Subject
Re: peevish note re: wild march night
From
Date
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In a message dated 4/27/2010 4:37:09 PM Central Daylight Time,
chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
> To the list,
>
> It would seem that no one recalls (or I suppose even believes) that I
> solved this puzzle already: Shade is remembering the other suicide in his life,
> that of his paramour (the so-called other wife) "in ballerina black" who
> "haunts lit 101" (presumably Shade's class). She committed suicide with her
> child by Shade by driving into oncoming traffic on another "wild march
> night." The Erl König is implicated by Shade, but he is himself the real
> villain of the piece.
>
>
> I found this out by tracking down the "next babe" whose cries Aunt Maud
> lived to hear. If interested, please to consult the archives.
>
>
> very peevishly,
> Carolyn Kunin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
As you've said, Carolyn. Of course, this would mean that Shade fathered a
child by a clearly living student (mentioned by colleagues and invited by
Kinbote to dinner) who also died some years earlier (around 1950), shortly
after she gave birth to an illegitimate child which Shade then presented to
Aunt Maude so that she could hear the baby cry. Doesn't this perhaps seem
illogical?
In a small, gossipy college town, Shade gets a student pregnant; the
student has a child that Shade then shows to his aged aunt; the student then
commits suicide along with the child; Sybil doesn't have a clue; and neither do
the other members of the faculty; there is no scandal at all. Is this a fair
summary?
"She lived to hear the next babe cry" is ambiguous. It could simply mean
that she lived long enough to see the next generation (Hazel) born, which
doesn't mean that she died immediately thereafter (Kinbote seems a little
obtuse in his note here). Or it could mean, given the descriptions of Maud's
taste in poetry and painting ("grotesque growths and images of doom") in l. 89,
that she enjoyed such things as hearing babies cry (as in, "she lived to
see suffering"). In this sense, the "next babe" doesn't necessarily mean
Hazel (or an illegitimate child of Shade); it could mean the next baby that she
sees--she perversely enjoys hearing babies crying.
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chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
> To the list,
>
> It would seem that no one recalls (or I suppose even believes) that I
> solved this puzzle already: Shade is remembering the other suicide in his life,
> that of his paramour (the so-called other wife) "in ballerina black" who
> "haunts lit 101" (presumably Shade's class). She committed suicide with her
> child by Shade by driving into oncoming traffic on another "wild march
> night." The Erl König is implicated by Shade, but he is himself the real
> villain of the piece.
>
>
> I found this out by tracking down the "next babe" whose cries Aunt Maud
> lived to hear. If interested, please to consult the archives.
>
>
> very peevishly,
> Carolyn Kunin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
As you've said, Carolyn. Of course, this would mean that Shade fathered a
child by a clearly living student (mentioned by colleagues and invited by
Kinbote to dinner) who also died some years earlier (around 1950), shortly
after she gave birth to an illegitimate child which Shade then presented to
Aunt Maude so that she could hear the baby cry. Doesn't this perhaps seem
illogical?
In a small, gossipy college town, Shade gets a student pregnant; the
student has a child that Shade then shows to his aged aunt; the student then
commits suicide along with the child; Sybil doesn't have a clue; and neither do
the other members of the faculty; there is no scandal at all. Is this a fair
summary?
"She lived to hear the next babe cry" is ambiguous. It could simply mean
that she lived long enough to see the next generation (Hazel) born, which
doesn't mean that she died immediately thereafter (Kinbote seems a little
obtuse in his note here). Or it could mean, given the descriptions of Maud's
taste in poetry and painting ("grotesque growths and images of doom") in l. 89,
that she enjoyed such things as hearing babies cry (as in, "she lived to
see suffering"). In this sense, the "next babe" doesn't necessarily mean
Hazel (or an illegitimate child of Shade); it could mean the next baby that she
sees--she perversely enjoys hearing babies crying.
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/