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Re: Thoughts: Southey and McDiarmid
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If I can go back to this topic, I don't recall anyone
mentioning that Brian Boyd commented on McDiarmid in his
notes to the Library of America edition of PF (p. 893).
He quoted a note that Nabokov made comparing M'Diarmid
and Swift's letters to Stella (hm) with "the worst parts
of James Joyce", and quoting McDiarmid's "incremental
exorbitance" and "antecendently token of the venitseason".
So if Fittis's book (which is now on line at
<http://www.archive.org/details/sportspastimesof00fittrich>)
was Nabokov's source, Nabokov must have found McDiarmid's
original or conceivably something else that quoted it.
But in that case, a simpler possibility is that he found
the book in Southey's letters. Southey mentioned
it in two letters in addition to the one cited by
Dieter Zimmer (links at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striking_and_Picturesque_Delineations>)
and Nabokov knew Southey's letters well enough to know
about the roasted rat and the Lingo-Grande, so he could
have found McDiarmid there and then tracked down the
original. (The only phrase I've found that Southey
quoted is "incoherent transactions", the one Nabokov
quoted in /Pale Fire/.)
Not to say that the simplest possibility is necessarily
what happened, but it seems at least as likely as a
more complicated possibility.
Jerry Friedman
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mentioning that Brian Boyd commented on McDiarmid in his
notes to the Library of America edition of PF (p. 893).
He quoted a note that Nabokov made comparing M'Diarmid
and Swift's letters to Stella (hm) with "the worst parts
of James Joyce", and quoting McDiarmid's "incremental
exorbitance" and "antecendently token of the venitseason".
So if Fittis's book (which is now on line at
<http://www.archive.org/details/sportspastimesof00fittrich>)
was Nabokov's source, Nabokov must have found McDiarmid's
original or conceivably something else that quoted it.
But in that case, a simpler possibility is that he found
the book in Southey's letters. Southey mentioned
it in two letters in addition to the one cited by
Dieter Zimmer (links at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striking_and_Picturesque_Delineations>)
and Nabokov knew Southey's letters well enough to know
about the roasted rat and the Lingo-Grande, so he could
have found McDiarmid there and then tracked down the
original. (The only phrase I've found that Southey
quoted is "incoherent transactions", the one Nabokov
quoted in /Pale Fire/.)
Not to say that the simplest possibility is necessarily
what happened, but it seems at least as likely as a
more complicated possibility.
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/