Subject
THOUGHTS: Aunt Maud
From
Date
Body
The first reason that comes to my mind for having
Shade's father die is to have a literal referent for
the waxwing slain (and another place for Kinbote to
be belated).
As for his mother, I may be literarily stereotyping,
but Aunt Maud's bizarre habits seem to belong more to
a never-married woman than a widow. Certainly VN had
to get those /Life/ ads in there.
I imagine VN pronounced "aunt" as "ahnt", but could
there be any connection between Aunt Maud and the
gum-logged ant, seen on the day of her death? Her
fate seems to be somewhere between the ant's and
the cicada's--she can fly, but she's still held
down by her paralysis.
Jerry Friedman
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/
Shade's father die is to have a literal referent for
the waxwing slain (and another place for Kinbote to
be belated).
As for his mother, I may be literarily stereotyping,
but Aunt Maud's bizarre habits seem to belong more to
a never-married woman than a widow. Certainly VN had
to get those /Life/ ads in there.
I imagine VN pronounced "aunt" as "ahnt", but could
there be any connection between Aunt Maud and the
gum-logged ant, seen on the day of her death? Her
fate seems to be somewhere between the ant's and
the cicada's--she can fly, but she's still held
down by her paralysis.
Jerry Friedman
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/