Subject
Fwd: List on 222, 313 and 410, 412 or even 414
From
Date
Body
EDNOTE. "Numerology" in all of VN's writing is well worth close examination.
There exists an article on this but I can' recall the author. Does anyone?
-------------------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:06:34 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: List on 222, 313 and 410, 412 or even 414
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum Dear List,
Sometime ago there was a posting inquiring about Ada´s reference to room number
222.
'I had hoped you'd sleep here,' said Marina (not really caring one way or
another). 'What is your room number at the hotel - not 222 by any chance?'She
liked romantic coincidences. Demon consulted the tag on his key: 221 - which
was good enough, fatidically and anecdotically speaking.
At that time I could only recall Transparent Things where we find 313 ( number
one held as a prisoner ):
He saw a very black 313 on a very white door and recalled instantly how he had
told Armande (who had promised to visit him and did not wish to be announced):
"Mnemonically it should be imagined as three little figures in profile, a
prisoner passing by with one guard in front of him and another behind." (
Transparent Things ).
Now I can forward, again from Ada, a reference to 414.
He left the balcony and ran down a short spiral staircase to the fourth floor.
In the pit of his stomach there sat the suspicion that it might not be room
410, as he conjectured, but 412 or even 414, What would happen if she had not
understood, was not on the lookout? She had, she was.
I remember that a connection between number 222 was made to the "two to two
train to Toulouse" ( quite fascinating!). But all these numbers continue to
puzzle me.
Has anyone new ideas about the meaning VN attributed to room numbers?
Below, more room numbers, that time in Lolita:
In the slow clear hand of crime I wrote: Dr. Edgar H. Humbert and daughter, 342
Lawn Street, Ramsdale. A key (342!) was half-shown to me (magician showing
object he is about to palm) - and handed over to Uncle Tom. Lo, leaving the dog
as she would leave me some day, rose from her haunches; a raindrop fell on
Charlotte's grave; (...)
- I would let myself into that "342" and find my nymphet, my beauty and bride,
imprisoned in her crystal sleep. Jurors! If my happiness could have talked, it
would have filled that genteel hotel with a deafening roar. And my only regret
today is that I did not quietly deposit key "342" at the office, and leave the
town, the country, the continent, the hemisphere, - indeed, the globe - that
very same night.
Thanks, Jansy
----- End forwarded message -----
There exists an article on this but I can' recall the author. Does anyone?
-------------------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:06:34 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: List on 222, 313 and 410, 412 or even 414
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum Dear List,
Sometime ago there was a posting inquiring about Ada´s reference to room number
222.
'I had hoped you'd sleep here,' said Marina (not really caring one way or
another). 'What is your room number at the hotel - not 222 by any chance?'She
liked romantic coincidences. Demon consulted the tag on his key: 221 - which
was good enough, fatidically and anecdotically speaking.
At that time I could only recall Transparent Things where we find 313 ( number
one held as a prisoner ):
He saw a very black 313 on a very white door and recalled instantly how he had
told Armande (who had promised to visit him and did not wish to be announced):
"Mnemonically it should be imagined as three little figures in profile, a
prisoner passing by with one guard in front of him and another behind." (
Transparent Things ).
Now I can forward, again from Ada, a reference to 414.
He left the balcony and ran down a short spiral staircase to the fourth floor.
In the pit of his stomach there sat the suspicion that it might not be room
410, as he conjectured, but 412 or even 414, What would happen if she had not
understood, was not on the lookout? She had, she was.
I remember that a connection between number 222 was made to the "two to two
train to Toulouse" ( quite fascinating!). But all these numbers continue to
puzzle me.
Has anyone new ideas about the meaning VN attributed to room numbers?
Below, more room numbers, that time in Lolita:
In the slow clear hand of crime I wrote: Dr. Edgar H. Humbert and daughter, 342
Lawn Street, Ramsdale. A key (342!) was half-shown to me (magician showing
object he is about to palm) - and handed over to Uncle Tom. Lo, leaving the dog
as she would leave me some day, rose from her haunches; a raindrop fell on
Charlotte's grave; (...)
- I would let myself into that "342" and find my nymphet, my beauty and bride,
imprisoned in her crystal sleep. Jurors! If my happiness could have talked, it
would have filled that genteel hotel with a deafening roar. And my only regret
today is that I did not quietly deposit key "342" at the office, and leave the
town, the country, the continent, the hemisphere, - indeed, the globe - that
very same night.
Thanks, Jansy
----- End forwarded message -----