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Re: Hazel's unattractiveness; deaths in VN
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Re: [NABOKV-L] Hazel's unattractiveness; deaths in VNWrote A. Brown: "Isn't the Shades' passion referred to a number of times in the poem ... a stanza mentioning how their mattress indicates how many times they have been conjoined there? Doesn't Shade...describe his earliest love for Sybil... refer to her lovingly as they grow older...how he lovingly observes her even as they prepare for a trip and she zips ...Many children, today at least, are born after a long period of "sterility.".. something about that term strikes me as inaccurate)...So I guess I would have to say that the Pale Fire poem does have traces of eroticism, or sensuality. ..I agree that "a writer's grief" in the context in which it occurs is a dead giveaway to Shade's true self-centered nature. Wasn't Frost kind of like this?"
"four thousand times your pillow has been creased/ By our two heads"...
Pillow, not mattress. But I concede the point: if they had kept separate rooms, the mention to "your pillow" suggests, in fact, his visits to Sybil's bed.
The poem describes past passion with nostalgia and, in the present, a loving tenderness at most.
I find it hard to imagine mother and lover, flesh and blood, spirit and body Sybil taking shape in the poem.
When I wrote about "sterility" I didn't refer to any genetic incapacity to procreate, but to a possible avoidance of fertilizing conjunctions. The context was provided by a discussion about Darwin's evolutionary theories and this is why I wanted to stress that Shade was not an Appolo himself.
Wrote A. Brown: Hazel's activities in the barn may have been childish, but no more childish, and perhaps less so, than the activities of a large number of adult spiritualists, many of them serious and sober individuals who had strong thoughts on the subject. To return to the point, although Hazel's actions or activities may have been naïve, I don't think they were childish....I, too, reject the beautiful ghost that metamorphoses into a butterfly. Too simple.
Dear Andrew, I don't think that a discussion about religious creeds and spiritualism would fit into the scope of our VN-List, but I didn't want to imply that there are no serious and mature individuals who are spiritualists. The faith in the life of the spirit is not restricted to spiritualistic table-rappings, though, neither to spiritualism proper. Besides, Hazel still looks to me as a problematic, resentful and mentally unbalanced young woman.
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"four thousand times your pillow has been creased/ By our two heads"...
Pillow, not mattress. But I concede the point: if they had kept separate rooms, the mention to "your pillow" suggests, in fact, his visits to Sybil's bed.
The poem describes past passion with nostalgia and, in the present, a loving tenderness at most.
I find it hard to imagine mother and lover, flesh and blood, spirit and body Sybil taking shape in the poem.
When I wrote about "sterility" I didn't refer to any genetic incapacity to procreate, but to a possible avoidance of fertilizing conjunctions. The context was provided by a discussion about Darwin's evolutionary theories and this is why I wanted to stress that Shade was not an Appolo himself.
Wrote A. Brown: Hazel's activities in the barn may have been childish, but no more childish, and perhaps less so, than the activities of a large number of adult spiritualists, many of them serious and sober individuals who had strong thoughts on the subject. To return to the point, although Hazel's actions or activities may have been naïve, I don't think they were childish....I, too, reject the beautiful ghost that metamorphoses into a butterfly. Too simple.
Dear Andrew, I don't think that a discussion about religious creeds and spiritualism would fit into the scope of our VN-List, but I didn't want to imply that there are no serious and mature individuals who are spiritualists. The faith in the life of the spirit is not restricted to spiritualistic table-rappings, though, neither to spiritualism proper. Besides, Hazel still looks to me as a problematic, resentful and mentally unbalanced young woman.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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