Subject
THOUGHTS: Stillicide in PF
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Date
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>Dear Matt,
> If memory serves VN cites Meyers in "The Vane Sisters." I
>discuss this somewhere but not sure where. Maybe it will come to me.
>
>Best, Don (Johnson)
Dear Don,
I actually mentioned "The Vane Sisters" in my original post, but I would be
happy to know where you've written about it.
A few added notes about stillicide and RLS. The quote from RLS was quite
well-known in, and a bit after, its day. It was collected into at least
one composition textbook, and it was often quoted by other authors. A quick
look at JStor reveals that several experts on Roman law have used the quote
to lament that RLS seems to have known more about Roman law than many
graduates of law school. So VN could very well have run into the quote
second-hand.
VN seems to have done some extensive research into Roman law, especially as
it relates to property. In the Goldsworth note (C47-48) Kinbote complains
of an atmosphere of "damnum infectum" brought on by Mr. G's notes about how
to rearrange the furniture. Damnum infectum, also from Roman law, is
a 'denunciation of new work,' specifically related to the fear that a
neighbor's new construction would damage or devalue the complainant's own
land or person. It is similar, then, to the right of stillicide, in that
it relates to the way one person's property affects neighboring property.
One more hint re: the relationship of stillicide to Goldsworth's house. In
the same section as above, K. laments that he "never could emulate in sheer
luck the eavesdropping" of characters in Lermontov and Proust. Here, then,
K. portrays himself as a stillicide on/in Goldsworth's house. But he also
reveals that he is the one whose eaves drop; thus, it is his property that
is transgressive and Shade's property that is affected.
Matt Roth
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> If memory serves VN cites Meyers in "The Vane Sisters." I
>discuss this somewhere but not sure where. Maybe it will come to me.
>
>Best, Don (Johnson)
Dear Don,
I actually mentioned "The Vane Sisters" in my original post, but I would be
happy to know where you've written about it.
A few added notes about stillicide and RLS. The quote from RLS was quite
well-known in, and a bit after, its day. It was collected into at least
one composition textbook, and it was often quoted by other authors. A quick
look at JStor reveals that several experts on Roman law have used the quote
to lament that RLS seems to have known more about Roman law than many
graduates of law school. So VN could very well have run into the quote
second-hand.
VN seems to have done some extensive research into Roman law, especially as
it relates to property. In the Goldsworth note (C47-48) Kinbote complains
of an atmosphere of "damnum infectum" brought on by Mr. G's notes about how
to rearrange the furniture. Damnum infectum, also from Roman law, is
a 'denunciation of new work,' specifically related to the fear that a
neighbor's new construction would damage or devalue the complainant's own
land or person. It is similar, then, to the right of stillicide, in that
it relates to the way one person's property affects neighboring property.
One more hint re: the relationship of stillicide to Goldsworth's house. In
the same section as above, K. laments that he "never could emulate in sheer
luck the eavesdropping" of characters in Lermontov and Proust. Here, then,
K. portrays himself as a stillicide on/in Goldsworth's house. But he also
reveals that he is the one whose eaves drop; thus, it is his property that
is transgressive and Shade's property that is affected.
Matt Roth
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