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[NABOKOV-L] Tobak and Nicot, Cabot and Kabotchnik ?
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After I noticed the inversion (God/Dog and Cabot/Tobak) in the lines that might have had a relation to Lowell, I searched for other information in the internet, planning to learn about the wording of what appears now to have been a quatrain.
The name Tobak is important in "Ada," and nothing justifies (as I see it) its emphasis in connection to Lowell.
Then I came accross the item about the Kabotchnicks who wanted to cut off ,from their names, the ending "chnick," to become "Cabot," a story that might have captured Nabokov's interest.*
Next I remembered the debates about Nikto, Botkin and Kinbote and something even stranger occurred to me. In "Ada," the name Tobak(off) is mentioned close to Nicot (tobacco and nicotine) but, if I remember it correctly, although a historical explorer named Nicot has been traced, there was still no Tobak(off). In the midst of these shifts, I saw Nikto/Nicot and, rather distantly, Tobak/Cabot/Kinbote (now mingling, irregularly, Nicot-Tobak).
Btw: There was a Lowell astronomer who drew canals in Mars before his output was diagnosed as an eye-disease.** But...Really!!!!! That's too fantastic a collage... My conclusion is that the quatrain, although its two lines fit in connection to the Lowell family, cannot have been intended as a satire on the poet.
There must be something else going on, something influenced by issues as those found in the Kabotchnik/Cabot debates, the "aristocratic Bostonians" and their European ancestors.
..................................................................................................................................................................
*- The date (1923) is too early to suppose that Nabokov could have read the Time article where the matter has been brought up. However this issue echoed for a long time and deserved the attention of the media, perhaps up to the present day (at least, I gather that the "Open Book" news at the Harvard site, are relatively new?).
"TIME brings all things." Monday, Aug. 27, 1923 Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,716479,00.html#ixzz0v2z1wYrc
"The idea of spurious Cabots is as disturbing as the thought of counterfeit antiques in the Metropolitan Museum."
Journals everywhere printed the time-honored quatrain:
"Then here's to the City of Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where Cabots speak only to Lowells,
And the Lowells speak only to God."
From a Harvard site (The Browser - Open Book: Kabotchnik v. Cabot)
Kabotchnik v. Cabot: "Husband-and-wife team Justin Kaplan '45, G '47, and Anne Bernays have written a funny, fascinating, and important book, The Language of Names (Simon & Schuster, $25), that makes the case--through a mass of engaging detail--that our names are consequential, that they can shape our lives. We needn't stick with the names we are given, of course. In their chapter "Names in the Melting Pot," the authors write of immigrants recasting themselves with "simplified or normalized names."
[...]A New York Times editorial suggested that the Cabots might better have followed the example of certain medieval lords of the manor who permitted and even encouraged peasants to borrow their "lofty names." An editorial in American Hebrew deplored the loss of "Kabotchnik with its rich, sneezing tonal effects." The most enduring comment, however, parodied the familiar toast:
And this is good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells have no one to talk to
Since the Cabots speak Yiddish, by God. "
** - copied from:http://www.doesgodexist.org/SepOct04/LowellsSyndrome.html
"At the turn of the century, the world's most distinguished astronomer was certain there were canals on Mars. Sir Percival Lowell, esteemed for his study of the solar system, had a particular fascination with the Red Planet. .. 1877, Lowell heard that an Italian astronomer had seen straight lines crisscrossing the Martian surface. Lowell spent the rest of his years squinting into the eyepiece of his giant telescope in Arizona, mapping the channels and canals he saw. He was convinced the canals were proof of intelligent life on Mars, possibly an older but wiser race than humanity. Lowell's observations gained wide acceptance. So eminent was he, none dared contradict him. ..Now, of course, things are different. Space probes have orbited Mars and landed on its surface. The entire planet has been mapped, and no one has seen a canal. How could Lowell have seen so much that was not there? ...Two possibilities: (1) he so wanted to see canals that he did, over and over again, and (2) we know now that he suffered from a rare eye disease that made him see the blood vessels in his own eyes. The Martian canals he saw were nothing more than the bulging veins of his eyeballs. Today the malady is known as "Lowell's syndrome." ...
The term "Lowell's syndrome" has been extended in the fields of psychology and theology to include 'seeing what one wants to see'... Lowell's Syndrome is not the result of 'seeing' blood vessels, it is the result of the image processing capability of the eye/brain system. In effect, discrete blobs in the visual field are joined up by straight lines; this is a visual artefact. I encountered this effect on occasion as a professional microscopist, teaching the principles of quantitative microscopy. (mckeonj in Fovea thread in F Series Talk) ...I take it the 'straight line' effect is caused by the brain's extrapolation of points to create a 'model' of lines as a way of reducing the amount of data it has to process? (Southpaw) "
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The name Tobak is important in "Ada," and nothing justifies (as I see it) its emphasis in connection to Lowell.
Then I came accross the item about the Kabotchnicks who wanted to cut off ,from their names, the ending "chnick," to become "Cabot," a story that might have captured Nabokov's interest.*
Next I remembered the debates about Nikto, Botkin and Kinbote and something even stranger occurred to me. In "Ada," the name Tobak(off) is mentioned close to Nicot (tobacco and nicotine) but, if I remember it correctly, although a historical explorer named Nicot has been traced, there was still no Tobak(off). In the midst of these shifts, I saw Nikto/Nicot and, rather distantly, Tobak/Cabot/Kinbote (now mingling, irregularly, Nicot-Tobak).
Btw: There was a Lowell astronomer who drew canals in Mars before his output was diagnosed as an eye-disease.** But...Really!!!!! That's too fantastic a collage... My conclusion is that the quatrain, although its two lines fit in connection to the Lowell family, cannot have been intended as a satire on the poet.
There must be something else going on, something influenced by issues as those found in the Kabotchnik/Cabot debates, the "aristocratic Bostonians" and their European ancestors.
..................................................................................................................................................................
*- The date (1923) is too early to suppose that Nabokov could have read the Time article where the matter has been brought up. However this issue echoed for a long time and deserved the attention of the media, perhaps up to the present day (at least, I gather that the "Open Book" news at the Harvard site, are relatively new?).
"TIME brings all things." Monday, Aug. 27, 1923 Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,716479,00.html#ixzz0v2z1wYrc
"The idea of spurious Cabots is as disturbing as the thought of counterfeit antiques in the Metropolitan Museum."
Journals everywhere printed the time-honored quatrain:
"Then here's to the City of Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where Cabots speak only to Lowells,
And the Lowells speak only to God."
From a Harvard site (The Browser - Open Book: Kabotchnik v. Cabot)
Kabotchnik v. Cabot: "Husband-and-wife team Justin Kaplan '45, G '47, and Anne Bernays have written a funny, fascinating, and important book, The Language of Names (Simon & Schuster, $25), that makes the case--through a mass of engaging detail--that our names are consequential, that they can shape our lives. We needn't stick with the names we are given, of course. In their chapter "Names in the Melting Pot," the authors write of immigrants recasting themselves with "simplified or normalized names."
[...]A New York Times editorial suggested that the Cabots might better have followed the example of certain medieval lords of the manor who permitted and even encouraged peasants to borrow their "lofty names." An editorial in American Hebrew deplored the loss of "Kabotchnik with its rich, sneezing tonal effects." The most enduring comment, however, parodied the familiar toast:
And this is good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells have no one to talk to
Since the Cabots speak Yiddish, by God. "
** - copied from:http://www.doesgodexist.org/SepOct04/LowellsSyndrome.html
"At the turn of the century, the world's most distinguished astronomer was certain there were canals on Mars. Sir Percival Lowell, esteemed for his study of the solar system, had a particular fascination with the Red Planet. .. 1877, Lowell heard that an Italian astronomer had seen straight lines crisscrossing the Martian surface. Lowell spent the rest of his years squinting into the eyepiece of his giant telescope in Arizona, mapping the channels and canals he saw. He was convinced the canals were proof of intelligent life on Mars, possibly an older but wiser race than humanity. Lowell's observations gained wide acceptance. So eminent was he, none dared contradict him. ..Now, of course, things are different. Space probes have orbited Mars and landed on its surface. The entire planet has been mapped, and no one has seen a canal. How could Lowell have seen so much that was not there? ...Two possibilities: (1) he so wanted to see canals that he did, over and over again, and (2) we know now that he suffered from a rare eye disease that made him see the blood vessels in his own eyes. The Martian canals he saw were nothing more than the bulging veins of his eyeballs. Today the malady is known as "Lowell's syndrome." ...
The term "Lowell's syndrome" has been extended in the fields of psychology and theology to include 'seeing what one wants to see'... Lowell's Syndrome is not the result of 'seeing' blood vessels, it is the result of the image processing capability of the eye/brain system. In effect, discrete blobs in the visual field are joined up by straight lines; this is a visual artefact. I encountered this effect on occasion as a professional microscopist, teaching the principles of quantitative microscopy. (mckeonj in Fovea thread in F Series Talk) ...I take it the 'straight line' effect is caused by the brain's extrapolation of points to create a 'model' of lines as a way of reducing the amount of data it has to process? (Southpaw) "
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/