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Re: Delvig law
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Re: [NABOKV-L] [NABOKOV-LIST] Stylistic distortions and foot-notes
S.K-B: "old/cold" was a rare, sad rhyming pair that also rhymed in German: "alt/kalt." Wonder if VN had this added nuance of "alt-itude" brooding in some recess of his fertile mind?
AS: "Delvig* disliked mystical poetry. He used to say: the nearer to heaven, the colder [it/one is getting]" (Pushkin, "Table-talk," 1835).
Merriam-Webster: old
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English eald; akin to Old High German alt old, Latin alere to nourish, alescere to grow, altus high, deep.
Date: before 12th century
JM: Some time ago I received a list of words for "Night" and "Eight" in various languages.
German: Acht/Nacht;
Spanish: Ocho/Noche;
French: Nuit/Huit;
Portuguese:Oito/Noite;
Italian: Notte/Otto.
I cannot remember most of the examples, but this sample conveys the general idea.
JA: Because the asphalt was old and spotted with oil, it looked, for a moment, as if bits and of the parking lot had suddenly come to life. Point? Possibly Sebastian's image only seemed to coincide with V's. It's curious the way that the overlapping can seem almost as important as the charm and poetry of the image, which seems suspiciously susceptible to a symbolic reading about the nature of art.
JM: An interesting remark after you distinguished Sebastian's image (stone melting into wing) from V's recollection (bits of the carved entablature were turned into flaky life) to note that this overlapping invited a symbolic reading about the nature of art. Both V. and SK had the same vision ( so did you) and their perception was already poetic (artistic)in itself. Or only SK's written version of the experience could be understood as "art"?
Btw: Re-reading the message with Kinbote's indignant words concerning Shade's play with "Le Grand Peut-Être"("execrable pun, deliberately placed in this epigraphic position to stress lack of respect for Death.") I realized that the "Great Maybe", which I always interpreted as "God", seems to mean "Death" to Kinbote ( it makes no sense to understand his meaning as: "there is no IF concerning death", because he is a Zemblan Catholic and the soul flies on to heaven, or dumps in hell)
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S.K-B: "old/cold" was a rare, sad rhyming pair that also rhymed in German: "alt/kalt." Wonder if VN had this added nuance of "alt-itude" brooding in some recess of his fertile mind?
AS: "Delvig* disliked mystical poetry. He used to say: the nearer to heaven, the colder [it/one is getting]" (Pushkin, "Table-talk," 1835).
Merriam-Webster: old
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English eald; akin to Old High German alt old, Latin alere to nourish, alescere to grow, altus high, deep.
Date: before 12th century
JM: Some time ago I received a list of words for "Night" and "Eight" in various languages.
German: Acht/Nacht;
Spanish: Ocho/Noche;
French: Nuit/Huit;
Portuguese:Oito/Noite;
Italian: Notte/Otto.
I cannot remember most of the examples, but this sample conveys the general idea.
JA: Because the asphalt was old and spotted with oil, it looked, for a moment, as if bits and of the parking lot had suddenly come to life. Point? Possibly Sebastian's image only seemed to coincide with V's. It's curious the way that the overlapping can seem almost as important as the charm and poetry of the image, which seems suspiciously susceptible to a symbolic reading about the nature of art.
JM: An interesting remark after you distinguished Sebastian's image (stone melting into wing) from V's recollection (bits of the carved entablature were turned into flaky life) to note that this overlapping invited a symbolic reading about the nature of art. Both V. and SK had the same vision ( so did you) and their perception was already poetic (artistic)in itself. Or only SK's written version of the experience could be understood as "art"?
Btw: Re-reading the message with Kinbote's indignant words concerning Shade's play with "Le Grand Peut-Être"("execrable pun, deliberately placed in this epigraphic position to stress lack of respect for Death.") I realized that the "Great Maybe", which I always interpreted as "God", seems to mean "Death" to Kinbote ( it makes no sense to understand his meaning as: "there is no IF concerning death", because he is a Zemblan Catholic and the soul flies on to heaven, or dumps in hell)
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/