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Re: THOUGHTS / BIB: Cosmology in PF
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MR wrote: I believe that Gerard deVries has made this precise argument--that the
three main characters are represented by Earth, Sun, and Moon, and together they become Nabokov. This occurs on the evening of Shade's assassination, which deVries has shown was a full moon (but alas, not an eclipse).
Jansy: The importance of the "earthshine" (for me) is linked to one of the ways VN might have indicated his "authorial" presence. In ADA he mentions the earth ( Terra ) but, in Pale Fire, one almost forgets Earth's fundamental presence and how the Earth is equally illuminated by the sun and its own reflective rays. The "earthshine" does not arise as the result of an eclipse, it can be watched every month. It creates an "ashen glow" in the moon as if filling in the countours of its dark sphere.
Here is more information about the earthshine ( from Google sources):
A while after four weeks (29.5 days, more precisely) the illuminated half of the Moon again faces away from us, and we come back to the beginning of the cycle: a new moon. Sometimes, when the Moon is almost new, it is possible to dimly see its darkened disk. The light from the Sun cannot reach this part of the Moon directly; but at this time the Earth (as viewed from the Moon) is at its full and very bright, and what we see is light reflected from the Earth, that then bounces back at us from the Moon. It's a long trip for this light: from the Sun to the Earth, to the Moon, and back to the Earth.
The Leonardo sentence ( applicable to Humbert Humbert or to John Shade and the girl in the "leotard") is expressive, too ( the old in the arms of the new...).
The book from which I started my inquiries was written by two Brazilian astronomists: "O Tempo que o Tempo Tem", Alexandre Cherman and Fernando Vieira, Zahar ed.2008.
A friend of mine, Dr.Alfredo Saad, added information about the "earthshine", as it had been depicted in 1054, in New Mexico: actually an image of a supernova found close to an Anassazi pueblo. In it we see the "fine crescent" in the moon and a star, the remains of which are still traceable at Taurus and is now named M1 (crab nebulla).
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three main characters are represented by Earth, Sun, and Moon, and together they become Nabokov. This occurs on the evening of Shade's assassination, which deVries has shown was a full moon (but alas, not an eclipse).
Jansy: The importance of the "earthshine" (for me) is linked to one of the ways VN might have indicated his "authorial" presence. In ADA he mentions the earth ( Terra ) but, in Pale Fire, one almost forgets Earth's fundamental presence and how the Earth is equally illuminated by the sun and its own reflective rays. The "earthshine" does not arise as the result of an eclipse, it can be watched every month. It creates an "ashen glow" in the moon as if filling in the countours of its dark sphere.
Here is more information about the earthshine ( from Google sources):
A while after four weeks (29.5 days, more precisely) the illuminated half of the Moon again faces away from us, and we come back to the beginning of the cycle: a new moon. Sometimes, when the Moon is almost new, it is possible to dimly see its darkened disk. The light from the Sun cannot reach this part of the Moon directly; but at this time the Earth (as viewed from the Moon) is at its full and very bright, and what we see is light reflected from the Earth, that then bounces back at us from the Moon. It's a long trip for this light: from the Sun to the Earth, to the Moon, and back to the Earth.
The Leonardo sentence ( applicable to Humbert Humbert or to John Shade and the girl in the "leotard") is expressive, too ( the old in the arms of the new...).
The book from which I started my inquiries was written by two Brazilian astronomists: "O Tempo que o Tempo Tem", Alexandre Cherman and Fernando Vieira, Zahar ed.2008.
A friend of mine, Dr.Alfredo Saad, added information about the "earthshine", as it had been depicted in 1054, in New Mexico: actually an image of a supernova found close to an Anassazi pueblo. In it we see the "fine crescent" in the moon and a star, the remains of which are still traceable at Taurus and is now named M1 (crab nebulla).
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
