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Optics and doubling in PF
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[EDNOTE. So far, my studies of Poe's influence on VN and my studies of
optics in Poe's fiction haven't coincided. But certainly optical
ghosts, reflections, shadows, and trompe-l'oeil are a major theme in PF!
-- SES]
In a recent posting S.Elizabeth Sweeney mentioned the pertinence of
Brewster's work to understand Poe's use of optical devices in his
fiction ( & I didn't know that the kaleidoscope was one of Brewster's
creations!). I wonder if she also included Nabokov's own literary optics
as being derived from Brewster ( I checked it anyway, in "Lolita", and
there is, indeed, a distorted and misaprehended "Brewster" that might
hint at this) and this scientist's investigations of stereoscopic
images.
SES also pointed out that Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" ( "one of
the many subtexts of Lolita") and the Doppelganger story probably add
"to the reflections of Pale Fire -- especially, perhaps, the global
pursuit by a shadowy nemesis."
I think that we could explore this new link a bit further since, as SES
indicates, Poe's "William Wilson" is a more likely antecedent than RLS's
tale to PF while also we find that Gradus plays a more important
metaphysic role in the novel than we have been giving him credit for in
our present discussion.
Dave Haan once explained to me that "the ancient Egyptians believed that
the Double, the 'ka', was a man's exact counterpart... invisible except
to certain priests who could see the Doubles of the gods and were
granted by them a knowledge of things past and things to come."
He linked this Egyptian soul and the story of 'William Wilson', where
the "Double is the hero's conscience ( he kills it and dies") and to
Wilde's "Dorian Gray", who stabs his portrait and meets his death - an
overdetermined theme we also encounter, under a different guise, in Pale
Fire. In D. Hofstadter's book (GEB) the author mentions a story about a
canon, written by J.S. Bach, in which the composer employed the notes B
A C H, as in his name ( I only remember that the equivalents to the
do-re-mi in German are different from the ABC notes in other countries),
and died soon after its completion.
It seems that also Preterists (twice mentioned in Shade's poem) and
Futurists also serve as indicators for the "Double".
As Kinbote writes at the close of his commentaries: "But whatever
happens, wherever the scene is laid, somebody, somewhere, will quietly
set out - somebody has already set out, somebody still rather far away
is buying a ticket... and presently he will ring at my door - a bigger,
more respectable, more competent Gradus."(page 301), just as SES
described as "a global pursuit by a shadowy nemesis."
Our gradual gray Gradus may be likened to the "gray veil" of Time (
following Van Veen's theories) and, if I'm not mistaken, death also
appears, for VN, under a special shade of gray.
Jansy
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optics in Poe's fiction haven't coincided. But certainly optical
ghosts, reflections, shadows, and trompe-l'oeil are a major theme in PF!
-- SES]
In a recent posting S.Elizabeth Sweeney mentioned the pertinence of
Brewster's work to understand Poe's use of optical devices in his
fiction ( & I didn't know that the kaleidoscope was one of Brewster's
creations!). I wonder if she also included Nabokov's own literary optics
as being derived from Brewster ( I checked it anyway, in "Lolita", and
there is, indeed, a distorted and misaprehended "Brewster" that might
hint at this) and this scientist's investigations of stereoscopic
images.
SES also pointed out that Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" ( "one of
the many subtexts of Lolita") and the Doppelganger story probably add
"to the reflections of Pale Fire -- especially, perhaps, the global
pursuit by a shadowy nemesis."
I think that we could explore this new link a bit further since, as SES
indicates, Poe's "William Wilson" is a more likely antecedent than RLS's
tale to PF while also we find that Gradus plays a more important
metaphysic role in the novel than we have been giving him credit for in
our present discussion.
Dave Haan once explained to me that "the ancient Egyptians believed that
the Double, the 'ka', was a man's exact counterpart... invisible except
to certain priests who could see the Doubles of the gods and were
granted by them a knowledge of things past and things to come."
He linked this Egyptian soul and the story of 'William Wilson', where
the "Double is the hero's conscience ( he kills it and dies") and to
Wilde's "Dorian Gray", who stabs his portrait and meets his death - an
overdetermined theme we also encounter, under a different guise, in Pale
Fire. In D. Hofstadter's book (GEB) the author mentions a story about a
canon, written by J.S. Bach, in which the composer employed the notes B
A C H, as in his name ( I only remember that the equivalents to the
do-re-mi in German are different from the ABC notes in other countries),
and died soon after its completion.
It seems that also Preterists (twice mentioned in Shade's poem) and
Futurists also serve as indicators for the "Double".
As Kinbote writes at the close of his commentaries: "But whatever
happens, wherever the scene is laid, somebody, somewhere, will quietly
set out - somebody has already set out, somebody still rather far away
is buying a ticket... and presently he will ring at my door - a bigger,
more respectable, more competent Gradus."(page 301), just as SES
described as "a global pursuit by a shadowy nemesis."
Our gradual gray Gradus may be likened to the "gray veil" of Time (
following Van Veen's theories) and, if I'm not mistaken, death also
appears, for VN, under a special shade of gray.
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