "a raped little table
>with its open drawer". His choice of "raped desk" is simple, almost obvious
>and yet it combines with the plot in a stroke of genius: "The day before I
>had ended the regime of aloofness I had imposed upon myself, and now uttered
>a cheerful homecoming call as I opened the door of the living room. With her
>cream-white nape and bronze bun to me, wearing the yellow blouse and maroon
>slacks she had on when I first met her, Charlotte sat at the corner bureau
>writing a letter. My hand still on the doorknob, I repeated my hearty cry.
>Her writing hand stopped. She sat still for a moment; then she slowly turned
>in her chair and rested her elbow on its curved back. Her face, disfigured
>by her emotion, was not a pretty sight as she stared at my legs and said:
>"The Haze woman, the big bitch, the old cat, the obnoxious mamma, the - the
>old stupid Haze is no longer your dupe. She has - she has..."// I stood for
>a moment quite still and self-composed, surveying from the threshold the
>raped little table with its open drawer, a key hanging from the lock, four
>other household keys on the table top."
>

>
>Jansy Mello: A correction is necessary now. The mental images from Kubrick's
>or Lynne's movie must have imposed themselves on my reading and my
>observations were quite imprecise. In VN's novel, Humbert's diary was
>retrieved from under a pillow ( Charlotte's pillow) and the raped table
>might not have had its drawer forced open to give her access to it since
>there was a key hanging from its lock.* What she must have read were
>Humbert's notes ( I found this distinction rather confusing). The "rape" was
>in HH's mind even before CH's pryed into his writings.
>

>
>Here are a few of the missing parts from my quotes: "I went up to the
>ex-semi-studio. Arms akimbo, I stood for a moment quite still and
>self-composed, surveying from the threshold the raped little table with its
>open drawer, a key hanging from the lock, four other household keys on the
>table top. I walked across the landing into the Humberts' bedroom, and
>calmly removed my diary from under her pillow into my pocket." [ ] "You
>are ruining my life and yours," I said quietly. "Let us be civilized people.
>It is all your hallucination. You are crazy, Charlotte. The notes you found
>were fragments of a novel. Your name and hers were put in by mere chance.
>Just because they came handy. Think it over. I shall bring you a drink."
>(I,22).
>

>
>In the screenplay we find that Charlotte went to Humbert's study where she
>discovered his diary. There's no direct reference to a bunch of
>incriminatory notes. The "comedy" feeling that's been associated to
>Charlotte's death can be clearly perceived in the "farcical scene" that
>follows these tragic events (it reminds me now of a Marx brothers's movie, A
>Night at The Opera, in the "stateroom scene").
>Despite the recent commentaries at the VN-L I was unable to detect the
>comedic aspect of Charlotte's death in the novel itself. In the script it's
>glaringly obvious.
>

>
>............
>
>* - "Charlotte went up to a little table of imitation mahogany with a
>drawer. She put her hand upon it. The little table was ugly, no doubt, but
>it had done nothing to her./ "I have always wanted to ask you," she said
>(businesslike, not coquettish), "why is this thing locked up? Do you want it
>in this room? It's so abominably uncouth." / "Leave it alone," I said. I was
>Camping in Scandinavia./ "Is there a key?" /"Hidden." [ ] "Carefully
>putting down the open book where she had sat (it attempted to send forth a
>rotation of waves, but an inserted pencil stopped the pages), I checked the
>hiding place of the key: rather self-consciously it lay under the old
>expensive safety razor I had used before she bought me a much better and
>cheaper one. Was it the perfect hiding place - there, under the razor, in
>the groove of its velvet-lined case? The case lay in a small trunk where I
>kept various business papers. Could I improve upon this? Remarkable how
>difficult it is to conceal things - especially when one's wife keeps
>monkeying with the furniture." (I,21) The "raped" ugly table, as H.
>observes, "had done nothing to her"
>

>
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>------------------------------
>
>End of NABOKV-L Digest - 14 Jan 2016 to 15 Jan 2016 (#2016-15)
>**************************************************************



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Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
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