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Re: Russian essay/ Russian allusions in LATH/ Beaver
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AS: ..."the author of this obscure article (Защита Набокова), one Konstantin Kedrov (a fine poet, who, according to Wiki, is a grandson of the painter Pavel Chelishchev and was nominated for Nobel Prize), is also the author of the (perfectly lucid) Introduction to Odoevtseva's memoirs I happen to enjoy. Btw., the correct spelling of Odoevtseva's real name is Iraida Heinicke. She was born (according to a different source, in 1895) in Riga. Before Jansy transforms the name of the author of Le Tramway ivre, I mean, The Stray Streetcar, to Gummilove or Gummielastikov, let me stress that the correct spelling is Gumilyov."
JM: Right! I'll drop Gumilyov's name out from further digressions. I enjoyed "Gummilove and Gummielastikov" invention and itt was amusing, too, to check in almost unfamiliar LATH (part 7 two) to be able to understand the link between him and Rimbaud (there was none), and find the lines that came a little before them ("Louise regaled the company with one of her good stories--those I called "name hangers" because they only seemed to reach this or that point--a quid pro quo, say, at a party--but were really meant to introduce some high-born "old friend" of hers, or a glamorous politician, or a cousin of that politician... Somewhere in Abyssinia drunken Rimbaud was reciting to a surprised Russian traveler the poem "Le Tramway Ivre").
Qua "Irida": I don't know how the rainbow is designated in many other languages but in Portuguese and in Spanish it is "Arco Iris," and
"iridescente" or "irisado" are common words.
Kinbote's rainbow is a little "matt" (like VN's KZSPYGV?) for he seems to prefer opalescences and mother-of-pearl refractions.
Gary Lipon: "Should we read Shade's sudden insight into the meaning of things while driving home from visiting Mrs. Z, as an allusion
to the conversion of Paul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? ...the theory of plexed artistry... cognitive dissonance...the followers of a New England farmer, William Miller, who predicted that the Second Advent of Christ would occur in 1843"...a belief in another Noah's Flood
is the underpinning device in Chaucer's The Miller Tale, writ 600 years ago..."
JM: I prefer to hang on to the theory of "plexed artistry," even outside the realm of PF fiction, for its descriptive and alluvial, I mean, allusive powers (a "delugional" profecy in Chaucer?).
btw: Hares are the sacred animals of goddess Oestara or Eostre ( such as the "Easter bunny" and the German "Osterhase"), and related to estrogen hormones and oestral positions in animals (if one accepts some of the witchcrafty google sources). Should VN have been familiar with the symbol of the "three hares" (they shared their "ears," since in the mythologic depiction there are only three, instead of six, ears to be discerned) the themes of the "trinity" (three in one) and of triplets in trilingual families should have acquired interesting overtones.
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JM: Right! I'll drop Gumilyov's name out from further digressions. I enjoyed "Gummilove and Gummielastikov" invention and itt was amusing, too, to check in almost unfamiliar LATH (part 7 two) to be able to understand the link between him and Rimbaud (there was none), and find the lines that came a little before them ("Louise regaled the company with one of her good stories--those I called "name hangers" because they only seemed to reach this or that point--a quid pro quo, say, at a party--but were really meant to introduce some high-born "old friend" of hers, or a glamorous politician, or a cousin of that politician... Somewhere in Abyssinia drunken Rimbaud was reciting to a surprised Russian traveler the poem "Le Tramway Ivre").
Qua "Irida": I don't know how the rainbow is designated in many other languages but in Portuguese and in Spanish it is "Arco Iris," and
"iridescente" or "irisado" are common words.
Kinbote's rainbow is a little "matt" (like VN's KZSPYGV?) for he seems to prefer opalescences and mother-of-pearl refractions.
Gary Lipon: "Should we read Shade's sudden insight into the meaning of things while driving home from visiting Mrs. Z, as an allusion
to the conversion of Paul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? ...the theory of plexed artistry... cognitive dissonance...the followers of a New England farmer, William Miller, who predicted that the Second Advent of Christ would occur in 1843"...a belief in another Noah's Flood
is the underpinning device in Chaucer's The Miller Tale, writ 600 years ago..."
JM: I prefer to hang on to the theory of "plexed artistry," even outside the realm of PF fiction, for its descriptive and alluvial, I mean, allusive powers (a "delugional" profecy in Chaucer?).
btw: Hares are the sacred animals of goddess Oestara or Eostre ( such as the "Easter bunny" and the German "Osterhase"), and related to estrogen hormones and oestral positions in animals (if one accepts some of the witchcrafty google sources). Should VN have been familiar with the symbol of the "three hares" (they shared their "ears," since in the mythologic depiction there are only three, instead of six, ears to be discerned) the themes of the "trinity" (three in one) and of triplets in trilingual families should have acquired interesting overtones.
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/