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J. Mello re: riparian
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I had to check again the word "riparian" to find that it derives from the Latin riparius, ripa: "bank" and suggests "off or on a river bank".
In July ( July 23, 2006) I posted to the list a series of examples of VN's use of "at the brink of a brook/being on the verge" which insistently arise in "Ada", but that are present in other novels as well. In relation to "Ada", I wondered if the lulling sound of being on the "brink of a brook" came so insistently to conjure away, then, the other (hidden) French meaning, related to "being on the verge of".
In the sentences brought up today at the list we find Earl Sampson's quote : "A steady stream of brilliant American intellectuals visiting me in the riparian solitude of a beautifully reflected sunset." ( from -- Vladimir Nabokov, "Nabokov on Nabokov and Things", New York Times, May 12, 1968) to which he added another quote, this time from Einstein: "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious ... the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science." where I think he suggested the emotion of being on the verge of an artistic or scientific abyss and the discoveries that may come from this.
A. Bouazza added another sighting of "a memorably alliterative and assonant sentence: "His constant companion in riparian pastimes was Vasiliy, the blacksmith's son..." The Circle in A RUSSIAN BEAUTY AND OTHER STORIES, p. 259 (1973, 1st ed.)
It seems to me that, besides the banks of fluent brooks and margins of books, together with "riparian pastimes" welded by sunset, VN is alluding to a very powerful emotional experience that, at the same time, seems to be somewhat veiled and contradictory.
How does "riparian" appear in a more colloquial English usage? Were any of VN's remembered estates and houses close to a shining river or is the use of "riparian" mainly metaphorical?
Jansy
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In July ( July 23, 2006) I posted to the list a series of examples of VN's use of "at the brink of a brook/being on the verge" which insistently arise in "Ada", but that are present in other novels as well. In relation to "Ada", I wondered if the lulling sound of being on the "brink of a brook" came so insistently to conjure away, then, the other (hidden) French meaning, related to "being on the verge of".
In the sentences brought up today at the list we find Earl Sampson's quote : "A steady stream of brilliant American intellectuals visiting me in the riparian solitude of a beautifully reflected sunset." ( from -- Vladimir Nabokov, "Nabokov on Nabokov and Things", New York Times, May 12, 1968) to which he added another quote, this time from Einstein: "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious ... the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science." where I think he suggested the emotion of being on the verge of an artistic or scientific abyss and the discoveries that may come from this.
A. Bouazza added another sighting of "a memorably alliterative and assonant sentence: "His constant companion in riparian pastimes was Vasiliy, the blacksmith's son..." The Circle in A RUSSIAN BEAUTY AND OTHER STORIES, p. 259 (1973, 1st ed.)
It seems to me that, besides the banks of fluent brooks and margins of books, together with "riparian pastimes" welded by sunset, VN is alluding to a very powerful emotional experience that, at the same time, seems to be somewhat veiled and contradictory.
How does "riparian" appear in a more colloquial English usage? Were any of VN's remembered estates and houses close to a shining river or is the use of "riparian" mainly metaphorical?
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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