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Re: Nabokov's Symbols
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PS to James Twiggs: "'The word is not a shadow. The word is a thing' - Nabokov as anti-Symbolist." by Glynn, Michael michael.glynn@btinternet.com ) European Journal of American Culture; 2006, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p3-30, 28p
JM: There is a sentence in Nabokov's article condemning Rowe (Cf. SKB's link to "Nabokov's Deceptive World (NYU Press, 1971) http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/Rowe.txt ) which might clarify Glynn's emphasis on "The word is a thing" for Nabokov.
The latter wrote that the "fatal flaw in Mr. Rowe's treatment of recurrent words, such as "garden" or "water," is his regarding them as abstractions, and not realizing that the sound of a bath being filled, say, in the world of Laughter in the Dark, is as different from the limes rustling in the rain of Speak, Memory as the Garden of Delights in Ada is from the lawns in Lolita."
It appears that, for Nabokov, every word is bound to the sentence in which it has been applied, while its material singularity is garanteed by its sound in its given context. Therefore, we'd read about as many distinct "water" and "garden" as there are lines in which they are inserted (or help to constitute) in Nabokov. Nevertheless, the literary world teems with more "fatal flaws" than the one committed by Rowe...
The explanation about "Ada"'s mention to a certain "Abraham Milton" has never truly satisfied me. I'm throwing in another connection, but it is still flimsy.
Abraham Lincoln's private secretary (who worked with tesselated terran boundaries and treaties) was called John Milton Hay.*
Although I doubt it that many list-readers were interested in yesterday's quoted items, from "Ada", there is one mistake in them that muddles my point completely. Close to "teil" I wrote [elm] and I should have placed [linde] instead.
Two other electronic links to ancient translations of the Bible on the matter of oak, elm and linde: (1) elm - The choice of this tree may have been influenced by Luther's translation of this verse, where he has eiche and linde. in that order. The translation teil ... books.google.com.br/books?id=0g49AAAAIAAJ... ; (2) scripturetext.com/isaiah/6-13.htm -
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* - John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 - July 1, 1905) was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln: John Milton Hay's "contributions included the adoption of an Open Door Policy in China (announced on January 2, 1900) which may have been a contributing factor in the Boxer Rebellion, and the preparations for the Panama Canal. He negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901), the Hay-Herran Treaty (1903), and the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty (1903), all of which were instrumental in clearing the way for the construction and use of the Canal. In all, he brought about more than 50 treaties, including the settlement of the Samoan dispute, as a result of which the United States secured Tutuila, with a harbor in the Pacific; a definitive Alaskan boundary treaty in 1903; the negotiation of reciprocity treaties with Argentina, France, Germany, Cuba, and the British West Indies; the negotiation of new treaties with Spain; and the negotiation of a treaty with Denmark for the cession of the Danish West India Islands.[5]
In 1904, Hay was one of the first seven chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Hay appears as a prominent character in Gore Vidal's historical novels Lincoln and Empire. He appears, portrayed by John Huston, in the 1975 film The Wind and the Lion, a fictionalization of the Perdicaris Affair in Morocco in 1904. He is portrayed in the 1997 miniseries Rough Riders by actor and legendary United States Marine R. Lee Ermey."
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JM: There is a sentence in Nabokov's article condemning Rowe (Cf. SKB's link to "Nabokov's Deceptive World (NYU Press, 1971) http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/Rowe.txt ) which might clarify Glynn's emphasis on "The word is a thing" for Nabokov.
The latter wrote that the "fatal flaw in Mr. Rowe's treatment of recurrent words, such as "garden" or "water," is his regarding them as abstractions, and not realizing that the sound of a bath being filled, say, in the world of Laughter in the Dark, is as different from the limes rustling in the rain of Speak, Memory as the Garden of Delights in Ada is from the lawns in Lolita."
It appears that, for Nabokov, every word is bound to the sentence in which it has been applied, while its material singularity is garanteed by its sound in its given context. Therefore, we'd read about as many distinct "water" and "garden" as there are lines in which they are inserted (or help to constitute) in Nabokov. Nevertheless, the literary world teems with more "fatal flaws" than the one committed by Rowe...
The explanation about "Ada"'s mention to a certain "Abraham Milton" has never truly satisfied me. I'm throwing in another connection, but it is still flimsy.
Abraham Lincoln's private secretary (who worked with tesselated terran boundaries and treaties) was called John Milton Hay.*
Although I doubt it that many list-readers were interested in yesterday's quoted items, from "Ada", there is one mistake in them that muddles my point completely. Close to "teil" I wrote [elm] and I should have placed [linde] instead.
Two other electronic links to ancient translations of the Bible on the matter of oak, elm and linde: (1) elm - The choice of this tree may have been influenced by Luther's translation of this verse, where he has eiche and linde. in that order. The translation teil ... books.google.com.br/books?id=0g49AAAAIAAJ... ; (2) scripturetext.com/isaiah/6-13.htm -
.............................................................................................................................................................................
* - John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 - July 1, 1905) was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln: John Milton Hay's "contributions included the adoption of an Open Door Policy in China (announced on January 2, 1900) which may have been a contributing factor in the Boxer Rebellion, and the preparations for the Panama Canal. He negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901), the Hay-Herran Treaty (1903), and the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty (1903), all of which were instrumental in clearing the way for the construction and use of the Canal. In all, he brought about more than 50 treaties, including the settlement of the Samoan dispute, as a result of which the United States secured Tutuila, with a harbor in the Pacific; a definitive Alaskan boundary treaty in 1903; the negotiation of reciprocity treaties with Argentina, France, Germany, Cuba, and the British West Indies; the negotiation of new treaties with Spain; and the negotiation of a treaty with Denmark for the cession of the Danish West India Islands.[5]
In 1904, Hay was one of the first seven chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Hay appears as a prominent character in Gore Vidal's historical novels Lincoln and Empire. He appears, portrayed by John Huston, in the 1975 film The Wind and the Lion, a fictionalization of the Perdicaris Affair in Morocco in 1904. He is portrayed in the 1997 miniseries Rough Riders by actor and legendary United States Marine R. Lee Ermey."
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/