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Re: [NABOKOV-LIST] [Translation]natasha
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Laurence Hochard, on reading that Khrenov's "hearing is acute and he fore-hears his daughter's return from the street and his neighbour's outing", notes that it's not "a question of acute hearing; in fact, the man can guess, foresee future events."
JM: It was my intention to play with "fore-hear" and "foresee", a mere hunch because I hadn't noticed the revealing image Hochard pointed out, when Khrenov tells Natasha: "There's something fabulous in the paper today" whereas in fact, he hasn't read it yet since he asks his daughter to go and get some money to buy it. So, in addition to being a sick old man haunted by terrible memories, I wonder whether Khrenov isn't some kind of sorcerer who can "see" in a trance what is taking place now (the killings...) in the country he has left."
The only hitch is that Khrenov's reference to "something fabulous in the paper today" takes place in the trance-like reality of the story (it is Natasha who describes herself as either a saint or a witch). Like Hugh Person in T.T. the father is afraid of dying a total death ( he incites his daughter to remember his checkered travelling cap and gray suède gloves, he exclaims: "It will be awful if I never return")
BTW: I made a mistake attributing the "popping sound with his lips" to the Baron. It was Khrenov's.
Alexey wrote that:"Lolita is apparently the name of its heroine, the little gypsy girl after whom an ample skirt was dubbed (1.13)."
If I'm not mistaken, a "Lolita" is also a short jacket or cap ( in Brazil it is named "bolero"). Worth checking?
........................................................
More ideas on V. Nabokov: "Natasha"
As in "Signs and Symbols", we have three main characters, all of them emigrés. The story takes place in their humble lodgings. In S&S we follow the steps of an old couple who live from the generosity of a rich relative and, perhaps, also from social welfare. In Natasha there are two pairings: a young girl and her father, the young girl and her prospective boyfriend, but the setting is similar: events happen in two places: inside a room and during an outing.
Baron Wolfe (a now useless title, even outside America where Uncle Isaac is nicknamed "The Prince" by the old couple) "is penniless, stuck in the most miserable of European cities, sitting in an office day in, day out, like some idler, munching on bread and sausage at night in a truckers' dive." skips a day from office to go a-courting Natasha. She lets the landlady take care of her ailing father and, even before that, she mentions that "They've just bathed him." (They?)
All three appear to be excluded from any significant participation in their immediate social environment ( like the old couple in S&S) and to be mostly dependent on the good-will of strangers and fellow emigrés.
The young couple seems to be blithely unaware of any discomfort and tragedy, but they suffer nightmares or melancholy intimations. The Baron buys a paper bag of plums which turn out to be sour; he and Natasha lie to each other and to themselves even while they pretend to be sincere about either hallucinations or marvellous make-believe; we hear about an "orange-hued wind music" and "cloudlets of exclamations" while "sadness flew by like a melodious beetle".
The autumnal gold is almost subdued, although often mentioned. Indeed, the narrator takes his time to apply colour to the palette. It is autumn and wet, "the black torrents of the streets, the mobile, shiny cupolas of umbrellas, the blaze of shopwindows trickling down onto the asphalt. Along with the rain the night began to flow" or, as we find later, the "street lamps were coming alight like precious stones". Shimmering lights, no detailed red, blue or greenish reflections on the wet pavement - as we see in "Pale Fire". Colors begin with a flat "yellow, sticky hand", "his eyelids were bluish, like a frog's webbing" and "Graying bristles".
In the Baron's fantastic story there are "orange fruit like rubber balls" ( a rubber ball is present in "The Gift" & in "Gods") and he turns pink when he sees Natasha. The thermometer shows mercury rising on its "little red ladder".
Colors begin to be more nuanced after part IV ( emerald, dark blue, turquoise heights, faded blue garments, gold-hued tops, dark-turquoise water, apple-green meadow, water gleams like liquid gold) but not much is detailed besides this eery "Rembrandt" luminosity.
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JM: It was my intention to play with "fore-hear" and "foresee", a mere hunch because I hadn't noticed the revealing image Hochard pointed out, when Khrenov tells Natasha: "There's something fabulous in the paper today" whereas in fact, he hasn't read it yet since he asks his daughter to go and get some money to buy it. So, in addition to being a sick old man haunted by terrible memories, I wonder whether Khrenov isn't some kind of sorcerer who can "see" in a trance what is taking place now (the killings...) in the country he has left."
The only hitch is that Khrenov's reference to "something fabulous in the paper today" takes place in the trance-like reality of the story (it is Natasha who describes herself as either a saint or a witch). Like Hugh Person in T.T. the father is afraid of dying a total death ( he incites his daughter to remember his checkered travelling cap and gray suède gloves, he exclaims: "It will be awful if I never return")
BTW: I made a mistake attributing the "popping sound with his lips" to the Baron. It was Khrenov's.
Alexey wrote that:"Lolita is apparently the name of its heroine, the little gypsy girl after whom an ample skirt was dubbed (1.13)."
If I'm not mistaken, a "Lolita" is also a short jacket or cap ( in Brazil it is named "bolero"). Worth checking?
........................................................
More ideas on V. Nabokov: "Natasha"
As in "Signs and Symbols", we have three main characters, all of them emigrés. The story takes place in their humble lodgings. In S&S we follow the steps of an old couple who live from the generosity of a rich relative and, perhaps, also from social welfare. In Natasha there are two pairings: a young girl and her father, the young girl and her prospective boyfriend, but the setting is similar: events happen in two places: inside a room and during an outing.
Baron Wolfe (a now useless title, even outside America where Uncle Isaac is nicknamed "The Prince" by the old couple) "is penniless, stuck in the most miserable of European cities, sitting in an office day in, day out, like some idler, munching on bread and sausage at night in a truckers' dive." skips a day from office to go a-courting Natasha. She lets the landlady take care of her ailing father and, even before that, she mentions that "They've just bathed him." (They?)
All three appear to be excluded from any significant participation in their immediate social environment ( like the old couple in S&S) and to be mostly dependent on the good-will of strangers and fellow emigrés.
The young couple seems to be blithely unaware of any discomfort and tragedy, but they suffer nightmares or melancholy intimations. The Baron buys a paper bag of plums which turn out to be sour; he and Natasha lie to each other and to themselves even while they pretend to be sincere about either hallucinations or marvellous make-believe; we hear about an "orange-hued wind music" and "cloudlets of exclamations" while "sadness flew by like a melodious beetle".
The autumnal gold is almost subdued, although often mentioned. Indeed, the narrator takes his time to apply colour to the palette. It is autumn and wet, "the black torrents of the streets, the mobile, shiny cupolas of umbrellas, the blaze of shopwindows trickling down onto the asphalt. Along with the rain the night began to flow" or, as we find later, the "street lamps were coming alight like precious stones". Shimmering lights, no detailed red, blue or greenish reflections on the wet pavement - as we see in "Pale Fire". Colors begin with a flat "yellow, sticky hand", "his eyelids were bluish, like a frog's webbing" and "Graying bristles".
In the Baron's fantastic story there are "orange fruit like rubber balls" ( a rubber ball is present in "The Gift" & in "Gods") and he turns pink when he sees Natasha. The thermometer shows mercury rising on its "little red ladder".
Colors begin to be more nuanced after part IV ( emerald, dark blue, turquoise heights, faded blue garments, gold-hued tops, dark-turquoise water, apple-green meadow, water gleams like liquid gold) but not much is detailed besides this eery "Rembrandt" luminosity.
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/