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Re: SIGNS: First paragraph & the next...
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SES: Hello everyone,We've received huzzahs and thanks for the suggestion to engage in a group discussion of the story, so start your engines if you haven't already. Questions, annotations, and speculations about the probable reason for anything that appears in the first paragraph are welcome. Hurry up . . . tomorrow we'll move on to the second paragraph!
First paragraph:
(a) "For the fourth time in as many years..." Only four times did these parents have trouble to choose a birthday present for their incurably deranged son who had no desires and lived in an abstract world?
(b) "Man-made objects were to him either hives of evil[...] or gross comforts[...]his parents chose a dainty and innocent trifle: a basket with ten different fruit jellies in ten little jars" (later we learn that the jellies were inside colored jars with "eloquent" labels and five of the different jellied fruits were: apricot, grape, beech plum, quince, crab apple... The jars reflected "luminous yellow, green, red" ... like traffic lights?)
Why were these somehow extraordinary man-made basket, jars and jellies acceptable as gifts?
Second paragraph:
(a) "She wore cheap, black dresses. Unlike other women of her age( such as Mrs. Sol,...)she presented a naked white countenance to the fault-finding light of spring days.[...] her husband...was now wholly dependent on his brother Isaac, a real American of almost forty years standing..."
Although the couple was "quite old" only "a score of years had elapsed" since their boy was born, perhaps in Leipzig or in Berlin, perhaps Minsk. The three fled Nazi Europe when he was ten. His uncle Isaac, nicknamed "the Prince" was already "a real" American for forty years.
Ten other characters: Mrs. Sol, Aunt Rosa, the maid Elsa and her "bestial" fiancé , Rebecca Borisovna, the Soloveichiks, Herman Brink, Dr.Solov, a girl, Charlie...make a quick appearance like the ten little jars...
And...?????
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First paragraph:
(a) "For the fourth time in as many years..." Only four times did these parents have trouble to choose a birthday present for their incurably deranged son who had no desires and lived in an abstract world?
(b) "Man-made objects were to him either hives of evil[...] or gross comforts[...]his parents chose a dainty and innocent trifle: a basket with ten different fruit jellies in ten little jars" (later we learn that the jellies were inside colored jars with "eloquent" labels and five of the different jellied fruits were: apricot, grape, beech plum, quince, crab apple... The jars reflected "luminous yellow, green, red" ... like traffic lights?)
Why were these somehow extraordinary man-made basket, jars and jellies acceptable as gifts?
Second paragraph:
(a) "She wore cheap, black dresses. Unlike other women of her age( such as Mrs. Sol,...)she presented a naked white countenance to the fault-finding light of spring days.[...] her husband...was now wholly dependent on his brother Isaac, a real American of almost forty years standing..."
Although the couple was "quite old" only "a score of years had elapsed" since their boy was born, perhaps in Leipzig or in Berlin, perhaps Minsk. The three fled Nazi Europe when he was ten. His uncle Isaac, nicknamed "the Prince" was already "a real" American for forty years.
Ten other characters: Mrs. Sol, Aunt Rosa, the maid Elsa and her "bestial" fiancé , Rebecca Borisovna, the Soloveichiks, Herman Brink, Dr.Solov, a girl, Charlie...make a quick appearance like the ten little jars...
And...?????
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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