Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010290, Wed, 18 Aug 2004 19:38:22 -0700

Subject
Re: Fwd: TT-13 Introductory Notes
Date
Body
Hello, Don
it seems that the nuisance caused by unwelcome delivry´s of coffe on the
laptop didn´t hinder the list as much as you feared. A long time ago I
watched a nice movie " Electric Loves" I think it was called, or "Electric
Dreams" about a computer that comes to life after champagnhe falls on it.
Boy George sings and there is an American composer´s variations on Bach (
from the book written for his wife).
You mentioned " Witt" ( of course, a reference to Wittgenstein, as VN
lets it become quite clear in his text ) and I was reminded of a former
posting about Aix ( one that C.Kunin interpreted in the Langue d´Oc as
meaning "eaux", water ). Well, there is another philosopher mentioned by VN
in TT: Heidegger - who delivered a lecture in 1958 at Aix-en-Provence where
he expounded on another philosopher ( Hegel) and the Greeks.
Perhaps VN was more familiar with Heidegger and Aix ( also linked to Paul
Cézanne ) than I thought. Unfortunately I have not yet found enough free
time to return to TT and really read in depth to follow the list. But these
associations, as they arise, might be useful sometimes.
Best,
Jansy





----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 3:36 PM
Subject: Fwd: TT-13 Introductory Notes


> EDNOTE.
>
> ----- Forwarded message from a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp -----
> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 13:31:19 +0900
> From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
> Reply-To: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
> Subject: TT-13 Introductory Notes
> To: chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu
>
>
> ----------------------
> 44.01-06: Now we have to bring into focus the main street of Witt . . . .
> It
> teems with transparent people and processes, into which and through which
we
> might sink
> with an angel's or author's delight, but we have to single out for this
> report only one Person: The narrator(s), who has(have) been discreet
> for the
> previous two chapters, boastingly talk of their superhuman ability to look
> through spacetime and to sink into
> the objects freely as experts.
>
> 44.04-05: an angel's or author's delight: A guardian angel motif. Cf. "his
> main 'umbral companion'" (Ch. 25).
> "Angel's Delight" is the name of a cocktail. There
> are several recipes but Triple Sec, Grenadine and cream seem necessary.
> Triple
> Sec--could be associated with *Three Tenses*--is strong, clear
> orange-flavored liqueur. Armande (and Jimmy Major too if he likes such
> cocktails) who likes oranges would
> be there with the cocktail in her hand.
> According to the recipe below, the cocktail is layered--suitable for this
> novel.
>
> a recipe for Angel's Delight
> ounce Grenadine
> ounce Triple Sec
> ounce Creme Yvette
> ounce Light Cream
> *Use a bar spoon to pour each layer in to the serving glass, exactly in
the
> order listed. One layer should float upon another.
>
> EDNOTE. i THINK i'LL STICK TO sCOTCH
>
> 44.19-20: a nice gray turtleneck sweater: prefigures the association with
> strangling which is to be made by silly questions of the psychiatrist:
"Did
> he ever buy her a turtleneck sweater? . . . Was he annoyed when she found
it
> too tight at the throat?" (Ch. 16).
>
> 44.21-22: "Made in Turkey," whispered its label: The label whispers to us
> like Iago that there is an Othello motif and the strangling theme. Cf.
> Othello's death speech: "And say besides that in
> Aleppo once, / Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk / Beat a Venetian and
> traduced
> the state, / I took by th' throat the circumcised dog / And smote him --
> thus."
>
> 45.01-02: You swerved toward her: It seems that suddenly the narrator
slides
> into the
> second person narrative, like in Butor's *La
> Modification*, but together with "l'Erald Tribune" on the next page, it
> suggests the existence of Armande, either she begins to narrate as Barbara
> Wyllie discusses (*Nabokov at the Movies*, 220) or the other narrator is
> teasing her imitating her dropping h's.
>
> 45.05-07: said in that lovely New York voice, with that harlot dash he
would
> have
> recognized even in heaven: "The john is a joke": John, another J name.
> "[E]ven in heaven" is a heaven motif
> following an angel's delight. "[H]arlot"
> alludes to the connection between Julia and
> Giulia, and probably the narrator's (Mr. R's?) spiteful allusion to her
> colorful love life.
> I thought "the john" was usually used for the men's restroom.
> Does Julia
> refers to the men's room or the women's?
>
> 45.08-09: the mask of an affable grin: Cf. "That monumental man with his
> clayey makeup
> and false grin" (Ch. 10).
>
> 45.10-11: comically resembling Person's late Aunt Melissa whom we like
very
> much: suggests the ghosts's social life. Cf. "(the dead are good mixers,
> tha's quite certain, at
> least)" (Ch. 24).
>
> 45.16-18: She was a dear soul, with five cats, living in a toy house, at
the
> end of
> the birch avenue, in the quietest part of: is from a nursery rhyme? I have
> no idea about her origin except a butterfly VN classified. Cf. VN wrote to
> the editor of NYT, "By a nice coincidence, the so-called 'Karner Blue'
> illustrating Bayard Webster's note on insects needing protection is a
> butterfly I classified myself. It is known as *Lycaeides melissa samuelis*
> Nabokov." But VN
> later he decides it is *Lycaeides samuelis* Nabokov more properly." (I
> considered it at first to be a race of the western *melissa* Edwards, but
> have concluded recently that it is a distinct species)" (*Nabokov's
Blues,*
> 240).
>
> 45.16: a dear soul: Cf. 48.2-3: "he [HP] was merely a rather dear one."
>
> 45.21-22: splitting into many small quick gestures peculiar to that woman:
A
> filmic description--suspended-motion photographs or stop motion.
>
> 45.21-23: an impassive waitress, . . . her face impassive: reminds us of
an
> automaton or the figures in silent movies.
>
> 45.29: "My former stepfather, thank Heavens": A Heaven motif. VN left the
> "thank Heavens" in typescript regardless of an editor's suggestion that it
> should be "thank Heaven" that "the lovely harlot--dashed NY voice would be
> more likely to say." I wonder if the editor was right and if he was, why
VN
> adhered to "Heavens."
> I am curious to know: Is "Thank Heaven(s)" still used or getting an
> old-fashioned expression?
>
> 45.31-32: some people in Moscow: Cf. "Faust in Moscow" (Ch. 6). Who is
> considered to be the famous
> young poet?
>
> EDNOTE, EVTUSHENKO, I WOULD ASSUME.
>
> 46.01: what a big snow drift: An avalanche motif.
>
> 46.22: *Three Tenses*: The tense theme.
>
> 46.31: Alice, Beata, Claire: Cf. Ascot, Blur, Chur (Ch. 2).
>
> 47.10-11: Now you know what 'hot chocolate' has come to in Switzerland: Is
> hot
> chocolate really so distasteful in Switzerland, the birthplace of milk
> chocolate? I regret I forgot to try it when I went to Switzerland.
>
> 48.06: "Fascination" (a waltz): is the theme music of the film *Love in
the
> Afternoon* (1957). I
> cannot find any connection with the film. The waltz is used just as a
cliche
> of a Romantic scene?
>
> Akiko Nakata
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>

----- End forwarded message -----