Subject
THOUGHTS: ADA siblings' attic discovery, a postscript
From
Date
Body
JM: There were two things I knew: Van and Ada, both, were children born
to Marina and Demon. Lucette was only their half-sister. And yet, I
often forget that Lucette is Ada's half-sister or that the important
discovery is that Van and Ada are Marina's children, ie, that Van is not
Aqua's son.
Why is it so hard to put this information to good use while re-reading?
How does this "trap" function when I follow the text ( am I alone in
that?): is there another information, still unknown, pressuring and
disturbing my attention? Is it something that results from the way the
information is conveyed by the narrator?
This is a PS to the question: I wonder, though, why was the "two kids’
best find" something that "came from another carton in a lower layer of
the past."? Their "best find" in relation to what? Their
parentage?[...]‘I deduce,’ said the boy, ‘three main facts: that not
yet married Marina and her married sister hibernated in my lieu de
naissance; that Marina had her own Dr Krolik, pour ainsi dire; and that
the orchids came from Demon who preferred to stay by the sea, his
dark-blue great-grandmother.’[...] Did Ada's words, as they were placed
in her mouth at that moment, reveal that there were never "two"
discoverers of strange treasures but only one? It this a
"delayed-action" information deliberately set by the narrator and to
what purpose does it serve?
Jansy Mello
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/
to Marina and Demon. Lucette was only their half-sister. And yet, I
often forget that Lucette is Ada's half-sister or that the important
discovery is that Van and Ada are Marina's children, ie, that Van is not
Aqua's son.
Why is it so hard to put this information to good use while re-reading?
How does this "trap" function when I follow the text ( am I alone in
that?): is there another information, still unknown, pressuring and
disturbing my attention? Is it something that results from the way the
information is conveyed by the narrator?
This is a PS to the question: I wonder, though, why was the "two kids’
best find" something that "came from another carton in a lower layer of
the past."? Their "best find" in relation to what? Their
parentage?[...]‘I deduce,’ said the boy, ‘three main facts: that not
yet married Marina and her married sister hibernated in my lieu de
naissance; that Marina had her own Dr Krolik, pour ainsi dire; and that
the orchids came from Demon who preferred to stay by the sea, his
dark-blue great-grandmother.’[...] Did Ada's words, as they were placed
in her mouth at that moment, reveal that there were never "two"
discoverers of strange treasures but only one? It this a
"delayed-action" information deliberately set by the narrator and to
what purpose does it serve?
Jansy Mello
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/