Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0019935, Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:37:26 EDT

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Re: THOUGHTS on two metaphors from Canto 4
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In a message dated 4/28/2010 9:24:35 PM Central Daylight Time,
glipon@INNERLEA.COM writes:
>
> >>
>> >>> Old Zembla’s fields
>>
>
> Why Old Zembla's fields are mentioned here also is difficult to decipher.
> It's probably to be read as a sign of Kinbote's coming emergence.
>
>
> >> >>> And slaves make hay between my mouth and nose.
>>
>
> Hay is made when grass or other plants, such as clover or alfalfa, are cut
> and dried for fodder. The word Slaves presumably refers to hair follicles
> that metaphorically grow the grass; technically, splitting hairs I guess
> you could say, it is the razor that makes the hay. So Shade is sloppy here
> too.
>
What's even stranger is that this single mention of Zembla in Shade's poem
is not commented on by Kinbote at all. After all his listening to chattering
Kinbote, Shade can't be faulted for using one "Zembla" in his 999 lines,
even if the "distant northern land" is here only the "country of [his] cheek."

Shade has earlier told us, in his long (895-938) passage on how much he
hates his daily shave (an ode to simply being alive) that he is "in the class
of fussy bimanists" when it comes to wielding a razor. Thus, the "slaves
[who] make hay between his mouth and nose" are his two hands.

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