Subject
[NABOKOV-L] Iridules: a technical question.
From
Date
Body
In the present dry season, in Brasilia, rain is only expected in October. Nevertheless, inspite of the incipient draught and future spotless blue skies, yesterday there were a few thinning strands of clouds on which I discerned a small squarish patch of rainbow, encased in the barest outline of a disrupted arc.
If rain there was, for the needed refraction of the light creating an iridescence, it must be falling high up in the strata and never reach the earth.
I wondered about Nabokov's "iridules" and looked it up in "Pale Fire".
In his note, Kinbote compares it to "nacreous gleams" and the Zemblan word he offers apparently means "a mother-of-pearl cloud." - so it confirms the "nacreous" colored effect (I don't dare to extend this to fishing baits and "alders"!).
Shade's neologism and definition suggest something more specific: an opalescent oval-shaped cloudlet (a propicious mirror, so it seems), which then reflects a distant rainbow and does not belong to the rainbow proper.
The rainbow is a "virtual" object and the iridule is a mirage (fatamorgana), a phenomenon that actualizes the rainbow in our eyes and "cages" our imagination. Like Tchekov's "Black Monk"? Iridules, according to Shade, are a rare phenomenon. I don't think I ever saw one, I wonder if they exist except for Shade.
Has anyone ever found an iridule?
PALE FIRE: ..."that rare phenomenon/ The iridule - when, beautiful and strange,/ In a bright sky above a mountain range/ One opal cloudlet in an oval form/ Reflects the rainbow of a thunderstorm/ Which in a distant valley has been staged..."
CK note to line 109: iridule: An iridescent cloudlet, Zemblan muderperlwelk. The term "iridule" is, I believe, Shade's own invention. [ ] The peacock-herl is the body of a certain sort of artificial fly also called "alder." [...] (See also the "strange nacreous gleams" in line 634*)
..........................................................................................................
*childhood memories of strange/ Nacreous gleams beyond the adults' range.
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/
If rain there was, for the needed refraction of the light creating an iridescence, it must be falling high up in the strata and never reach the earth.
I wondered about Nabokov's "iridules" and looked it up in "Pale Fire".
In his note, Kinbote compares it to "nacreous gleams" and the Zemblan word he offers apparently means "a mother-of-pearl cloud." - so it confirms the "nacreous" colored effect (I don't dare to extend this to fishing baits and "alders"!).
Shade's neologism and definition suggest something more specific: an opalescent oval-shaped cloudlet (a propicious mirror, so it seems), which then reflects a distant rainbow and does not belong to the rainbow proper.
The rainbow is a "virtual" object and the iridule is a mirage (fatamorgana), a phenomenon that actualizes the rainbow in our eyes and "cages" our imagination. Like Tchekov's "Black Monk"? Iridules, according to Shade, are a rare phenomenon. I don't think I ever saw one, I wonder if they exist except for Shade.
Has anyone ever found an iridule?
PALE FIRE: ..."that rare phenomenon/ The iridule - when, beautiful and strange,/ In a bright sky above a mountain range/ One opal cloudlet in an oval form/ Reflects the rainbow of a thunderstorm/ Which in a distant valley has been staged..."
CK note to line 109: iridule: An iridescent cloudlet, Zemblan muderperlwelk. The term "iridule" is, I believe, Shade's own invention. [ ] The peacock-herl is the body of a certain sort of artificial fly also called "alder." [...] (See also the "strange nacreous gleams" in line 634*)
..........................................................................................................
*childhood memories of strange/ Nacreous gleams beyond the adults' range.
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/