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Re: Sutton
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Matthew Roth wrote to JM: I have several times tried to piece together this Sutton information, which you have nicely delineated. I also agree with JF that the names are likely Sutcliff and Clifton. But I'm puzzled by your conclusion here:"I conclude the other is a psychiatrist, called in to help Hazel and never mentioned by Shade." Kinbote says in 230 that because the Shade's disliked "modern voodoo-psychiatry" they "could not do much about" the situation. This suggests to me that John & Sybil did not consult a psychiatrist at all; therefore, psychiatry could not have been Dr. Sutton's field. Or are you saying that because Sutton was "old-fashioned," he may not have been a "modern, voodoo" psychiatrist but instead a more reliable sort?
JM: I'm not familiar with the names Sutcliff and Clifton, probably world famous American doctors whom VN expects his readers to know about. Kinbote, who introduces two medical doctors under an assumed "Sutton portmanteau", could be misleading the reader. Shade's neighbor might have been any kind of "doctor". My more prosaic search landed me in a book published in the early nineteen-twenties, by Gerald Massey ( Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World), who wrote about old creation tales, the fall and paradise. According to him "Tai Hao corresponds to Sut, the inventor of astronomy and ruler of the first pole-star...These are the seven in the constellation of the Lesser Bear who follow the bier or coffin of their lord, Osiris, in the Greater Bear." I had been astronomically wondering about the name Sutton ( and a daughter called Mrs. Starr) mainly because of the references in the poem that associate Sutton's windows, night and special stars.
Taking Kinbote by his word I noticed that a medical Dr. Sutton was consulted "in secret" by a desperate parent. This is why I imagined him to be the old kind of "know-all psychiatrist." And yet, like Dr. Colt, he might have been a local general practitioner with "wise opinions".
The other doctor Shade himself mentions, almost angrily, is Dr.Colt (a depreciative name): And though old doctor Colt pronounced me cured/ Of what, he said, were mainly growing pains,/ The wonder lingers and the shame remains.His son might be the Colt that visits Shade on his birthday party ( if we can trust Kinbote, that is): CK: "Oh, I saw them all. I saw ancient Dr. Sutton... with his tall daughter, Mrs. Starr, a war widow. I saw a couple, later identified for me as Mr. Colt, a local lawyer, and his wife, whose blundering Cadillac half entered my driveway before retreating in a flurry of luminous nictitation. / / CK ask Sybil and quotes her words: how did the party go? ... people whom you've known all your life and simply must invite once a year, men like Ben Kaplun and Dick Colt with whom we went to school, and that Washington cousin..."
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JM: I'm not familiar with the names Sutcliff and Clifton, probably world famous American doctors whom VN expects his readers to know about. Kinbote, who introduces two medical doctors under an assumed "Sutton portmanteau", could be misleading the reader. Shade's neighbor might have been any kind of "doctor". My more prosaic search landed me in a book published in the early nineteen-twenties, by Gerald Massey ( Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World), who wrote about old creation tales, the fall and paradise. According to him "Tai Hao corresponds to Sut, the inventor of astronomy and ruler of the first pole-star...These are the seven in the constellation of the Lesser Bear who follow the bier or coffin of their lord, Osiris, in the Greater Bear." I had been astronomically wondering about the name Sutton ( and a daughter called Mrs. Starr) mainly because of the references in the poem that associate Sutton's windows, night and special stars.
Taking Kinbote by his word I noticed that a medical Dr. Sutton was consulted "in secret" by a desperate parent. This is why I imagined him to be the old kind of "know-all psychiatrist." And yet, like Dr. Colt, he might have been a local general practitioner with "wise opinions".
The other doctor Shade himself mentions, almost angrily, is Dr.Colt (a depreciative name): And though old doctor Colt pronounced me cured/ Of what, he said, were mainly growing pains,/ The wonder lingers and the shame remains.His son might be the Colt that visits Shade on his birthday party ( if we can trust Kinbote, that is): CK: "Oh, I saw them all. I saw ancient Dr. Sutton... with his tall daughter, Mrs. Starr, a war widow. I saw a couple, later identified for me as Mr. Colt, a local lawyer, and his wife, whose blundering Cadillac half entered my driveway before retreating in a flurry of luminous nictitation. / / CK ask Sybil and quotes her words: how did the party go? ... people whom you've known all your life and simply must invite once a year, men like Ben Kaplun and Dick Colt with whom we went to school, and that Washington cousin..."
:
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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