Subject
Shade's little scissors as a synthesis of sun and star
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Matt Roth: In Canto Two, Shade describes his "little scissors" (183) as a "synthesis of sun and star." I have never understood this image. I've looked at my own nail scissors in an attempt to see what Shade was seeing, alas to no avail. Help!
It seems that Matt's query of several years ago was never answered. Meanwhile, the answer is simple. Any Russian child knows the riddle: Dva kontsa, dva kol'tsa, poseredine gvozdik ("Two ends, two rings, a tack in the middle"). What that is? A pair of scissors. Shade seems to compare the scissors's gvozdik (the small nail, or "tack") to a star and one of the two handle rings to the sun (the other handle ring would be then a parhelion). At least, I am at loss to see how a pair of scissors could incorporate the sun and a star in any other way.*
When the sun is shining, stars are not visible (and vice versa). While parting fragments of space, Shade's little scissors unite day and night.** Interestingly, a few lines later (188-189) Shade compares his index finger to the lean College astronomer Starover Blue (the name that suggests a star can be visible in the blue sky). According to Kinbote (n. to line 627), the astronomer's grandfather was a Russian Old Believer (starover) named Sinyavin (from siniy, "blue") who married Stella Lazurchik, an Americanized Kashube.*** While stella is Latin for "star", the name Lazurchik comes from lazur', Russian for "azure". On the other hand, it reminds one of larchik, Russian for "small box". The phrase a larchik prosto otkryvalsya (the punch line of Krylov's fable "Larchik") means "the explanation/solution was quite simple" and seems to suggest that, like Krylov's larchik, the novel Pale Fire can be opened (does have a simple solution) after all. Perhaps, even the crown jewels can be discovered by the reader? May be, they are hidden not in Zembla (zemlya is Russian for "land", "earth") but in the sky swarming, according to a Chekhov character, with diamonds? There is a constellation Corona Borealis ("the Northern Crown") in the northern skies.
A tentative anagram: sea + Starbottle + Neva + nikto + tochka = Seattle + Saratov + Botkin + Netochka
Starbottle - Starover Blue's nickname
Neva - the river that flows through St. Petersburg, VN's home city
nikto - Russ., nobody
tochka - Russ., spot, dot; full stop
Seattle - the city in the USA whither Sinyavin migrated
Saratov - Sinyavin's home city
Botkin - Kinbote's real name
Netochka - Oscar Nattochdag's nickname (after the heroine of Dostoevsky's unfinished novel)
*In her response to Matt's query, Carolyn Kunin tried to synthesize the two words, "sun" and "star", coming up with a possible synthesis "Saturn". Like a pair of scissors, Saturn does have rings. But there are seven of them, not just a pair. Besides, the rings of Saturn resemble the scissors handle rings as little as Saturn does a finger.
**At the end of his note to line 627 Kinbote mentions Oscar Nattochdag, a Zemblan Professor in New Wye, whose name means "night and day" in Swedish. His nickname, Netochka, hints at Netochka Nezvanov, the heroine of Dostoevsky's unfinished novel, and reminds one of a Russian saying nezvanyi gost' khuzhe tatarina, "the uninvited guest is worse than a Tartar".
***The Kashubes are Slavic people who live in N Poland near the mouth of the Vistula. In one of his poems, VN's friend Khodasevich makes his mother say to him, then an infant, that the Vistula is the bluest of all rivers (ditya, vsekh rek sinee Visla). Khodasevich invented Vasiliy Travnikov, who rivals Vasiliy Shishkov (invented by VN) in being the greatest Russian invented poet.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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It seems that Matt's query of several years ago was never answered. Meanwhile, the answer is simple. Any Russian child knows the riddle: Dva kontsa, dva kol'tsa, poseredine gvozdik ("Two ends, two rings, a tack in the middle"). What that is? A pair of scissors. Shade seems to compare the scissors's gvozdik (the small nail, or "tack") to a star and one of the two handle rings to the sun (the other handle ring would be then a parhelion). At least, I am at loss to see how a pair of scissors could incorporate the sun and a star in any other way.*
When the sun is shining, stars are not visible (and vice versa). While parting fragments of space, Shade's little scissors unite day and night.** Interestingly, a few lines later (188-189) Shade compares his index finger to the lean College astronomer Starover Blue (the name that suggests a star can be visible in the blue sky). According to Kinbote (n. to line 627), the astronomer's grandfather was a Russian Old Believer (starover) named Sinyavin (from siniy, "blue") who married Stella Lazurchik, an Americanized Kashube.*** While stella is Latin for "star", the name Lazurchik comes from lazur', Russian for "azure". On the other hand, it reminds one of larchik, Russian for "small box". The phrase a larchik prosto otkryvalsya (the punch line of Krylov's fable "Larchik") means "the explanation/solution was quite simple" and seems to suggest that, like Krylov's larchik, the novel Pale Fire can be opened (does have a simple solution) after all. Perhaps, even the crown jewels can be discovered by the reader? May be, they are hidden not in Zembla (zemlya is Russian for "land", "earth") but in the sky swarming, according to a Chekhov character, with diamonds? There is a constellation Corona Borealis ("the Northern Crown") in the northern skies.
A tentative anagram: sea + Starbottle + Neva + nikto + tochka = Seattle + Saratov + Botkin + Netochka
Starbottle - Starover Blue's nickname
Neva - the river that flows through St. Petersburg, VN's home city
nikto - Russ., nobody
tochka - Russ., spot, dot; full stop
Seattle - the city in the USA whither Sinyavin migrated
Saratov - Sinyavin's home city
Botkin - Kinbote's real name
Netochka - Oscar Nattochdag's nickname (after the heroine of Dostoevsky's unfinished novel)
*In her response to Matt's query, Carolyn Kunin tried to synthesize the two words, "sun" and "star", coming up with a possible synthesis "Saturn". Like a pair of scissors, Saturn does have rings. But there are seven of them, not just a pair. Besides, the rings of Saturn resemble the scissors handle rings as little as Saturn does a finger.
**At the end of his note to line 627 Kinbote mentions Oscar Nattochdag, a Zemblan Professor in New Wye, whose name means "night and day" in Swedish. His nickname, Netochka, hints at Netochka Nezvanov, the heroine of Dostoevsky's unfinished novel, and reminds one of a Russian saying nezvanyi gost' khuzhe tatarina, "the uninvited guest is worse than a Tartar".
***The Kashubes are Slavic people who live in N Poland near the mouth of the Vistula. In one of his poems, VN's friend Khodasevich makes his mother say to him, then an infant, that the Vistula is the bluest of all rivers (ditya, vsekh rek sinee Visla). Khodasevich invented Vasiliy Travnikov, who rivals Vasiliy Shishkov (invented by VN) in being the greatest Russian invented poet.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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/