Subject
Conjuring nebulae (responses to MR's query)
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Dear Matt,
> 2. In lines 615-616, Shade is describing "the exile, the old man /
Dying
> in
> a motel" and says: "He suffocates and conjures in two tongues / The
> nebulae
> dilating in his lungs." My questions: Does "two tongues" refer to
> languages? Medically speaking, what are nebulae and how do they dilate
> in
> the lungs? What does it mean to "conjure" them?
My feeling (only feeling) is that "two tongues" are indeed referring
to languages, and that "nebulae" is an astronomic term, not
medical: cosmic nebulae do dilate often, and they "dilate in the lungs"
because he is dying - his "here and now" disappears, it is mixing with
cosmos. (I remember a story from Indian epos - when Krishna
opened his mouth, somebody has seen the sky and stars in it.)
Best,
Sergei
-----------------------
An off-the-Nabocuff reply for Matthew Roth from DN:
I can say with almost total certainty that
1)"conjures" is used here in the older, rare sense of "to curse" (cf.
the Italian "scongiurare" -- to curse something away).
2)"nebulae" is not a medical term (except in ophthalmology and urology),
but, in this case, a metaphor. The mucus in his lungs that he curses is
likened to the gas-and-dust detritus in space, sometimes visible via
reflection to the naked eye.
DN
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> 2. In lines 615-616, Shade is describing "the exile, the old man /
Dying
> in
> a motel" and says: "He suffocates and conjures in two tongues / The
> nebulae
> dilating in his lungs." My questions: Does "two tongues" refer to
> languages? Medically speaking, what are nebulae and how do they dilate
> in
> the lungs? What does it mean to "conjure" them?
My feeling (only feeling) is that "two tongues" are indeed referring
to languages, and that "nebulae" is an astronomic term, not
medical: cosmic nebulae do dilate often, and they "dilate in the lungs"
because he is dying - his "here and now" disappears, it is mixing with
cosmos. (I remember a story from Indian epos - when Krishna
opened his mouth, somebody has seen the sky and stars in it.)
Best,
Sergei
-----------------------
An off-the-Nabocuff reply for Matthew Roth from DN:
I can say with almost total certainty that
1)"conjures" is used here in the older, rare sense of "to curse" (cf.
the Italian "scongiurare" -- to curse something away).
2)"nebulae" is not a medical term (except in ophthalmology and urology),
but, in this case, a metaphor. The mucus in his lungs that he curses is
likened to the gas-and-dust detritus in space, sometimes visible via
reflection to the naked eye.
DN
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