Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0024426, Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:53:28 +0000

Subject
Greenacre clarification and a QUERY
Date
Body
A bevy of corrections to this, from Jansy:

Dr.Greenacre, a psychoanalyst who, as C.Kunin point out, has published an article in "applied psychoanalysis," about E.A.Poe and L.Carroll*. .It's an interesting conjecture but still I'm not convinced that P.Greencre was indicated in "PF." (how about checking P.Greencre'a publicxtions to locate the two quotes that have been linked to Prof. C?)

First, it was I, not Carolyn, who pointed out Greenacre’s work. Second, Greenacre published her book on Swift and Carroll, not Poe and Carroll. Third, my question concerned Lolita, not Pale Fire.

But since we’re on the topic of PF, I have a query concerning Kinbote’s note to line 680 and his related Index entry. Here is the note, in its entirety:

Line 680: Lolita

Major hurricanes are given feminine names in America. The feminine gender is suggested not so much by the sex of furies and harridans as by a general professional application. Thus any machine is a she to its fond user, and any fire (even a "pale" one!) is she to the fireman, as water is she to the passionate plumber. Why our poet chose to give this 1958 hurricane a little-used Spanish name (sometimes given to parrots) instead of Linda or Lois, is not clear.

In the Index, under the “Kinbote” entry, Kinbote gives us the following: “his sense of humor, 680;” While there may be a touch of wit in Kinbote’s entry, it doesn’t seem to merit special mention. Am I missing something?


Matt Roth

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