Two fatidic deaths on August 17, 2010 with interesting VN connections.
Eugene MacDonnell (1926 – 2010), American computer-science pioneer, of whom wiki reports:
Studying the poems of Robert Frost, he noticed that the first two poems in Frost's book West Running Brook, "Spring Pools" and "The Freedom of the Moon", not only discuss reflecting, but the rhyme schemes of the two reflect each other: aabcbc and cbcbaa. When he met Frost, he was delighted to find that they had both committed the 193 lines of John Milton's "Lycidas" to memory.
Links here to John Shade, of course. But the Moon is Free, no longer a slavish Pale Fire. Also note that Frost out-Shades JS’s rumbling aabbccdd Heroics and, some say, simplistic circularity (line 1,000 -> line 1?) with an advanced two-fold symmetry: reflective poetry with reflective prosody.
Better known to VN-listers, perhaps, is Sir Frank Kermode (1919-2010) prolific, free-thinking English Literary Critic, co-founder with Karl Miller (a Cambridge undergrad contemporary of mine) of the leftish LRB (London Review of Books). The (London) Times Obit (August 19, 2010) does not mention VN but it is well worth a browse. FK named Wallace Stevens as his favourite modern poet, but from the little I’ve gleaned so far, FK was not overly fond of VN. I judge from just the opening of his snide LRB review (Protonymphet) of VN’s The Enchanter, translated by DN:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v09/n03/frank-kermode/protonymphet
I’m awaiting access to the full review, which I’m sure is well-known to VN-archivists, together with other interactions between FK and VN.
One quote from the Times Obit is particularly relevant to Blogger James Heflin’s reckless shot-gun attack on literary academe.
(Heflin overlooks the sheer FUN of critical feuding! Why else buy TLS, LRB, NYRB ... ? And do we detect Heflin as critic manqué? His own bland ventures into LitCrit (Pale Fire’s gorgeous prose; utter brilliance ...) call for some creative expansion before grabbing peer-reviewed interest or gaining tenure?!
Steven Blackwell, you may recall, reacted mockingly with
EDNote: I do not know who these out-clevering, out-egoing people can possibly be. ~SB
Compare this with
Kermode “grew up” as a critic of the 1950s, an era he always looked back on as one in which studying English literarure was regarded as the most intellectual and moral activity that could be pursued, and when the leading practitioners of literary criticism were public figures.
Kermode steered his wary way through the diverse Theory and Deep-Reading revolutions, stoutly refusing to belong to or even form any School. He once declared “There aren’t any Kermodians in the World!” But, like Nabokov and Nabokovian, FK would be deep-down peeved if the adjective had never cropped up!
PS: more fatidics! My first great-grand-child, a daughter, Elise Rose Coxon, was born August 12th, 2010. Same virgulean date as my mother ADA! My prezzie was CD of Brendel playing Beethoven’s Bagatelle in A minor. Puzzle-lovers will know WHY!
Stan Kelly-Bootle