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Re: PF Index and Doppelgänger
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Priscilla Meyer's own comments in her book "Find What the Sailor Has Hidden: Vladimir Nabokov's 'Pale Fire' must not be forgotten. A quick extract on the crown jewels and index issue ( page 105):
..."the search for the Zemblan crown jewels...has its referent in the history of the reign of Charles II: in 1671 the notorius Colonel Blood plotted to steal the crown and regalia from the Tower of London"... "Hunting the crown jewels in Pale Fire, we are sent on a merru chase through three index references that form a closed and em´ty circle, a zero..."
"After the Semblan revolution, the new administration engages two Soviet experts to find the crown jewels...In Speak, Memory Nabokov describes a similar scene that took place at his parents' house after the Russian Revolution..."
"The index to Speak,Memory leads us not to a closed circle, but to a spiral that opens outwards: from Jewels we are sent to Stained Glass, thence to Pavilion. "Etymnologically," Nabokov writes, " 'pavilion' and 'papilio' ( butterfly) are closely related (p.216). There was an actual wooden pavilion on the Vyra estate, and that is where Nabokov's 'first poem began'...The image of the pavilion concentrates Nabokov's love of butteflies, rainbows, the light of the sun filetered through colored glass, and the creation of literary art."
Concerning Doppelgänger motifs and Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Priscilla Meyer observes ( op.cit, page 25)
"Nabokov has puzzled critics by reviling the concept of Doppelgänger while making extensive use of it.But his reasons are clear: he calls the allegory of the struggle between Good and Evil in Stevenson's 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde' "tasteless, childish, a superb Punch and Judy show", hence he has Humberto call Quilty 'Punch (p.298) in the duel scene at Pavor Manor and Humbert call himself Mr.Hyde (p.208). Humbert's Quilty parodies the allegory's simplistic division of two undefinable qualitities that is traditionally motifvated psychologically - Quilty being the projection of Humbert's guilt..."
Jansy Mello
----- Original Message -----
From: Priscilla Meyer
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] PF Index
Yes. And we should add that Maria Malikova has an excellent article in PRO ET CONTRA I, pp. 741-782 ("'Pervoe stikhotvorenie' V. Nabokova: perevod i kommentarii") discussing in detail how both the jewels-pavilion-stained-glass index circle and chapter 11 of Speak, Memory are absent in Conclusive Evidence and Drugie berega.
Priscilla
On Oct 1, 2006, at 1:17 PM, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
Anent the exchange re the role of VN's indexes, I immpdestly call attention to my discussion of the topic in both SM & PF in my 1985 Worlds in Regression Nabokov study. D. Barton Johnson
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...mais pourquoi tous vos livres me donnent-ils cette impression 'fâcheuse' d'être une mauvaise traduction du flamand?
--letter of Jean Paulhan to Jacques Sternberg
Priscilla Meyer
Russian Department
212 Fisk Hall
Wesleyan University
Middletown CT 06459
(860) 685-3127 (work)
(860) 347-0059 (home)
http://pmeyer.web.wesleyan.edu
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
..."the search for the Zemblan crown jewels...has its referent in the history of the reign of Charles II: in 1671 the notorius Colonel Blood plotted to steal the crown and regalia from the Tower of London"... "Hunting the crown jewels in Pale Fire, we are sent on a merru chase through three index references that form a closed and em´ty circle, a zero..."
"After the Semblan revolution, the new administration engages two Soviet experts to find the crown jewels...In Speak, Memory Nabokov describes a similar scene that took place at his parents' house after the Russian Revolution..."
"The index to Speak,Memory leads us not to a closed circle, but to a spiral that opens outwards: from Jewels we are sent to Stained Glass, thence to Pavilion. "Etymnologically," Nabokov writes, " 'pavilion' and 'papilio' ( butterfly) are closely related (p.216). There was an actual wooden pavilion on the Vyra estate, and that is where Nabokov's 'first poem began'...The image of the pavilion concentrates Nabokov's love of butteflies, rainbows, the light of the sun filetered through colored glass, and the creation of literary art."
Concerning Doppelgänger motifs and Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Priscilla Meyer observes ( op.cit, page 25)
"Nabokov has puzzled critics by reviling the concept of Doppelgänger while making extensive use of it.But his reasons are clear: he calls the allegory of the struggle between Good and Evil in Stevenson's 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde' "tasteless, childish, a superb Punch and Judy show", hence he has Humberto call Quilty 'Punch (p.298) in the duel scene at Pavor Manor and Humbert call himself Mr.Hyde (p.208). Humbert's Quilty parodies the allegory's simplistic division of two undefinable qualitities that is traditionally motifvated psychologically - Quilty being the projection of Humbert's guilt..."
Jansy Mello
----- Original Message -----
From: Priscilla Meyer
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] PF Index
Yes. And we should add that Maria Malikova has an excellent article in PRO ET CONTRA I, pp. 741-782 ("'Pervoe stikhotvorenie' V. Nabokova: perevod i kommentarii") discussing in detail how both the jewels-pavilion-stained-glass index circle and chapter 11 of Speak, Memory are absent in Conclusive Evidence and Drugie berega.
Priscilla
On Oct 1, 2006, at 1:17 PM, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
Anent the exchange re the role of VN's indexes, I immpdestly call attention to my discussion of the topic in both SM & PF in my 1985 Worlds in Regression Nabokov study. D. Barton Johnson
Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB
Contact the Editors
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Visit Zembla
View Nabokv-L Policies
...mais pourquoi tous vos livres me donnent-ils cette impression 'fâcheuse' d'être une mauvaise traduction du flamand?
--letter of Jean Paulhan to Jacques Sternberg
Priscilla Meyer
Russian Department
212 Fisk Hall
Wesleyan University
Middletown CT 06459
(860) 685-3127 (work)
(860) 347-0059 (home)
http://pmeyer.web.wesleyan.edu
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