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Re: Hazel's unattractiveness; deaths in VN
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Dear Stephen and Jay, Gould and List,
An interesting suggestion about a census of dead souls in, our outside, a VN novel. There might be a taunting pattern to see concerning that mysterious in-between, otherwordly area.
Yesterday someone mentioned one of the rivers: Styx? Acheront.., the waters of Lethe? But, for the Greeks, there were no wandering souls and I vaguely remember that ... Oh, help me still unburied shadows where my memory has already taken refuge ... ). I think that VN's "otherworld" bears no relation to the Greek's, or pass through Dantesque spirals ...
John Shade was bothered by his daughter's physical unattractiveness, probably the more so because she looked like him. He was no Apollo either, but managed to father a very unlucky child.
Hazel's mumblings, inversion of words and foot-scratching ( reminiscent of T.S.Eliot's description in one of his poems...), her constant unhappiness, resentment, isolation are probably related to her not being able to react or to cope with her parents' lack of perceptiveness and disappointment.
But her suffering was not entirely their "fault", nor any dawkinian selfish-gene's: she was a very sick child, indeed. Independently of her looks.
She also failed her entrance exams to enrol at some university, true? She was 23, lived at home with her parents, didn't work to acquire finantial independence... How could she be as brilliant as you say she was?
The word "chtonic" might be suggestive in relation to Hazel and her environment.
The first reference to "chtonic" that I still recall came from Levi-Strauss, while he presented his structural apparatus. He described some myths as representatives of the human effort to understand and represent certain dilemas, namely, are we descendants from a pairing sexual couple or were we born from an equivalent of the legendary cabbage?
Cthonic, in that context, applies to non-sexual generation, like mythological giants who were sown on the earth and grew from a dragon's teeth - it means something like "arising from the ground". ( Unfortunately I cannot remember those ancient readings of mine enough, but someone might feel interested to check this further)
I'm only bringing this improviso because I've just posted a note about Freud conclusions about Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", where he wrote about an intense "distaste for sexuality" he detected in the character. The Shades were not a very passionate couple, at least so it seems to me. They kept separate rooms and Hazel was engendered after a long period of sterility, after a trip to Nice... The poem Pale Fire, itself, has no trace of eroticism, or sensuality.
The expression " a writer's grief" is a peculiar expression for a "father's grief": he was grieving for himself...
Hazel's experiences in the barn are quite childish: are these the ideal examples of her true "spirituality"? A beautiful ghost that arose from a metamorphosis similar to a butterfly's... would such an image really appeal to Nabokov if not in a parody?
Jansy
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An interesting suggestion about a census of dead souls in, our outside, a VN novel. There might be a taunting pattern to see concerning that mysterious in-between, otherwordly area.
Yesterday someone mentioned one of the rivers: Styx? Acheront.., the waters of Lethe? But, for the Greeks, there were no wandering souls and I vaguely remember that ... Oh, help me still unburied shadows where my memory has already taken refuge ... ). I think that VN's "otherworld" bears no relation to the Greek's, or pass through Dantesque spirals ...
John Shade was bothered by his daughter's physical unattractiveness, probably the more so because she looked like him. He was no Apollo either, but managed to father a very unlucky child.
Hazel's mumblings, inversion of words and foot-scratching ( reminiscent of T.S.Eliot's description in one of his poems...), her constant unhappiness, resentment, isolation are probably related to her not being able to react or to cope with her parents' lack of perceptiveness and disappointment.
But her suffering was not entirely their "fault", nor any dawkinian selfish-gene's: she was a very sick child, indeed. Independently of her looks.
She also failed her entrance exams to enrol at some university, true? She was 23, lived at home with her parents, didn't work to acquire finantial independence... How could she be as brilliant as you say she was?
The word "chtonic" might be suggestive in relation to Hazel and her environment.
The first reference to "chtonic" that I still recall came from Levi-Strauss, while he presented his structural apparatus. He described some myths as representatives of the human effort to understand and represent certain dilemas, namely, are we descendants from a pairing sexual couple or were we born from an equivalent of the legendary cabbage?
Cthonic, in that context, applies to non-sexual generation, like mythological giants who were sown on the earth and grew from a dragon's teeth - it means something like "arising from the ground". ( Unfortunately I cannot remember those ancient readings of mine enough, but someone might feel interested to check this further)
I'm only bringing this improviso because I've just posted a note about Freud conclusions about Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", where he wrote about an intense "distaste for sexuality" he detected in the character. The Shades were not a very passionate couple, at least so it seems to me. They kept separate rooms and Hazel was engendered after a long period of sterility, after a trip to Nice... The poem Pale Fire, itself, has no trace of eroticism, or sensuality.
The expression " a writer's grief" is a peculiar expression for a "father's grief": he was grieving for himself...
Hazel's experiences in the barn are quite childish: are these the ideal examples of her true "spirituality"? A beautiful ghost that arose from a metamorphosis similar to a butterfly's... would such an image really appeal to Nabokov if not in a parody?
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