Content-Type: message/rfc822 Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:14:56 -0400 From: "pndale" To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" Subject: R: [NABOKV-L] The Nature of Electricity: "Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=__Part30145110.1__=" --=__Part30145110.1__= Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=__Part30145110.2__=" --=__Part30145110.2__= Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am not too familiar with the forum's history, and no doubt someone has noted that the number of lines - 999 - inverts, as is appropriate for a novel structured on mirroring, the notorious number of Revelations 666, denoting the beast, who, among other things, has power over all tongues (13:7). Many things can be deduced from this, given Nabokov's elusive metaphysics, if the two numbers are related intentionally. 999 inverts 666, a number of apocalyptic closure as opposed to 999 which begs for an extra digit, denied it, to achieve completion, and thus gestures towards an open universe.etc etc A similar device, of writing a poetic sequence amouinting to 999 sonnets consciously intended to resonant with apocalyptic undertones by the coincidence once the number is capsized (666), was mulled by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, whose exuberant incontinence of inspiration in the manner however, while writing in the diabolic dialect of Rome under the Popes of his time, pushed him beyond the desired number, leaving us with some 2279 poems, a number shorn of numerical sense. Peter Dale ----- Original Message ----- From: George Shimanovich To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 4:40 AM Subject: [NABOKV-L] The Nature of Electricity: "Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine" "The Nature of Electricity" was send by John Shade to a New York magazine some time in 1958 which is before Pale Fire was written and before Kinbote rented Goldsworth's house. It was published after Shade's death. Its third stanza refers to number 999 as an old friend: Streetlamps are numbered, and maybe Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine (So brightly beaming through a tree So green) is an old friend of mine. Does it mean that nine-hundred-ninety-nine is the number of a streetlamp opposite Shade's house? Based on last stanza of PF poem the tree is shagbark tree in the front lawn garden, viewed from the veranda. Kinbote called that place the Nest for a reason. That is where Shade spent much of his time and wrote most of his poems. Could it be then that the poem has 999 lines by design since that number is an author's old friend? Then search of 1000th line becomes obsolete. Also is there a link between lights of "gentle dead" in "The Nature of Electricity" and the title of "Pale Fire" which comes from Hamlet's fire bugs (I don't have exact quote)? I think that is in line with final Boyd's theory of Pale Fire. I did not find reference to "The Nature of Electricity" in Nabokov-L archive but may be somebody else wrote about its use of the magic number. - George Shimanovich Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB Contact the Editors All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors. Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm --=__Part30145110.2__= Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: HTML
I am not too familiar with the forum's history, and no doubt someone has noted that the number of lines - 999 - inverts, as is appropriate for a novel structured on mirroring, the notorious number of Revelations 666, denoting  the beast, who, among other things, has power over all tongues (13:7). Many things can be deduced from this, given Nabokov's elusive metaphysics, if the two numbers are related intentionally. 999 inverts 666, a number of apocalyptic closure as opposed to 999 which begs for an extra digit, denied it, to achieve completion, and thus gestures towards an open universe.etc etc
 
A similar device, of writing a poetic sequence amouinting to 999 sonnets consciously intended to resonant with apocalyptic undertones by the coincidence once the number is capsized (666), was mulled by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, whose exuberant incontinence of inspiration in the manner however, while writing in the diabolic dialect of Rome under the Popes of his time, pushed him beyond the desired number, leaving us with some 2279 poems, a number shorn of numerical sense.
Peter Dale
----- Original Message -----
From: George Shimanovich
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 4:40 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] The Nature of Electricity: "Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine"

“The Nature of Electricity” was send by John Shade to a New York magazine some time in 1958 which is before Pale Fire was written and before Kinbote rented Goldsworth’s house. It was published after Shade’s death. Its third stanza refers to number 999 as an old friend:

 

Streetlamps are numbered, and maybe

Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine

(So brightly beaming through a tree

So green) is an old friend of mine.

 

Does it mean that nine-hundred-ninety-nine is the number of a streetlamp opposite Shade’s house? Based on last stanza of PF poem the tree is shagbark tree in the front lawn garden, viewed from the veranda. Kinbote called that place the Nest for a reason. That is where Shade spent much of his time and wrote most of his poems. Could it be then that the poem has 999 lines by design since that number is an author’s old friend? Then search of 1000th line becomes obsolete. Also is there a link between lights of “gentle dead” in “The Nature of Electricity” and the title of “Pale Fire” which comes from Hamlet’s fire bugs (I don’t have exact quote)? I think that is in line with final Boyd’s theory of Pale Fire.

 

I did not find reference to “The Nature of Electricity” in Nabokov-L archive but may be somebody else wrote about its use of the magic number.

 

- George Shimanovich

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies

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