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Re: Fw: shagbark, a very American tree...Muscat games
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English Anthony Stadlen observed on American Hickory: "Surely shagbark hickory is not shagbark juniper?"
Kinbote took "shagbark" to mean the tree he found growing in an eastward slope of Shade's front-yard, a hickory ( asking the List again: can one hang a swing on its branches when the tree is about 60 years old?).
Kinbote's line 49 (on shagbark/hickory) mentions Shade's old poem about " a muscat grape", which he then interprets as suggesting a "cat and mouse game" between Gradus and Shade.
And yet, this same idea also traverses Judge Goldsworth's little notes left around the house with various instructions for his lodger, including one about feeding a cat. These "calendric" activities are outlined in K's previous commentary to lines 47-48, when he mentions "the diet of the black cat that came with the house... Position of the sun, daily and seasonal, was given for the several windows... My dear Shade roared with laughter when I led him on a tour of inspection and had him find some of those bunny eggs for himself".
Wouldn't it be possible to understand that here the author (VN) is advising the readers about bunny-egg messages that are spread all over his book? That he is playing a "muscat" game with his readers? That we must either open various windows in a specified succession, move furniture or... spy on Shade?
Jansy
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Kinbote took "shagbark" to mean the tree he found growing in an eastward slope of Shade's front-yard, a hickory ( asking the List again: can one hang a swing on its branches when the tree is about 60 years old?).
Kinbote's line 49 (on shagbark/hickory) mentions Shade's old poem about " a muscat grape", which he then interprets as suggesting a "cat and mouse game" between Gradus and Shade.
And yet, this same idea also traverses Judge Goldsworth's little notes left around the house with various instructions for his lodger, including one about feeding a cat. These "calendric" activities are outlined in K's previous commentary to lines 47-48, when he mentions "the diet of the black cat that came with the house... Position of the sun, daily and seasonal, was given for the several windows... My dear Shade roared with laughter when I led him on a tour of inspection and had him find some of those bunny eggs for himself".
Wouldn't it be possible to understand that here the author (VN) is advising the readers about bunny-egg messages that are spread all over his book? That he is playing a "muscat" game with his readers? That we must either open various windows in a specified succession, move furniture or... spy on Shade?
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