Subject
THOUGHT Abstractist Bric-A-Brac (PF,the poem)
From
Date
Body
[3 Stevensian allusions, two illusionary perhaps]
Now I shall speak of evil as none has
Spoken before. I loathe such things as jazz;
The white-hosed moron torturing a black
Bull, rayed with red; abstractist bric-a-brac;
from Canto 4, lines 223-6
This undoubtably alludes to a famous exchange between Robert Frost,
poet-teacher-farmer, and Wallace Stevens, poet-life insurance
executive. Both attended Harvard at about the same time.
(I'm a little surprised that a search of the archives yields nothing.)
Both were vacationing in Key West in 1940.
Robert Frost and Stevens at the Casa Marina Hotel in Key West, ca. 1940
The famous exchange goes:
"The trouble with you, Robert, is that you're too academic."
"The trouble with you, Wallace, is that you're too executive."
"The trouble with you, Robert, is that you write about– subjects."
"The trouble with you, Wallace, is that you write about– bric-a-brac."
<http://www.kwls.org/lit/kwls_blog/2009/04/post_11.cfm>
Describing Stevens verse as abstract is, I think, unarguable.
The passage from Canto 4 is indicative of Shade's opinion of Stevens,
but not, I think, VN, who perhaps alludes to him in a couple of other
places.
-----
In a 1969 BBC-2 interview, Nabokov ...[says] “that passion [for
poetry] started to dwindle around 1940 when I stopped gorging myself
on contemporary verse. I know as little about today’s poetry as about
new music.”
----
VN was featured on the same Harvard lecture series as Stevens.
It seems quite likely that VN would have been familiar with the most
celebrated pieces of Stevens' work.
I find a certain similarity between:
How fully I felt nature glued to me
And how my childish palate loved the taste
Half fish, half honey of that golden paste! (Canto 1)
and the final stanza of Steven's Postcard from the Volcano:
A dirty house, in a gutted world,
A tatter of shadows peaked to white,
Smeared with the gold of the opulent sun.
The verbs glued and smeared both denote stickiness.
N's paste carries sexual connotations while Stevens' opulent sun
stands, in the usual way, as the fundamental life-giving force imbuing
our little corner of the universe (much like Shade claims, rather
implausibly, for his little scissors).
Both are vigorously affirmative in tone.
----
More speculative:
...Maybe some quirk in space
Has caused a fold or furrow to displace
The fragile vista...(Canto 1)
and the striking opening lines of Stevens' The Rock of 1954:
It is an illusion that we were ever alive,
Lived in the houses of mothers, arranged ourselves
By our own motions in a freedom of air.
----
All reader's are suspicious of the accuracy of Kinbote's notes and
recollections, yet one wonder's about how great a degree of trust
should be granted Shade who, right after claiming possession of a
photographic memory, nevertheless confesses confusion over why he can
no longer view the family home from Lake Road. His throw-away
explanation smells of cheap sci-fi, is merely ironic. Yet VN includes
this here surely to raise doubts about Shade's own veracity.
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Now I shall speak of evil as none has
Spoken before. I loathe such things as jazz;
The white-hosed moron torturing a black
Bull, rayed with red; abstractist bric-a-brac;
from Canto 4, lines 223-6
This undoubtably alludes to a famous exchange between Robert Frost,
poet-teacher-farmer, and Wallace Stevens, poet-life insurance
executive. Both attended Harvard at about the same time.
(I'm a little surprised that a search of the archives yields nothing.)
Both were vacationing in Key West in 1940.
Robert Frost and Stevens at the Casa Marina Hotel in Key West, ca. 1940
The famous exchange goes:
"The trouble with you, Robert, is that you're too academic."
"The trouble with you, Wallace, is that you're too executive."
"The trouble with you, Robert, is that you write about– subjects."
"The trouble with you, Wallace, is that you write about– bric-a-brac."
<http://www.kwls.org/lit/kwls_blog/2009/04/post_11.cfm>
Describing Stevens verse as abstract is, I think, unarguable.
The passage from Canto 4 is indicative of Shade's opinion of Stevens,
but not, I think, VN, who perhaps alludes to him in a couple of other
places.
-----
In a 1969 BBC-2 interview, Nabokov ...[says] “that passion [for
poetry] started to dwindle around 1940 when I stopped gorging myself
on contemporary verse. I know as little about today’s poetry as about
new music.”
----
VN was featured on the same Harvard lecture series as Stevens.
It seems quite likely that VN would have been familiar with the most
celebrated pieces of Stevens' work.
I find a certain similarity between:
How fully I felt nature glued to me
And how my childish palate loved the taste
Half fish, half honey of that golden paste! (Canto 1)
and the final stanza of Steven's Postcard from the Volcano:
A dirty house, in a gutted world,
A tatter of shadows peaked to white,
Smeared with the gold of the opulent sun.
The verbs glued and smeared both denote stickiness.
N's paste carries sexual connotations while Stevens' opulent sun
stands, in the usual way, as the fundamental life-giving force imbuing
our little corner of the universe (much like Shade claims, rather
implausibly, for his little scissors).
Both are vigorously affirmative in tone.
----
More speculative:
...Maybe some quirk in space
Has caused a fold or furrow to displace
The fragile vista...(Canto 1)
and the striking opening lines of Stevens' The Rock of 1954:
It is an illusion that we were ever alive,
Lived in the houses of mothers, arranged ourselves
By our own motions in a freedom of air.
----
All reader's are suspicious of the accuracy of Kinbote's notes and
recollections, yet one wonder's about how great a degree of trust
should be granted Shade who, right after claiming possession of a
photographic memory, nevertheless confesses confusion over why he can
no longer view the family home from Lake Road. His throw-away
explanation smells of cheap sci-fi, is merely ironic. Yet VN includes
this here surely to raise doubts about Shade's own veracity.
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/