From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sat, May 11, 2013 6:04:09 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Cocteau and VN
Excellent discovery between Jansy and Carolyn! Not much has been
written about Nabokov and Cocteau;
I found this on Google books:
Self-reflexivity in Literature
edited by Werner Huber, Martin Middeke, et al.
Here
I think you're onto something... Though I doubt the 1960 film
referenced in the above book is the link Nabokov might have been
making.
Jansy and I have bee discussing off-list the strange inconsistency
in Kinbote's age reporting: that he is 16 years Shade's junior (= b.
1914), but that King Charles the Beloved was born 1915. Perhaps
this slippage is psychologically related to Kinbote's regarding
Shade's "60th-no, 61st" birthday, noted already by Jansy. Very
possibly others have discussed this in their articles and books, and
Nab-Lers are invited to send us all to those sources! I see that
the Library of America notes (ahem) tell us that "In his lecture on
The Walk by Swann's Way" [...] published in
Lectures on
Literature, Nabokov wrote "Jean Cocteau has called the work 'a
giant miniature, full of mirages, of superimposed gardens, of games
conducted between space and time.'" Note 554.24-25; p. 896 in the
volume. No mention of Cocteau's birthday or the coincidence there.
Steve Blackwell
-------- Original Message --------
Carolyn Kunin [to
Jansy's links related to "Nabokov and Taxonomy"] Your
post prompted me to look up this date, July 5, 1915, to see if
anything exciting happened. Not really - but two days later the
Lusitania The
ship's name was taken from Lusitania,
an ancient Roman province on the west of Iberian
Peninsula the region that now is Portugal.was
sunk, so that's something. Jean Cocteau was born July 5, 1899. I
doubt Nabokov knew or cared...
Jansy Mello: Oh!
Actually Kinbote mentioned Cocteau exactly on July 5! He must
have been aware, then, that it was his birthday
All private editorial communications are
read by both co-editors.