Subject: Fw: [NABOKV-L] On symmetry and Kinbote/ a red faced correction
From: "jansymello" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 02:07:58 -0400

A correction ( once again!) : 
When writing about "The Eve of St. Agnes" and "gules" I mentioned "red
reflections of stained glass". 
The Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta - has two red gules, but these in
Keats are merely "warm" ( they might be yellow, orange, red...).  
Actually, in "LATH",  VN  mocks a translation from Keats' "a thing of
beauty...", rendered as "Vsegda nas raduet krasivaya veshchitsa" in
Russian. 
But also there he also writes about parturition and  "a frightening
stained window at every turn - the afterimage of a wounded orifice" ...
Jansy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: jansymello 
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum 
Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 1:30 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] On symmetry and Kinbote

Dear List and William Dane,

CK wrote about PF as "the only novel I know that has an index even of
any sort". 
WD's answer began with: "Another VN work that ...." before he suggested
a comparison of their indexes. 
Would you include SM among VN's novels? ( I remember reading an
explanation on this question, but I cannot now remember where ).

In a posting distributed on August 9,2006, discussing VN's "heraldic
images"  I found two examples of the use of the word "gules" in poetry (
in E. Cobham Brewer 1810-1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.)
One came from Timon of Athens and another from Keats in  "The Eve of
Saint Agnes".  

As a student, a long time ago, I was taught to pronounce "gules" like
"jewels" ( and "gaol" as "jail").  
Keats' poem speaks of "gules" as coming from the red reflections of the
light of a wintry moon shining through stained glass.  Colored windows
are a recurrent theme in VN, particularly so in LATH.  
If  anyone thinks that VN might have been mentioning Keats and "his warm
gules" then there may be something else to chase... 
Would we find anything about Tamara in Fair Madeline's story? If so, how
would it emerge in the guise of Zemblan jewels in Pale Fire? 
Jansy

Then there is the little chase that starts with the listing for Jewels,
which sends us to Stained Glass, which sends us to Pavilion (and back to
Jewels.)  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: William Dane 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 11:06 PM
  Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] On symmetry and Kinbote

   
  . Perhaps it would serve an analysis of Pale Fire's index well to
compare how the two function in relation to their works. I wonder for
one thing if Speak, Memory's index appeared in the original version of
that work (that is, prior to Pale Fire)? And if so, was it changed in
any way for the newer version?
   
  A few interesting things that jump out on a quick analysis of the SM
index include the presence of some of Nabokov's novels (The Real Life of
Sebastian Knight is listed under S, of all letters). Then there is the
little chase that starts with the listing for Jewels, which sends us to
Stained Glass, which sends us to Pavilion (and back to Jewels.) In the
two references under Pavilion (215-216; 230), we find descriptions of
VN's pavilion in the woods, the little bridge near it (which brings to
mind the bridge in the poem in SM's Foreword), Tamara and her friends'
graffiti, Tamara and her friends themselves....I also see on page 217 a
reference to a "pillared heap of stones marking a mountain trail", which
brings to mind the Zemblan word Steinmann (PF page 143). At any rate
these things may warrant deeper and more careful digging.
   
  wd

   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 10:08:01 -0800
    From: [email-masked]
    Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] On symmetry and Kinbote
    To: [email-masked]

    > I don't see K. and S. getting confused in the Index entry on
Shade.  A lot of the pronouns do indeed refer to Kinbote, but they
always have an antecedent in an earlier K.  I took that as more of his
egoism.  
    > 
    > Yes, it's interesting that the letter C can sound like both K and
S (and it looks like, and is etymologically related to, G).  But at that
level you can konnekt everything with everything elce.

    Dear Jerry,

    Since this is the only novel I know that has an index even of any
sort, I can't say that you are wrong, but in usual indexes the "he"
refers to the person named in the heading. But under "Shade" in this
index Shade is sometime "S" and sometimes "he"'; Kinbote is sometimes 
    "K" and sometimes "he." The entries under "Kinbote" don't make this
confusion. 

    I do wish someone would analyze that Index - - it is quite
interesting. For example this is found on the title page: "The capital
letters  stand for the three main characters G, K. S (which see) in this
work." 

    That "(which see)" is interesting because there are no such headings
in the index, whereas the rest of the "qv"s always do take you to other
headings, if not always helpfully. So I think "see" might be a pun on
"C" just as "capital letters" is a pun on "characters." My attention was
drawn to this as a clue because of the odd combination of simplicity and
deceit in this apparently innocent statement. I was also struck at the
oddity of the ordering of the three "characters" (why not K, S, G or S,
K, G?).

    I concluded that VN wished to draw the reader's attention to those
characters/letters - - but of course I could be wrong as you suggest.

    (In your theory, is it egoism if someone fulsomely admires his other
personality?  Maybe Kinbote suffers from alteregoism.)

    Alteregoism? Wonderful! (why didn't I think of that?)

    Carolyn

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