It’s quite tricky judging the harshness of “we sent her” viewed in cold print. I can “hear” different nuances if the phrase cropped up in everyday family banter. “What are your kids doing this summer?” “Oh we’ve SENT them [off] to France!” “LUCKY them!” Alternatives might be “we’ve BUNDLED them off” or “we’ve PACKED them off” The idioms are more friendly than the literal meanings.
Re-the debate over sex and the “ugly” daughter: let’s admit what’s been commonly observed in teenage college life. The homely gal “gives out” as they say. In Liverpool we add “Who looks at the mantlepiece while poking the fire?” And diverse dude Blues singers tell us “Make’s no difference when the sun go down.”
No, I haven’t advanced Pale Fire scholarship! Sorry. But, was inspired last night re-re-reading The Real Life of Sebastian Knight — suddenly OF COURSE my all-time FAVOURITE!! The narrator V. describes IMAGINATION as the MUSCLE of the MIND. That’s a wonderful quote apparently supported by current Cognitive Science studies. Thanks to the N-list moderators for providing the GYMNASIUM where we can “work out” on those mental biceps
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 22/07/2008 18:08, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Laurence Hochard on Matt Roth's incest theory
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:05:12 -0700
From: Laurence Hochard <laurence.hochard@HOTMAIL.FR> <mailto:laurence.hochard@HOTMAIL.FR>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
M Roth: John and Sybil "sent her, though, to a chateau in France" (line
336). The verb phrase here ("we sent her") seems a bit harsh, no?
L Hochard: Yes it does! And there are other short unnoticed (as far as I
know, and I must admit I don't know much, so I apologize if I'm merely
repeating what everybody already knows) passages in the poem that do sound
harsh toward Hazel, such as line 322 where Sybil says:" She wants to look
a mess", quite a surprisingly violently derogatory phrase in a speech where
she otherwise seems to defend Hazel and reproach John with "overstress(ing)
the physical".
There's also this passage in Kinbote's note to line 230 (a domestic
ghost): "Sybil had had the animal (Aunt Maud's half-paralized Skye terrier)
destroyed soon after its mistress's hospitalization, incurring the wrath of
Hazel who was beside herself with distress." The least we can say is that
it was inconsiderate of her; she seems, at times, to be quite impervious
to her child's distress. I would compare her attitude to Ada's toward
Lucette.
And of course there's the scene of THE HAUNTED BARN, (in Kinbote's
note to line 347: old barn) where Sybil coldly makes fun of her daughter.
I'm well aware that Kinbote reconstructed the scene and we know that he is
not well-disposed toward Sybil; but this isn't the whole story since we
have those hints in Shade's poem that cause the reader to feel half-
consciously a budding uneasiness with regard to Sybil's and Hazel's
relationship that Kinbote's commentary only reveals and emphazises.
The mention of "those / almost unruffled evenings", a few lines
after "She'd criticize / Ferociously our projects" also seem to hint at a
not entirely harmonious family atmosphere.
And Finally, the very title of the film (Remorse) Sybil selects on
the night of Hazel's suicide can't have been chosen at random; VN means, I
think, that someone is feeling remorse for what is about to take place.
MRoth: All in all, it seems at least plausible, at most likely,& nbsp;that
Hazel and Disa were both sent/banished to France in the same year. If so,
then this would seem to be another example of Hazel doubling Sybil's role
(if Sybil=Disa), as she has with the atalanta and mockingbird.
LH: I agree that Hazel was sort of "banished" to France, as was Bel when
Vadim married Louise (LATH) and possibly for the same reasons: Bel and
Louise didn't get along well, neither did Sybil and Hazel, if my reading is
correct. If so, I can't agree with you that this is an example of Hazel
doubling Sybil's role. Besides, I have strong doubts that there really is
any Sybil / Hazel equivalence. But I must wait till I've read BB's "The
Magic of Artistic Discovery" (I've just ordered it) before I can really
make up my mind.
However that may be, I must thank you for your precise comments as
they really help to clarify my misty musings about VN's novels and since I
started taking part in this list, my mind has been positively swarming with
new ideas about VN's writings !!!
MR: I believe that, far from destroying the coherence of the novel, an
incest narrative in PF perfectly highlights several of the main
threads ............. rhyme is left open, unfinished, cut short like
Hazel's life.
LH: It seems to me that if there was an actual incestuous relation between
Hazel and her father, there would be some hint,however tenuous, in the poem
as well as in the commentary; as there is, for instance, in LATH, so that
the reader may know even if the narrator denies it. The incestuous relation
you're talking about seems to be more on a symbolical plane (the literary
incest between text and commentary) than a (fictive) "reality".