Subject
Re: Fw: Burnberries: Ardis/Burn & Bear/Russia
From
Date
Body
Dear AA
Thank you for bringing up the "morula". I learned this word in biology class
a long long time ago and I thought about it ( and a "morula" becomes a
"blastula"...) but almost repressed it.
There are so many contrasting stimuli when I read VN that most of the time I
try to deny or expel them along with Aqua´s ghost.
You connected the embryologic "morula" to "just after the protagonists made
love several hours" ( and there are indeed references to a lost "condom"
floating in the river). It was a new association for me since I had only
been thinking of Aqua´s abortion in relation to the morula. And yet I tried
to find the chapter you mentioned and only found a connection to the
"burnberry bushes"!
"While the rustic feast was being prepared and distributed among the sun
gouts of the traditional pine glade, the wild girl and her lover slipped
away for a few moments of ravenous ardor in a ferny ravine where a rill
dipped from ledge to ledge between tall burnberry bushes. The day was hot
and breathless. The smallest pine had its cicada".
I understood that B.Boyd connected the burnberry bush not to the mulberry
bush but to another berry ( "bogberry" ) - but I haven´t yet read his
annotations.
The lovely association of murmuring water and "lapping" that came from
one of VN´s poems was offered to us by Aboukassa and it produced a marvelous
new "feel" to Aqua´s Russian dreamlike speech.
Why don´t we bring up more VN´s poems in our list to work with them?
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Burnberries: Ardis/Burn & Bear/Russia
Dear Jansy and List,
I risk to be out of the topic (I've not reread this novel since a long
time), but, your posting concerning latin roots of Ardis/ardere,(ardre,
ardis in French) make me think another PLAUSIBLE "latin connection" with
the mulberry theme : the latin word MORULA is a scientific word that VN,
as a scientist, probably knew. Well known in IVF, in vitro fertilization,
(I 've found this word in an old dictionnary - 1949-), I was wondering
whether or not this connection is relevant. The mulberry appears, if
memory is correct, in the end of Ada just after the protagonists made
love several hours.
One can find photos of the morula state of embryon on the web using
Google.But I confess this posting is also a query:
So, "only a mulberry" or another latin connection... ???? I look forward
to reading comments from Ada's specialists of the List.
Hoping my charabia readable, my apologies if unclear.
Amitiés,
AA
-----Original Message-----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 10:03:58 -0800
Subject: Fw: Burnberries: Ardis/Burn & Bear/Russia
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
> To: don barton johnson
> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 8:54 PM
> Subject: Burnberries: Ardis/Burn & Bear/Russia
>
>
> Dear Don and List,
>
> I don´t know if these links that take us from "Burnberries" to
> "Russia/Ardis" are too far-fetched, but I´ll risk it.
>
> In Ada, ch.41 we find Trofim exclaiming " Barin, a Barin " and our
> narrator pointedly translates "Barin" as "master" ( while at the same
> time making a quick reference to Blanche and to Lucette, together with
> a warning about disaster and horror caused by what might "seep
> through" leather or woolies).
>
> In German, Bärin, means bear, the female bear ( and bears, Urs are also
> connected to Lucette and, of course, to Rus/ Russia ).
> The German word for berries ( "yagodami" ) is " Beeren" and that could
> help us to associate Bear/Bärin/Beeren/Berries.
>
> Van writes one single line of poetry: " Ada, our ardors and arbors"
> and, of course, we remember "Ardelia" and "Ardis". Now, to burn, in
> latin, is "ardere"...
>
> Greetings,
> Jansy
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
Thank you for bringing up the "morula". I learned this word in biology class
a long long time ago and I thought about it ( and a "morula" becomes a
"blastula"...) but almost repressed it.
There are so many contrasting stimuli when I read VN that most of the time I
try to deny or expel them along with Aqua´s ghost.
You connected the embryologic "morula" to "just after the protagonists made
love several hours" ( and there are indeed references to a lost "condom"
floating in the river). It was a new association for me since I had only
been thinking of Aqua´s abortion in relation to the morula. And yet I tried
to find the chapter you mentioned and only found a connection to the
"burnberry bushes"!
"While the rustic feast was being prepared and distributed among the sun
gouts of the traditional pine glade, the wild girl and her lover slipped
away for a few moments of ravenous ardor in a ferny ravine where a rill
dipped from ledge to ledge between tall burnberry bushes. The day was hot
and breathless. The smallest pine had its cicada".
I understood that B.Boyd connected the burnberry bush not to the mulberry
bush but to another berry ( "bogberry" ) - but I haven´t yet read his
annotations.
The lovely association of murmuring water and "lapping" that came from
one of VN´s poems was offered to us by Aboukassa and it produced a marvelous
new "feel" to Aqua´s Russian dreamlike speech.
Why don´t we bring up more VN´s poems in our list to work with them?
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Burnberries: Ardis/Burn & Bear/Russia
Dear Jansy and List,
I risk to be out of the topic (I've not reread this novel since a long
time), but, your posting concerning latin roots of Ardis/ardere,(ardre,
ardis in French) make me think another PLAUSIBLE "latin connection" with
the mulberry theme : the latin word MORULA is a scientific word that VN,
as a scientist, probably knew. Well known in IVF, in vitro fertilization,
(I 've found this word in an old dictionnary - 1949-), I was wondering
whether or not this connection is relevant. The mulberry appears, if
memory is correct, in the end of Ada just after the protagonists made
love several hours.
One can find photos of the morula state of embryon on the web using
Google.But I confess this posting is also a query:
So, "only a mulberry" or another latin connection... ???? I look forward
to reading comments from Ada's specialists of the List.
Hoping my charabia readable, my apologies if unclear.
Amitiés,
AA
-----Original Message-----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 10:03:58 -0800
Subject: Fw: Burnberries: Ardis/Burn & Bear/Russia
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
> To: don barton johnson
> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 8:54 PM
> Subject: Burnberries: Ardis/Burn & Bear/Russia
>
>
> Dear Don and List,
>
> I don´t know if these links that take us from "Burnberries" to
> "Russia/Ardis" are too far-fetched, but I´ll risk it.
>
> In Ada, ch.41 we find Trofim exclaiming " Barin, a Barin " and our
> narrator pointedly translates "Barin" as "master" ( while at the same
> time making a quick reference to Blanche and to Lucette, together with
> a warning about disaster and horror caused by what might "seep
> through" leather or woolies).
>
> In German, Bärin, means bear, the female bear ( and bears, Urs are also
> connected to Lucette and, of course, to Rus/ Russia ).
> The German word for berries ( "yagodami" ) is " Beeren" and that could
> help us to associate Bear/Bärin/Beeren/Berries.
>
> Van writes one single line of poetry: " Ada, our ardors and arbors"
> and, of course, we remember "Ardelia" and "Ardis". Now, to burn, in
> latin, is "ardere"...
>
> Greetings,
> Jansy
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----