Subject
Fwd: Re: the mulberry bush,and perhaps the walrus (Lucette &
posthumous frenzy?)
posthumous frenzy?)
From
Date
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Another small clarification of Ada's snorting "mulberry tree" when she sees
a princely paulownia on rue du M^urier:
In French M^urier means blackberry or mulberry bush. That is why the street
is "absurdly misnamed."
Alexander Dolinin
MAt 09:14 AM 2/20/05 -0800, you wrote:
>From: Earl Sampson
>
>Just a small clarification, which does not, and is not intended to, detract in
>any way from Eric's suggestive commentary, nor from any of the other
>fascinating postings on the mulberry theme: the tree here is not a mulberry,
>but a completely different tree, the paulownia - hence "absurdly misnamed" and
>Ada's contemptuous snort. See my note "The Tree With the Heart-Shaped
>Leaves in
>_Pnin_" in The Nabokovian No. 31. The point for the present discussion, of
>course, is that Nabokov deliberately introduces the mulberry theme, though
>there is no actual mulberry tree present, very likely for the reasons
>suggested
>by Eric.
>
>"Donald B. Johnson" wrote:
>
> > ----- Forwarded message from naiman@socrates.berkeley.edu -----
> > Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 17:19:54 -0800
> > From: Eric Naiman <naiman@socrates.berkeley.edu>
> > >From Eric Naiman:
> >
> > In light of the earlier discussion of the mulberry soap, it is worth
> > noticing its last usage in the novel:
> >
> > A boxwood-lined path, presided over by a nostalgic-looking sempervirent
> > sequoia (which American visitors mistook for a "Lebanese cedar"-if they
> > remarked it at all) took them to the absurdly misnamed rue du Mûrier, where
> > a princely paulownia ("mulberry tree!" snorted Ada), standing in state on
> > its incongruous terrace above a public W.C., was shedding generously its
> > heart-shaped dark green leaves, but retained enough foliage to cast
> > arabesques of shadow onto the south side of its trunk.
> >
> > We should definitely read this passage in keeping with Brian Boyd's reading
> > of III.8 -- to note the presence of Lucette that seems to be ignored by the
> > adulterous lovers. He points to the grebes with crests seen a few pages
> > later as evidence of Lucette's continued existence in the text. This
> > passage, with its reference to the mulberry and the W.C. seems to refer to
> > that earlier bathing passage, and we should note the generous leaf-dropping
> > that Boyd sees as a Lucette marker elsewhere in the book. Note, too, that
> > Lucette -- or Van? -- gives this passage a shimmer of indecency evident
> > once we see the reference to the earlier passage. (boxwood-lined path,
> > l-eban-ese cedar, the mulberry "standing in state" (as was the soap -- see
> > also the bawdy Malrow passage on 377 where Van is cursing "the condition
> > in which the image of the four embers of a vixen's cross had not solidly
> > put him": "One of the synonyms of "condition" is "state," and the
> > adjective "human" may be construed as "manly" etc.
> >
> > I wonder about passages like this whether they might not show that Lucette
> > has been unable to overcome her Ophelian frenzy in death. If she is
> > responsible for that phallic walrus -- as Boyd suggested in his recent post
> > -- and she is still obsessed with mulberries standing in state, is her
> > generous "blessing" of Van and Ada's reunin at Mon Trou as comforting an
> > ending as it might once have seemed. Or might her "blessing" of Van and
> > Ada's reunion be even more disturbing -- is she not ever-present, a kind of
> > necessary third, observing the lovers just as she did earlier as a child.
> > If we accept the notion that Lucette's ghost -- or else -- going back to
> > what Van tells the dying Phillip -- pieces of Lucette -- bless or haunt the
> > period after her death (including the writing of the entire manuscript)
> > don't we have to see the novel as stating emphatically that yes, there is
> > lust after death, a kind of disembodied existence where we will only have
> > words to play with and will suffer the hell(?) of being continually
> aroused?
> >
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
> > EDNOTE: From the ever fertile mind of Eric Naiman. Malrow (Malraux) indeed!
>The
> > mulberry tie-in is intriguing and merits investigation. Cf. those ginko
>leaves.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >From Eric Naiman:
> >
> > In light of the earlier discussion of the mulberry soap, it is worth
> noticing
>its last usage in the novel:
> >
> > A boxwood-lined path, presided over by a nostalgic-looking sempervirent
>sequoia (which American visitors mistook for a "Lebanese cedar"-if they
>remarked it at all) took them to the absurdly misnamed rue du Mûrier, where a
>princely paulownia ("mulberry tree!" snorted Ada), standing in state on its
>incongruous terrace above a public W.C., was shedding generously its
>heart-shaped dark green leaves, but retained enough foliage to cast arabesques
>of shadow onto the south side of its trunk.
> >
> > We should definitely read this passage in keeping with Brian Boyd's
> reading of
>III.8 -- to note the presence of Lucette that seems to be ignored by the
>adulterous lovers. He points to the grebes with crests seen a few pages later
>as evidence of Lucette's continued existence in the text. This passage, with
>its reference to the mulberry and the W.C. seems to refer to that earlier
>bathing passage, and we should note the generous leaf-dropping that Boyd sees
>as a Lucette marker elsewhere in the book. Note, too, that Lucette -- or Van?
>-- gives this passage a shimmer of indecency evident once we see the reference
>to the earlier passage. (boxwood-lined path, l-eban-ese cedar, the mulberry
>"standing in state" (as was the soap -- see also the bawdy Malrow passage on
>377 where Van is cursing "the condition in which the image of the four embers
>of a vixen's cross had not solidly put him": "One of the synonyms of
>"condition" is "state," and the adjective "human" may be construed as "!
> manly" etc.
> >
> > I wonder about passages like this whether they might not show that
> Lucette has
>been unable to overcome her Ophelian frenzy in death. If she is
>responsible for
>that phallic walrus -- as Boyd suggested in his recent post -- and she is
>still
>obsessed with mulberries standing in state, is her generous "blessing" of Van
>and Ada's reunin at Mon Trou as comforting an ending as it might once have
>seemed. Or might her "blessing" of Van and Ada's reunion be even more
>disturbing -- is she not ever-present, a kind of necessary third,
>observing the
>lovers just as she did earlier as a child. If we accept the notion that
>Lucette's ghost -- or else -- going back to what Van tells the dying
>Phillip --
>pieces of Lucette -- bless or haunt the period after her death (including the
>writing of the entire manuscript) don't we have to see the novel as stating
>emphatically that yes, there is lust after death, a kind of disembodied
>existence where we will only have words to play with and will suffe!
> r the
> > hell(?) of being continually aroused?
>
>----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
a princely paulownia on rue du M^urier:
In French M^urier means blackberry or mulberry bush. That is why the street
is "absurdly misnamed."
Alexander Dolinin
MAt 09:14 AM 2/20/05 -0800, you wrote:
>From: Earl Sampson
>
>Just a small clarification, which does not, and is not intended to, detract in
>any way from Eric's suggestive commentary, nor from any of the other
>fascinating postings on the mulberry theme: the tree here is not a mulberry,
>but a completely different tree, the paulownia - hence "absurdly misnamed" and
>Ada's contemptuous snort. See my note "The Tree With the Heart-Shaped
>Leaves in
>_Pnin_" in The Nabokovian No. 31. The point for the present discussion, of
>course, is that Nabokov deliberately introduces the mulberry theme, though
>there is no actual mulberry tree present, very likely for the reasons
>suggested
>by Eric.
>
>"Donald B. Johnson" wrote:
>
> > ----- Forwarded message from naiman@socrates.berkeley.edu -----
> > Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 17:19:54 -0800
> > From: Eric Naiman <naiman@socrates.berkeley.edu>
> > >From Eric Naiman:
> >
> > In light of the earlier discussion of the mulberry soap, it is worth
> > noticing its last usage in the novel:
> >
> > A boxwood-lined path, presided over by a nostalgic-looking sempervirent
> > sequoia (which American visitors mistook for a "Lebanese cedar"-if they
> > remarked it at all) took them to the absurdly misnamed rue du Mûrier, where
> > a princely paulownia ("mulberry tree!" snorted Ada), standing in state on
> > its incongruous terrace above a public W.C., was shedding generously its
> > heart-shaped dark green leaves, but retained enough foliage to cast
> > arabesques of shadow onto the south side of its trunk.
> >
> > We should definitely read this passage in keeping with Brian Boyd's reading
> > of III.8 -- to note the presence of Lucette that seems to be ignored by the
> > adulterous lovers. He points to the grebes with crests seen a few pages
> > later as evidence of Lucette's continued existence in the text. This
> > passage, with its reference to the mulberry and the W.C. seems to refer to
> > that earlier bathing passage, and we should note the generous leaf-dropping
> > that Boyd sees as a Lucette marker elsewhere in the book. Note, too, that
> > Lucette -- or Van? -- gives this passage a shimmer of indecency evident
> > once we see the reference to the earlier passage. (boxwood-lined path,
> > l-eban-ese cedar, the mulberry "standing in state" (as was the soap -- see
> > also the bawdy Malrow passage on 377 where Van is cursing "the condition
> > in which the image of the four embers of a vixen's cross had not solidly
> > put him": "One of the synonyms of "condition" is "state," and the
> > adjective "human" may be construed as "manly" etc.
> >
> > I wonder about passages like this whether they might not show that Lucette
> > has been unable to overcome her Ophelian frenzy in death. If she is
> > responsible for that phallic walrus -- as Boyd suggested in his recent post
> > -- and she is still obsessed with mulberries standing in state, is her
> > generous "blessing" of Van and Ada's reunin at Mon Trou as comforting an
> > ending as it might once have seemed. Or might her "blessing" of Van and
> > Ada's reunion be even more disturbing -- is she not ever-present, a kind of
> > necessary third, observing the lovers just as she did earlier as a child.
> > If we accept the notion that Lucette's ghost -- or else -- going back to
> > what Van tells the dying Phillip -- pieces of Lucette -- bless or haunt the
> > period after her death (including the writing of the entire manuscript)
> > don't we have to see the novel as stating emphatically that yes, there is
> > lust after death, a kind of disembodied existence where we will only have
> > words to play with and will suffer the hell(?) of being continually
> aroused?
> >
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
> > EDNOTE: From the ever fertile mind of Eric Naiman. Malrow (Malraux) indeed!
>The
> > mulberry tie-in is intriguing and merits investigation. Cf. those ginko
>leaves.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >From Eric Naiman:
> >
> > In light of the earlier discussion of the mulberry soap, it is worth
> noticing
>its last usage in the novel:
> >
> > A boxwood-lined path, presided over by a nostalgic-looking sempervirent
>sequoia (which American visitors mistook for a "Lebanese cedar"-if they
>remarked it at all) took them to the absurdly misnamed rue du Mûrier, where a
>princely paulownia ("mulberry tree!" snorted Ada), standing in state on its
>incongruous terrace above a public W.C., was shedding generously its
>heart-shaped dark green leaves, but retained enough foliage to cast arabesques
>of shadow onto the south side of its trunk.
> >
> > We should definitely read this passage in keeping with Brian Boyd's
> reading of
>III.8 -- to note the presence of Lucette that seems to be ignored by the
>adulterous lovers. He points to the grebes with crests seen a few pages later
>as evidence of Lucette's continued existence in the text. This passage, with
>its reference to the mulberry and the W.C. seems to refer to that earlier
>bathing passage, and we should note the generous leaf-dropping that Boyd sees
>as a Lucette marker elsewhere in the book. Note, too, that Lucette -- or Van?
>-- gives this passage a shimmer of indecency evident once we see the reference
>to the earlier passage. (boxwood-lined path, l-eban-ese cedar, the mulberry
>"standing in state" (as was the soap -- see also the bawdy Malrow passage on
>377 where Van is cursing "the condition in which the image of the four embers
>of a vixen's cross had not solidly put him": "One of the synonyms of
>"condition" is "state," and the adjective "human" may be construed as "!
> manly" etc.
> >
> > I wonder about passages like this whether they might not show that
> Lucette has
>been unable to overcome her Ophelian frenzy in death. If she is
>responsible for
>that phallic walrus -- as Boyd suggested in his recent post -- and she is
>still
>obsessed with mulberries standing in state, is her generous "blessing" of Van
>and Ada's reunin at Mon Trou as comforting an ending as it might once have
>seemed. Or might her "blessing" of Van and Ada's reunion be even more
>disturbing -- is she not ever-present, a kind of necessary third,
>observing the
>lovers just as she did earlier as a child. If we accept the notion that
>Lucette's ghost -- or else -- going back to what Van tells the dying
>Phillip --
>pieces of Lucette -- bless or haunt the period after her death (including the
>writing of the entire manuscript) don't we have to see the novel as stating
>emphatically that yes, there is lust after death, a kind of disembodied
>existence where we will only have words to play with and will suffe!
> r the
> > hell(?) of being continually aroused?
>
>----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----