Subject
RES: [NABOKV-L] from Ron Rosenbaum re VN's own words about the
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Stan Kelly-Bootle: "Jansy recently said there's a lot of CK in VN. Ca va
sans dire! CK/VB/JS/HS et al, are all the fictive products of VN's cunning,
teasing pen. CK/VB is, ironically, a more credible creation (even when
lying) than the uneven poet Shade (VN trying too hard). "
JM: Stan, you are emphasizing the use of metaphors, such as those related
to exile and "Ponto" ( "Ex," must simply refer to where "home" lies). Right.
After all, we tend to remember, at least most of the time, that Hazel, Shade
or CK/VB are characters created by Nabokov and what I meant by "there's a
lot of CK in VN" purported to express my idea that many traits in Kinbote's
character are closer to VN's than Shade's are (although Nabokov explicitly
refers to the similarities in taste between him and Shade). It's probably
the kinbotean trait in him that stimulated his comment about shared tastes
for "evil things" with Shade (he must have hugely enjoyed "playing" that
persona).
In the same line, why is it possible to accept that Nabokov used the
pen-name Sirin and refuse his choice of an American John Shade for his
"classic" productions?
Alexey Sklyarenko: Gran D. du Mont" is a puzzle. "Grand Duke" is an owl
mentioned in VN's story The Visit to the Museum: "There was, on top of the
case, a pair of owls, Eagle Owl and Long-eared, with their French names
reading "Grand Duke" and "Middle Duke" if translated." Note that the stuffed
Parluggian Owl is mentioned in the same chapter of Ada (1.24)..
JM: The owls in VN's story and the stuffed Parluggian Owl in Ada are
satisfactory associations to Gran D and, for me, they settle the issue (at
least momentarily). Thanks! I recently found, somewhere, Nabokov's words
about Dukes and Herzog (It was in a review, by Rosenbaum, about Samuel
Bellow and his novel, but this same transposition is found in SO*). The
stuffed animal in Lolita. was it a squirrel? Creepy ( they remind me of
Hitchcock's movie, Psycho).
...........
*- There's an interesting paragraph by Rosenbaum in the aforementioned
review (sent by Jim Twiggs to the List): "I'll get to the butterfly secret,
as I've come to think of it...I'm going to limit my comments
here...meanwhile, let me return to the butterfly secret and to what I
believe may be a not widely recognized coherence between VN's love of
literature and his love of lepidopterology. What they have in common, I came
to realize, is that they are both, the literary and the butterfly work,
about language. What VN was doing in his lovingly obsessive study of
wing-marking patterns and genital morphology was an act of reading ; he was
reading and translating the language, the esoteric genetic poetics of
butterfly markings. It's something I began to get an amorphous feeling for
from close reading of the lepidopteral monographs when I came upon an
explicit clue at the close of VN's major work on the butterfly genus
Lycaeides, one he'd devoted much of his life to limning. Summing up his
incredibly painstaking, dizzyingly detailed attempt to describe and
categorize the variety of wing patterns of Lycaeides, to find meaning in the
subtle shifts in the pigmentation of the tiny "maculations," he adds, "In
conclusion, a few words may be said concerning the specific repetition,
rhythm, scope and expression of the genetic characters supplied by the eight
categories discussed." (Nov.23,1997,The New York Observer). This is a lovely
vision about the connection between Nabokov's love of literature and
Lepidoptera, considering his love for language.
It carried me back to the medieval naturalist monks who were certain that
the world was a book written by God waiting to be decoded. The latter tried
to reach God's message in nature. Nabokov, in Rosenbaum's interpretation,
has his attention drawn to the workings of language more than he worries
about its independent "message," and this is probably the best way to read
Nabokov's works. Patterns instead of a special content or magical revelation
( there's fun in going after this too, there's no way to deny that garbled
dream, like Athanasius Kircher's).
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sans dire! CK/VB/JS/HS et al, are all the fictive products of VN's cunning,
teasing pen. CK/VB is, ironically, a more credible creation (even when
lying) than the uneven poet Shade (VN trying too hard). "
JM: Stan, you are emphasizing the use of metaphors, such as those related
to exile and "Ponto" ( "Ex," must simply refer to where "home" lies). Right.
After all, we tend to remember, at least most of the time, that Hazel, Shade
or CK/VB are characters created by Nabokov and what I meant by "there's a
lot of CK in VN" purported to express my idea that many traits in Kinbote's
character are closer to VN's than Shade's are (although Nabokov explicitly
refers to the similarities in taste between him and Shade). It's probably
the kinbotean trait in him that stimulated his comment about shared tastes
for "evil things" with Shade (he must have hugely enjoyed "playing" that
persona).
In the same line, why is it possible to accept that Nabokov used the
pen-name Sirin and refuse his choice of an American John Shade for his
"classic" productions?
Alexey Sklyarenko: Gran D. du Mont" is a puzzle. "Grand Duke" is an owl
mentioned in VN's story The Visit to the Museum: "There was, on top of the
case, a pair of owls, Eagle Owl and Long-eared, with their French names
reading "Grand Duke" and "Middle Duke" if translated." Note that the stuffed
Parluggian Owl is mentioned in the same chapter of Ada (1.24)..
JM: The owls in VN's story and the stuffed Parluggian Owl in Ada are
satisfactory associations to Gran D and, for me, they settle the issue (at
least momentarily). Thanks! I recently found, somewhere, Nabokov's words
about Dukes and Herzog (It was in a review, by Rosenbaum, about Samuel
Bellow and his novel, but this same transposition is found in SO*). The
stuffed animal in Lolita. was it a squirrel? Creepy ( they remind me of
Hitchcock's movie, Psycho).
...........
*- There's an interesting paragraph by Rosenbaum in the aforementioned
review (sent by Jim Twiggs to the List): "I'll get to the butterfly secret,
as I've come to think of it...I'm going to limit my comments
here...meanwhile, let me return to the butterfly secret and to what I
believe may be a not widely recognized coherence between VN's love of
literature and his love of lepidopterology. What they have in common, I came
to realize, is that they are both, the literary and the butterfly work,
about language. What VN was doing in his lovingly obsessive study of
wing-marking patterns and genital morphology was an act of reading ; he was
reading and translating the language, the esoteric genetic poetics of
butterfly markings. It's something I began to get an amorphous feeling for
from close reading of the lepidopteral monographs when I came upon an
explicit clue at the close of VN's major work on the butterfly genus
Lycaeides, one he'd devoted much of his life to limning. Summing up his
incredibly painstaking, dizzyingly detailed attempt to describe and
categorize the variety of wing patterns of Lycaeides, to find meaning in the
subtle shifts in the pigmentation of the tiny "maculations," he adds, "In
conclusion, a few words may be said concerning the specific repetition,
rhythm, scope and expression of the genetic characters supplied by the eight
categories discussed." (Nov.23,1997,The New York Observer). This is a lovely
vision about the connection between Nabokov's love of literature and
Lepidoptera, considering his love for language.
It carried me back to the medieval naturalist monks who were certain that
the world was a book written by God waiting to be decoded. The latter tried
to reach God's message in nature. Nabokov, in Rosenbaum's interpretation,
has his attention drawn to the workings of language more than he worries
about its independent "message," and this is probably the best way to read
Nabokov's works. Patterns instead of a special content or magical revelation
( there's fun in going after this too, there's no way to deny that garbled
dream, like Athanasius Kircher's).
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/