Subject
nictitating grass (fwd)
Date
Body
From: David Murchie of AG 953-3297 <DMURCHIE@galaxy.gov.bc.ca>
In "First Love," (Chptr 7 of _Speak, Memory; section1 ,p. 144)) Nabokov
describes grass seen from a moving train as "nictitating." Perhaps because
I haven't travelled by train for many years, I am having some difficulty
imagining winking grass. Could this be the effect of the wind rippling
across a field, or merely the result of the train's movement: flashes of
green in the window of the compartment? Or is this nictitation in another
sense altogether?
EDITOR'S NOTE: I have looked at the passage and paragraph. VN is
describing the "optical amalgamations" resulting from the "mixed
velocities" of scenes observed (at different distances) through the moving
window of the train dining car. VN, age 10, watches as he eats and grows
increasing queasy. As his gorge rises, the description becomes ever more
clinical: the adjacent rails commit suicide by "anastomosis," a bank of
grass "nictitates"-- and the boy barfs. In a sense the passage is an
extension of some earlier material in which the narrative P.O.V. switches
back and forth between a person on the train and a person watching the
passing train. The description above projects the characteristics of
boy's nausea to aspects of the animated landscape.
In "First Love," (Chptr 7 of _Speak, Memory; section1 ,p. 144)) Nabokov
describes grass seen from a moving train as "nictitating." Perhaps because
I haven't travelled by train for many years, I am having some difficulty
imagining winking grass. Could this be the effect of the wind rippling
across a field, or merely the result of the train's movement: flashes of
green in the window of the compartment? Or is this nictitation in another
sense altogether?
EDITOR'S NOTE: I have looked at the passage and paragraph. VN is
describing the "optical amalgamations" resulting from the "mixed
velocities" of scenes observed (at different distances) through the moving
window of the train dining car. VN, age 10, watches as he eats and grows
increasing queasy. As his gorge rises, the description becomes ever more
clinical: the adjacent rails commit suicide by "anastomosis," a bank of
grass "nictitates"-- and the boy barfs. In a sense the passage is an
extension of some earlier material in which the narrative P.O.V. switches
back and forth between a person on the train and a person watching the
passing train. The description above projects the characteristics of
boy's nausea to aspects of the animated landscape.