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Fw: [NABOKV-L] Query:" Rabbit foot of a poplar"
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A minute ( but alas, too long) contribution to Don's request about Kinbote, note to line 403-4
( My question is "Why the "rabbit foot" of a poplar. What is it. Also I notice that Boyd's LOA annotations don't comment on the name "Lavender," a term often associated with gays.)
Gays or Grays? Regicidal Gradus' name leads us to Sudarg and Gray ( the actual killer J. Gray) and, in another context and work we find Nabokov describing "Lavender Gray" ( "does not grade into red again but passes into another spiral, which starts with a kind of lavender gray and goes on to Cinderella shades transcending human perception, Cf. Pnin) , where we find "grade" and "shades", cinderellous cinnereous "ashes(+d)"...
In Pale Fire, as I see it, the predominant association with "lavender" (as a color) is "death": " White butterflies turn lavender as they/ Pass through its shade where gently seems to sway/ The phantom of my little daughter´s swing".
I thought that I might find many references to "lavender" in "Ada", but from the digital copy I only discovered two mentions ( "a lavender glove" and "orange sunset and...ripples of a lavender sea into goldfish scales" ).
Violet ( not its "opposite", Orange) always seemed to me as one of Nabokov's favorite colors and with unfathomable links for him. Incorrectly as I now realize, for me "violet", "lavender", " lilac orchids" were natural associations, so much so that when I watched Nabokov-inspired movie by Fassbinder ( "Despair") where the color scheme of its rooms and chocolate factories incessantly turned violet into lavender , I thought it was a clever interpretation of a Nabokovian mood.
In "Transparent Things" ( in a discussion with Akiko Nakata) we have in 103.04-05: "a long lavender-tipped flame danced up to stop him with a graceful gesture of its gloved hand" ( now I notice a faint echo of "Ada" and "lavender glove"...) Anyway, most references to "lavender" ( associated with Gradus, killers, duels, murderous flames and ashes) suggest that its some kind of livid death sign.
Perhaps a poem by William Cowper, on Poplars, could fit in with this associative mood ( Ada's Cowper, not Queen Disa's...) where there are also Hazel trees and lots of shade and deaths (et Shade=deaths ), but no cunning Lapiner rabbit feet...
William Cowper ( 1731-1800)
The Poplar Field
The poplars are felled; farewell to the shade
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade:
The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.
Twelve years have elapsed since I first took a view
Of my favourite field and the bank where they grew;
And now in the grass behold they are laid
And the tree is my seat that once lent me shade!
The blackbird has fled to another retreat
Where the Hazels afford him a screen from the heat,
And the scene where his melody charmed me before
Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.
My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And I must ere long lie as lowly as they
With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head,
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.
Tis a sight to engage me if anything can,
To muse on the perishing pleasures of man;
Though his life be a dream his enjoyments ,I see,
Have a being less durable even than he.
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
( My question is "Why the "rabbit foot" of a poplar. What is it. Also I notice that Boyd's LOA annotations don't comment on the name "Lavender," a term often associated with gays.)
Gays or Grays? Regicidal Gradus' name leads us to Sudarg and Gray ( the actual killer J. Gray) and, in another context and work we find Nabokov describing "Lavender Gray" ( "does not grade into red again but passes into another spiral, which starts with a kind of lavender gray and goes on to Cinderella shades transcending human perception, Cf. Pnin) , where we find "grade" and "shades", cinderellous cinnereous "ashes(+d)"...
In Pale Fire, as I see it, the predominant association with "lavender" (as a color) is "death": " White butterflies turn lavender as they/ Pass through its shade where gently seems to sway/ The phantom of my little daughter´s swing".
I thought that I might find many references to "lavender" in "Ada", but from the digital copy I only discovered two mentions ( "a lavender glove" and "orange sunset and...ripples of a lavender sea into goldfish scales" ).
Violet ( not its "opposite", Orange) always seemed to me as one of Nabokov's favorite colors and with unfathomable links for him. Incorrectly as I now realize, for me "violet", "lavender", " lilac orchids" were natural associations, so much so that when I watched Nabokov-inspired movie by Fassbinder ( "Despair") where the color scheme of its rooms and chocolate factories incessantly turned violet into lavender , I thought it was a clever interpretation of a Nabokovian mood.
In "Transparent Things" ( in a discussion with Akiko Nakata) we have in 103.04-05: "a long lavender-tipped flame danced up to stop him with a graceful gesture of its gloved hand" ( now I notice a faint echo of "Ada" and "lavender glove"...) Anyway, most references to "lavender" ( associated with Gradus, killers, duels, murderous flames and ashes) suggest that its some kind of livid death sign.
Perhaps a poem by William Cowper, on Poplars, could fit in with this associative mood ( Ada's Cowper, not Queen Disa's...) where there are also Hazel trees and lots of shade and deaths (et Shade=deaths ), but no cunning Lapiner rabbit feet...
William Cowper ( 1731-1800)
The Poplar Field
The poplars are felled; farewell to the shade
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade:
The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.
Twelve years have elapsed since I first took a view
Of my favourite field and the bank where they grew;
And now in the grass behold they are laid
And the tree is my seat that once lent me shade!
The blackbird has fled to another retreat
Where the Hazels afford him a screen from the heat,
And the scene where his melody charmed me before
Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.
My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And I must ere long lie as lowly as they
With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head,
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.
Tis a sight to engage me if anything can,
To muse on the perishing pleasures of man;
Though his life be a dream his enjoyments ,I see,
Have a being less durable even than he.
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