S K-B addressed Blackwell and de la
Durantaye: " Enjoying this exchange..." and reminded
us that Nabokov never set
foot in South America... so that his work represents the blend of detailed
observation and imaginative reach he always called for in both science and
art..."
A few days ago I came across a bill-board with a
symmetrical presentation that suggested to me a coat-of-arms, but it
actually represented different sized toilletries ( such as those of
the TV commercials mentioned by Shade) which had
been photographed partitioned by a mirror.
VN often referred to the heraldic qualities of
the Red Vanessa in Pale Fire and its emblematic red bend sinister.
And yet, my first impression of a "coat-of-arms" was
incorrect because, exactly, these are never really symetrical since different
images are often depicted on its right and left sides. Symmetry
in nature is also imperfect & un-mirrorlike.
If we should compare the
typographical contours of Pale Fire's poem to a butterfly's wings, perhaps
its missing last line could be a very clear hint about how
different materializations are from their ideal models although,
paradoxically, the poem's very irregularity could then be
mimicking, exactly, a particular butterfly's wings.
I wish SB or LD could
comment on how the asymmetries regularly found in nature and
in art could have been alluded and brought about in other less obvious
moments of VN's "Pale Fire".