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Re: Reversification
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Dave Haan inquires (in http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2011/04/reversification.html): "As far as internal authorship goes, does Nabokov write himself into his novels, or out of them? [ while] exploring ways of "putting 'nikto' to bed with a sinister bend"
JM: Related to "reversions" there's one instance in "Ada" that once caught my fancy: "At the Goodson Airport, in one of the gilt-framed mirrors of its old-fashioned waiting room, Van glimpsed the silk hat of his father who sat awaiting him in an armchair of imitation marblewood, behind a newspaper that said in reversed characters: 'Crimea Capitulates.' At the same moment a raincoated man with a pleasant, somewhat porcine, pink face accosted Van." In this example, although not dealing with a person's name, the reversion of the headlines on Crimea's capitulation ( unlike Van's stunts of standing on his head, ie, linked to the Latin "caput" or, even, in the way by which Gurk's pass was shown to Krug), is here applicable only to the individual letters, not to their position in the sentence.
Unfortunately, despite Crimean dancers and disasters being mentioned in "Ada", I cannot grasp Nabokov's intention nor do I know how to operate with the connections he offers (perhaps this is why I retained in my mind this particular sentence).
As you pointed out, anyone who yells "there's nobody here" is announcing his presence and, therefore, this "nikto" demands a disguise - as it seems you've also alluded to it, in connection to the dropped "b" (Botkin/Nikto), related to BS's Hamlet's "to be or not to be." However, your question, quoted at the beginning, still baffles me. I'm sure Nabokov always intended to leave his "watermark" on everything he wrote but, at the same time, I also think he wanted to "write himself out of his novels" (as when he writes about characters whom he has expelled to a cathedral's façade like gothic gargoyles).
By sheer sonorous association to "nikto" ( I only just came across the word "nictate" while leafing thru Lolita's new translation and something in your text led me to remember it again) I offer one or two considerations. In his confessions Humbert is at his most recherché Swiss, but I don't know if he consulted Webster's 2 nor what are Webster's entries for the word "nictate". The sentence in which he employs the term is totally and charmingly innocent, but very passionate - and this is why I was surprised to find a correlate to "nictate" in "to wink at a crime" or "to be connivant" - as if HH were already suggesting Lolita's complicity in his crimes. Is it possible?
"I came across her in her mother's bedroom. Prying her left eye open to get rid of a speck of something. Checked frock. Although I do love that intoxicating brown fragrance of hers, I really think she should wash her hair once in a while. For a moment, we were both in the same warm green bath of the mirror that reflected the top of a poplar with us in the sky. Held her roughly by the shoulders, then tenderly by the temples, and turned her about. "It's right there," she said. "I can feel it." "Swiss peasant would use the top of her tongue." "Lick it out?" "Yeth. Shly try?" "Sure," she said. Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. "Goody-goody," she said nictating. "It is gone." "Now the other?" "You dope," she began, "there is noth -" but here she noticed the pucker of my approaching lips. "Okay," she said cooperatively, and bending toward her warm upturned russet face somber Humbert pressed his mouth to her fluttering eyelid. She laughed, and brushed past me out of the room. My heart seemed everywhere at once. Never in my life ..."
Various online dictionaries refer to "nictitate" and "nictate" as "blinking", "batting eyelids" or "winking" (the exact word for the scene HH is describing). However,"connive" was also mentioned, as in "to wink at a crime" or to "pretend to be ignorant of something in order to escape the blame." Cf. "Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001" and The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009.
Etymology: from Latin nicto ("wink"); "Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. 'Goody-goody,' she said nictating." - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita,1955.
-----Mensagem Original-----
De: Dave Haan
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Enviada em: segunda-feira, 18 de abril de 2011 01:04
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] Reversification
Putting 'nikto' to bed with a sinister bend:
http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2011/04/reversification.html
presented (with its predecessor, linked therein) at Indigest Magazine's (indigestmag.com) Nabokov celebration, alongside:
Nicole Callihan's poem, correspondence from Annabel Leigh to Humbert Humbert; Sasha Fletcher's witty hypercondensation of Lolita;
Jade Wilkison's sounding out Nabokov's short "Sounds";
Meakin Armstrong's reflections on house-museums, culminating in Nabokov's St. Petersburg residence.
Search archive with Google:
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Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
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JM: Related to "reversions" there's one instance in "Ada" that once caught my fancy: "At the Goodson Airport, in one of the gilt-framed mirrors of its old-fashioned waiting room, Van glimpsed the silk hat of his father who sat awaiting him in an armchair of imitation marblewood, behind a newspaper that said in reversed characters: 'Crimea Capitulates.' At the same moment a raincoated man with a pleasant, somewhat porcine, pink face accosted Van." In this example, although not dealing with a person's name, the reversion of the headlines on Crimea's capitulation ( unlike Van's stunts of standing on his head, ie, linked to the Latin "caput" or, even, in the way by which Gurk's pass was shown to Krug), is here applicable only to the individual letters, not to their position in the sentence.
Unfortunately, despite Crimean dancers and disasters being mentioned in "Ada", I cannot grasp Nabokov's intention nor do I know how to operate with the connections he offers (perhaps this is why I retained in my mind this particular sentence).
As you pointed out, anyone who yells "there's nobody here" is announcing his presence and, therefore, this "nikto" demands a disguise - as it seems you've also alluded to it, in connection to the dropped "b" (Botkin/Nikto), related to BS's Hamlet's "to be or not to be." However, your question, quoted at the beginning, still baffles me. I'm sure Nabokov always intended to leave his "watermark" on everything he wrote but, at the same time, I also think he wanted to "write himself out of his novels" (as when he writes about characters whom he has expelled to a cathedral's façade like gothic gargoyles).
By sheer sonorous association to "nikto" ( I only just came across the word "nictate" while leafing thru Lolita's new translation and something in your text led me to remember it again) I offer one or two considerations. In his confessions Humbert is at his most recherché Swiss, but I don't know if he consulted Webster's 2 nor what are Webster's entries for the word "nictate". The sentence in which he employs the term is totally and charmingly innocent, but very passionate - and this is why I was surprised to find a correlate to "nictate" in "to wink at a crime" or "to be connivant" - as if HH were already suggesting Lolita's complicity in his crimes. Is it possible?
"I came across her in her mother's bedroom. Prying her left eye open to get rid of a speck of something. Checked frock. Although I do love that intoxicating brown fragrance of hers, I really think she should wash her hair once in a while. For a moment, we were both in the same warm green bath of the mirror that reflected the top of a poplar with us in the sky. Held her roughly by the shoulders, then tenderly by the temples, and turned her about. "It's right there," she said. "I can feel it." "Swiss peasant would use the top of her tongue." "Lick it out?" "Yeth. Shly try?" "Sure," she said. Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. "Goody-goody," she said nictating. "It is gone." "Now the other?" "You dope," she began, "there is noth -" but here she noticed the pucker of my approaching lips. "Okay," she said cooperatively, and bending toward her warm upturned russet face somber Humbert pressed his mouth to her fluttering eyelid. She laughed, and brushed past me out of the room. My heart seemed everywhere at once. Never in my life ..."
Various online dictionaries refer to "nictitate" and "nictate" as "blinking", "batting eyelids" or "winking" (the exact word for the scene HH is describing). However,"connive" was also mentioned, as in "to wink at a crime" or to "pretend to be ignorant of something in order to escape the blame." Cf. "Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001" and The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009.
Etymology: from Latin nicto ("wink"); "Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. 'Goody-goody,' she said nictating." - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita,1955.
-----Mensagem Original-----
De: Dave Haan
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Enviada em: segunda-feira, 18 de abril de 2011 01:04
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] Reversification
Putting 'nikto' to bed with a sinister bend:
http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2011/04/reversification.html
presented (with its predecessor, linked therein) at Indigest Magazine's (indigestmag.com) Nabokov celebration, alongside:
Nicole Callihan's poem, correspondence from Annabel Leigh to Humbert Humbert; Sasha Fletcher's witty hypercondensation of Lolita;
Jade Wilkison's sounding out Nabokov's short "Sounds";
Meakin Armstrong's reflections on house-museums, culminating in Nabokov's St. Petersburg residence.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/