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Re: Fwd: Steinmanns and crown jewels
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----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 14:13:56 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Re: Re: Fwd: Steinmanns and crown jewels
---------------- Message requiring your approval (421 lines)
------------------
Dear Michael Donohue, Andrew and List,
What a wonderful series of events and inspired sleuthing.
What a joy to read your contributions...
Perhaps this is completely out of context, of Pale Fire in particular, but I
could not help wondering since the first postings came, about VN´s comments
on Samuel Beckett and how he didn´t think very highly of Beckett´s plays but
enjoyed the novel "Molloy".
VN gave as an example one of my favorite scenes, where Molloy moved stones
from one pocket to another in his ragged coat.
I don´t remember if he liked to lick the stones and created a ritual to
enable him to reach different stones lying inside each pocket.
The movement of the stones from one place to another was in itself
meaningless ( if we discount the "licking" process). As meaningless as
Sisyphus´s punishment when he had to push a stone up a mountain to see it
roll downwards again.
VN´s special talent to deal with mythical origins and his pleasure in
"quotes" might have added a poignant touch to this constant relocation of
stones, be they precious or not, in Pale Fire by his choice of introducing a
"stone-man" for the pursuit of the crown jewels.
I fear you will not agree with me, but I decided to add this as an
"associative penumbra" ( in psychoanalyst W.R.Bion´s expression ) to your
much more objective pursuits anyway.
Jansy
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 11:54 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Steinmanns and crown jewels
> Mike,
>
> That is an elegant explication of the recurring steinmann idea. But one
item
> that I think must be connected here is the appearance of the "man making
> contact with God." In the Rose Court at the back of the Ducal Palace in
> Onhava, young Charles Xavier hears rapid steps on the sectile mosaic of
the
> court, with its realistic rose petals cut out of rodstein and large almost
> palpable thorns cut out of green marble ... there walks a black shadow ..
> tall, pale, long-nosed dark-haired ... he is a young minister but this
> description sounds like a young Charles II, the one whose court included
> John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and was chronicled in part by Samuel
Pepys.
> But it also could be a description of a future Charles Xavier of Zembla,
> ten years or so out of boyhood, and going through some spasm of piety.
>
> Now move forward through the years until we find Charles of Zembla
> imprisoned in his palace, but about to escape. He opens the closet that
once
> led him and his friend Oleg to the green room, known not for its thorns
cut
> out of green marble but the back stage reception, or waiting room for Iris
> Acht, Charle's grandfather's mistress. As part of his escape plan, Charles
> asks his Extremist jailor Hal if he may play the piano before he goes to
> bed. Permission is granted. Charles sits down at the Bechstein and vamps a
> few chords while he informs his disguised friend Odon of the tunnel
through
> which he will escape. That very night THE MERMAN will be performed at the
> theatre Charles can reach through the tunnel and the still existing green
> room. Meanwhile, the rollicking Russian treasure seekers are ripping up
the
> palace, coming closer and closer to Charles' last hope of escape. They
have
> already reached the picture gallery. Baron Bland, Keeper of theTreasure
has
> succeeded in hiding the treasure before he jumps or falls from the North
> Tower. Our commentator insists Andronnikov and Niagarin are mistaken in
> suspecting the jewels were ever hidden in the palace. But this was
> evidentally where Bland was questioned, with a rollicking perseverance
> ending in defenestration, either by his own will, in honorable refusal to
> talk, or as penalty inflicted by his questioners for not talking.
>
> In any case, by the time Charles is ready to escape, they have dismantled
> the Council Chamber and have reached that part of the gallery where the
oils
> of Eystein hang. Eystein, master of the tromp l'oeil, who could make his
> dead models seem even deader by contrast to the fallen petal (rodstein)
...
> or other imported realities in his works. Eystein was the master of a
> deceptive art style which, our commentator believes, had something
"ignoble"
> about it. Particularly "the basic fact that "reality" is neither the
subject
> nor the object of true art which creates its own special "reality" having
> nothing to do with the average "reality" perceived by the communal eye."
In
> any case, A & N approach. Charles and Odon stand in the gallery at the
spot
> where Eystein's portrait of a former Keeper of the Treasure hangs.
Decrepit
> Count Kernel, whose fingers rest on an bronze box embossed and engraved
with
> a "twin-lobed, brainlike halved kernel of walnut."
>
> Charles is led off to his room from which he shortly escapes. A & N find
> nothing beneath Eystein's bronze box but the nut shells of the brain
kernel
> depicted on the box's lid. Charles flees over the Bera range, and there,
> as you know, Mike, he discovers the Steinmann cairn which he crowns, in
> memory of his now remote Zemblan kingdom (and perhaps to mark the spot of
> buried jewels) with his cap of red wool. Perhaps this memory makes Charles
> laugh all the harder when he and his soon to be new found friend John
Shade
> snort derisively about Fromm's interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood.
> Let's not forget Gradus's frustration at not being able to personally
> execute the King's most gifted impersonator, Julius Steinmann, who could
> mimic the King's voice in underground radio speeches. Steinmann is caught,
> condemned, shot by an inept Extremist firing squad, escapes, and then is
> found again in a provincial hospital. Gradus himself races over to shoot
the
> Steinmann who manages once again to escape.
>
> Fast forward some more and find Kinbote, upset, the day after Shade's
> birthday party, to which he was not invited. Kinbote goes over the next
day
> to inspire some guilt by bringing a "reproachfully wrapped up" birthday
> present, and notices, on the ground by the garage, a near-relation of the
> red-capped steinmann in the form of a buchmann, a cairn of library books.
> Kinbote lectures Sybil on manners and presents her with a book into which
> she can "dip, or redip," spider that she is, in his mind, Vol. III of the
> 1954 Pleiade edition of Proust's work. So: in sequence we have steinmann,
> rodstein, Bechstein, Eystein, Steinmann the red-capped cairn, Julius
> Steinmann the heroic Karlist, and buchmann, a biblio cairn.
>
> Andrew (aka AB) Brown
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 7:53 PM
> Subject: Fwd: Steinmanns and crown jewels
>
>
> > ----- Forwarded message from michaeldonohue@hotmail.com -----
> > Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 23:15:37 -0400
> > From: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
> > Reply-To: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
> > Subject: Steinmanns and crown jewels
> > ---------------- Message requiring your approval (196 lines)
> > ------------------
> > Dear AB and everyone else,
> >
> >
> > I suggest that the steinmanns are important because one of them is a
> marker
> > for the burial
> > site of the Zemblan crown jewels.
> >
> > Let me explain. Forgive the long e-mail that follows.
> >
> > Of all the puzzles of Pale Fire, the one that most stands out is the
hunt
> > for the crown jewels. Kinbote constantly calls our attention to the
> mystery
> > of their hiding place. When discussing the Russian pair, Niagarin and
> > Andronnikov, who have been sent to find the crown jewels, Kinbote
> expresses,
> > with more than "pardonable satisfaction," that the jewels "were, and
still
> > are, cached in a totally different--and quite unexpected--corner of
> Zembla"
> > (244). He later tells us that Gradus's suitcase and raincoat are
probably
> > still in a train station locker, "as snug as my gemmed scepter, ruby
> > necklace, and diamond-studded crown in--no matter, where" (276). The
index
> > entry for Charles II begs us to look up the entry for the jewels: "q.v.
by
> > all means" (306).
> >
> > It is the loudest, most emphasized puzzle in the novel, and yet it seems
> to
> > have the least inspired solution. Everyone (Boyd, Johnson, etc.) seems
to
> > agree that the jewels are in Kobaltana--as of course they are. But can't
> we
> > be more specific than that? (And perhaps someone has--please correct me
> > if I've overlooked it.)
> >
> > Nabokov sort of called the jewel hunt to a halt by saying, in the 1967
> > interview with Appel, that the jewels were "in the ruins, sir, of some
old
> > barracks in Kobaltana (q.v.); but do not tell it to the Russians."
(Strong
> > Opinions, 92).
> >
> > It's a disappointingly vague solution to a puzzle that calls such
> > extravagant attention to itself. I used to think that it was the whole
> > solution. But some of my students, over the past five years, have
> convinced
> > me otherwise.
> >
> > Here is what we've come up with:
> >
> > The crown jewels are in Kobaltana--yes. But there's more.
> >
> > 1) The king passes through Kobaltana, and sees the hiding place (or
> taynik),
> > during his trek over the Bera mountain range.
> >
> > 2)The jewels are buried under a steinmann.
> >
> > 3) Kinbote cannot resist the temptation to call our attention to their
> > precise hiding place.
> >
> > Let's start from the beginning. Here is the usual solution to the
puzzle.
> >
> > 1. Index: Andronikov and Niagarin: "Russian experts in search of
buried
> > treasure." Conclusion: the jewels are buried.
> >
> > 2. Index: Niagarin and Andronikov: "Russian 'experts' still in search
of
> > buried treasure." Note the scare quotes: now they're not real experts.
> > Solution: jewels' location comes somewhere between the two entries,
> between
> > A and N.
> >
> > 3. The most suspicious entry in the index is the one for Kobaltana: "a
> once
> > fashionable mountain resort near the ruins of some old barracks now a
cold
> > and desolate spot of difficult access and no importance but still
> remembered
> > in military families and forest castles, not in the text." (310) Because
> of
> > the entry, we can say that the jewels are buried in Kobaltana.
> >
> > This is where everyone usually stops. But I humbly suggest that we can
go
> > further. We can say where Kobaltana is; we can point directly to the
> taynik;
> > we can even speculate about how the jewels got there.
> >
> > Here goes:
> >
> > When kept captive in the palace, Charles the Beloved was moved from his
> > original room
> > because he was accused of using a "fop's hand mirror" (121) to signal to
> > someone. This being a Nabokov novel, we're inclined to suspect that the
> king
> > probably was, in fact, signalling to someone. What can be seen from his
> > window? Who could be receiving signals from the hand mirror?
> >
> > We learn (119) that "one could make out with the help of field glasses
> lithe
> > youths diving into the swimming pool of a fairy tale sport club, and the
> > English ambassador in old-fashioned flannels playing tennis with the
> Basque
> > coach on a clay court as remote as paradise." With the "fop's hand
mirror"
> > he was able to signal to the tennis courts; and we just happen to know
the
> > identity of a certain "tennis ace" named Julius Steinmann, "son of the
> well
> > known philanthropist" (153), after whom--perhaps?--the "steinmann"
> (Zemblan
> > for "cairn") was named. (Or is "steinmann" a real German term for
> "cairn"?)
> >
> > Julius Steinmann is called "an especially brilliant impersonator of the
> > King" (153), which will be very important in a minute. Young Steinmann
> > could also have received information--and the jewels themselves--from
> Odon,
> > since we also know that "through [Odon] the king kept in touch with
> numerous
> > adherents, young nobles, artists, college athletes, gamblers, Black Rose
> > paladins, members of fencing clubs, and other men of fashion and
> adventure"
> > (120). The Keeper of the Treasure, one Baron Bland, "had a helper"
(243),
> > who we might presume was Odon. Could the king have been signalling his
> > preferred hiding place for the jewels?
> >
> > Then the King escapes. He is dropped by Odon "at the edge of the
Mandevil
> > Forest" (139). Mandevil Forest is near Kobaltana: it is near a "once
> > fashionable mountain resort"--something we can deduce from the following
> > information. Charles's English tutor once sprained his ankle during "a
> > picnic in
> > the Mandevil Forest" (124). After Odon drops the king off near the
> Mandevil
> > Forest,
> > Charles remembers "the times he had picnicked hereabouts--in another
part
> of
> > the forest but on the same mountainside, and higher up, as a boy, on the
> > boulderfield where Mr. Campbell had once twisted an ankle and had to be
> > carried down, smoking his pipe, by two husky attendants. Rather dull
> > memories, on the whole. Wasn't there a hunting box nearby--just beyond
> > Silfhar Falls? Good capercaillie and woodcock shooting--a sport much
> enjoyed
> > by his late mother Queen Blenda, a tweedy and horsy queen" (139). Sounds
> > like a "mountainous resort" was nearby.
> >
> > So we've found the mountainous resort. Kobaltana could be nearby. But
what
> > about the "ruins of the old barracks"? Do we know of any military
> > installations in Zembla? We know that they haven't had any wars during
> > Charles's reign ("Mars never marred his record," 75) but there are a
> couple
> > of references to military activity--indeed, there are references to
> > Charles's military service. There is one time in his life when he spends
> > half his time "with his regiment" (104), and when he stays in the
peasant
> > Griff's house he sees a "a color print" of himself as "an elegant
> guardsman"
> > (141). This doesn't prove much, but it does associate the
> location--Mandevil
> > Forest, where Griff lives--with Charles in a military uniform (where he
> > would have made a lot of mischief in the barracks?). This is a stretch,
I
> > know.
> >
> > When the king ascends further up the mountainside (getting near the
> mountain
> > resort where he once picnicked with Campbell), he sees a "red-sweatered,
> > red-capped doubleganger" (143) whom he at first mistakes for his own
> > reflection. It would take an "especially brilliant impersonator" (153)
to
> > give the appearance of one's own reflection; only the aforementioned
> Julius
> > Steinmann could pull it off. After the impersonator disappears, the King
> > shudders with "alfear (uncontrollable fear caused by elves)"; he murmurs
> "a
> > family prayer," crosses himself, and moves on.
> >
> > Then he sees that "upon an adjacent ridge a steinmann (a heap of stones
> > erected as a memento of an ascent) had donned a cap of red wool in his
> > honor." The crown jewels, I think, are buried here. Why? Because
> immediately
> > after walking on, when he reaches the pass in the very next
> paragraph--when
> > he looks out and observes the beauty of the Bera mountain range--he
> > describes the mountains as though they were jewels in a box. Look at the
> > passage: he is describing a box of precious jewels:
> >
> > "Northward melted the green, gray, bluish mountains--Falkberg with its
> hood
> > of snow [a pearl ring?], Mutraberg with the fan of its avalanche [isn't
a
> > fan a common design on earrings and pendants?], Paberg (Mt. Peacock),
and
> > others,--separated by narrow dim valleys with intercalated cotton-wool
> bits
> > of cloud that seemed placed between the receding sets of ridges to
prevent
> > their flanks from scraping against one another [as cotton-wool separates
> > jewels in a box]. Beyond them, in the final blue, loomed Mt. Glitterntin
> > ["glitter"], a serrated edge of bright foil ["a thin layer of metal
placed
> > under a gem in a closed setting to improve its color or brilliancy"
> > -Webster's]; and southward, a tender haze enveloped more distant ridges
> > which led to one another in an endless array, through every grade of
soft
> > evanescence." (144)
> >
> > Later, in the index, the Bera Range is described as "glittering" (305).
> Note
> > also that Kinbote has put great emphasis on the difficulty of the
> > climb--meaning that the hiding place would be, as the Kobaltana entry
> > mandates, "a spot of difficult access." This is the King's surreptitious
> > tribute to his family's jewelry.
> >
> > He is calling our attention to two things at once: the jewelry-like
> > appearance of the mountains, and the strange phallus-like tribute of the
> > steinmann. Remember Disa's reaction to news of their hiding place?
> > "Perfunctorily she inquired about the crown jewels; he revealed to her
> their
> > unusual hiding place, and she melted in girlish mirth as she had not
done
> > for years and years." (212) "Girlish mirth"? Something is funny about
> their
> > location. Why would she laugh if they were merely hidden in some
barracks?
> > She laughs because the crown jewels are under an erect phallus: a
> > "steinmann" with its "red cap" is above the--ahem--family jewels.
> >
> > If the jewels are under the steinmann, it's easier to explain
> > why, at the novel's end, Kinbote puts such importance on the steinmann:
> >
> > "What theme?" said Shade absently, as he leaned on my arm and gradually
> > recovered the use of his numb limb.
> > "Our blue inenubilable Zembla, and the red-capped Steinmann, and the
> > motorboat in the sea cave, and--" (288)
> >
> > There are problems to the solution. For example, why would
> > Steinmann wait until the king escaped to go hide the jewels? Isn't this
> > solution contradicted by Nabokov himself in the 1967 interview? (Why, at
> > least, did Nabokov say the jewels were "in" the barracks rather than
> "near"
> > them?) Is it an absurd leap to say that the jewels are under a steinmann
> > just because we see a man likely to be Steinmann right before we see an
> > especially noteworthy steinmann, followed by a jewel-like mountain
range?
> >
> > There are probably many other problems. This, at least, is what I and
some
> > high school students in Brooklyn came up with. For the few people with
the
> > patience to read this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
> >
> > Respectfully,
> > Mike Donohue
> >
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
>
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 14:13:56 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Re: Re: Fwd: Steinmanns and crown jewels
---------------- Message requiring your approval (421 lines)
------------------
Dear Michael Donohue, Andrew and List,
What a wonderful series of events and inspired sleuthing.
What a joy to read your contributions...
Perhaps this is completely out of context, of Pale Fire in particular, but I
could not help wondering since the first postings came, about VN´s comments
on Samuel Beckett and how he didn´t think very highly of Beckett´s plays but
enjoyed the novel "Molloy".
VN gave as an example one of my favorite scenes, where Molloy moved stones
from one pocket to another in his ragged coat.
I don´t remember if he liked to lick the stones and created a ritual to
enable him to reach different stones lying inside each pocket.
The movement of the stones from one place to another was in itself
meaningless ( if we discount the "licking" process). As meaningless as
Sisyphus´s punishment when he had to push a stone up a mountain to see it
roll downwards again.
VN´s special talent to deal with mythical origins and his pleasure in
"quotes" might have added a poignant touch to this constant relocation of
stones, be they precious or not, in Pale Fire by his choice of introducing a
"stone-man" for the pursuit of the crown jewels.
I fear you will not agree with me, but I decided to add this as an
"associative penumbra" ( in psychoanalyst W.R.Bion´s expression ) to your
much more objective pursuits anyway.
Jansy
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 11:54 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Steinmanns and crown jewels
> Mike,
>
> That is an elegant explication of the recurring steinmann idea. But one
item
> that I think must be connected here is the appearance of the "man making
> contact with God." In the Rose Court at the back of the Ducal Palace in
> Onhava, young Charles Xavier hears rapid steps on the sectile mosaic of
the
> court, with its realistic rose petals cut out of rodstein and large almost
> palpable thorns cut out of green marble ... there walks a black shadow ..
> tall, pale, long-nosed dark-haired ... he is a young minister but this
> description sounds like a young Charles II, the one whose court included
> John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and was chronicled in part by Samuel
Pepys.
> But it also could be a description of a future Charles Xavier of Zembla,
> ten years or so out of boyhood, and going through some spasm of piety.
>
> Now move forward through the years until we find Charles of Zembla
> imprisoned in his palace, but about to escape. He opens the closet that
once
> led him and his friend Oleg to the green room, known not for its thorns
cut
> out of green marble but the back stage reception, or waiting room for Iris
> Acht, Charle's grandfather's mistress. As part of his escape plan, Charles
> asks his Extremist jailor Hal if he may play the piano before he goes to
> bed. Permission is granted. Charles sits down at the Bechstein and vamps a
> few chords while he informs his disguised friend Odon of the tunnel
through
> which he will escape. That very night THE MERMAN will be performed at the
> theatre Charles can reach through the tunnel and the still existing green
> room. Meanwhile, the rollicking Russian treasure seekers are ripping up
the
> palace, coming closer and closer to Charles' last hope of escape. They
have
> already reached the picture gallery. Baron Bland, Keeper of theTreasure
has
> succeeded in hiding the treasure before he jumps or falls from the North
> Tower. Our commentator insists Andronnikov and Niagarin are mistaken in
> suspecting the jewels were ever hidden in the palace. But this was
> evidentally where Bland was questioned, with a rollicking perseverance
> ending in defenestration, either by his own will, in honorable refusal to
> talk, or as penalty inflicted by his questioners for not talking.
>
> In any case, by the time Charles is ready to escape, they have dismantled
> the Council Chamber and have reached that part of the gallery where the
oils
> of Eystein hang. Eystein, master of the tromp l'oeil, who could make his
> dead models seem even deader by contrast to the fallen petal (rodstein)
...
> or other imported realities in his works. Eystein was the master of a
> deceptive art style which, our commentator believes, had something
"ignoble"
> about it. Particularly "the basic fact that "reality" is neither the
subject
> nor the object of true art which creates its own special "reality" having
> nothing to do with the average "reality" perceived by the communal eye."
In
> any case, A & N approach. Charles and Odon stand in the gallery at the
spot
> where Eystein's portrait of a former Keeper of the Treasure hangs.
Decrepit
> Count Kernel, whose fingers rest on an bronze box embossed and engraved
with
> a "twin-lobed, brainlike halved kernel of walnut."
>
> Charles is led off to his room from which he shortly escapes. A & N find
> nothing beneath Eystein's bronze box but the nut shells of the brain
kernel
> depicted on the box's lid. Charles flees over the Bera range, and there,
> as you know, Mike, he discovers the Steinmann cairn which he crowns, in
> memory of his now remote Zemblan kingdom (and perhaps to mark the spot of
> buried jewels) with his cap of red wool. Perhaps this memory makes Charles
> laugh all the harder when he and his soon to be new found friend John
Shade
> snort derisively about Fromm's interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood.
> Let's not forget Gradus's frustration at not being able to personally
> execute the King's most gifted impersonator, Julius Steinmann, who could
> mimic the King's voice in underground radio speeches. Steinmann is caught,
> condemned, shot by an inept Extremist firing squad, escapes, and then is
> found again in a provincial hospital. Gradus himself races over to shoot
the
> Steinmann who manages once again to escape.
>
> Fast forward some more and find Kinbote, upset, the day after Shade's
> birthday party, to which he was not invited. Kinbote goes over the next
day
> to inspire some guilt by bringing a "reproachfully wrapped up" birthday
> present, and notices, on the ground by the garage, a near-relation of the
> red-capped steinmann in the form of a buchmann, a cairn of library books.
> Kinbote lectures Sybil on manners and presents her with a book into which
> she can "dip, or redip," spider that she is, in his mind, Vol. III of the
> 1954 Pleiade edition of Proust's work. So: in sequence we have steinmann,
> rodstein, Bechstein, Eystein, Steinmann the red-capped cairn, Julius
> Steinmann the heroic Karlist, and buchmann, a biblio cairn.
>
> Andrew (aka AB) Brown
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 7:53 PM
> Subject: Fwd: Steinmanns and crown jewels
>
>
> > ----- Forwarded message from michaeldonohue@hotmail.com -----
> > Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 23:15:37 -0400
> > From: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
> > Reply-To: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
> > Subject: Steinmanns and crown jewels
> > ---------------- Message requiring your approval (196 lines)
> > ------------------
> > Dear AB and everyone else,
> >
> >
> > I suggest that the steinmanns are important because one of them is a
> marker
> > for the burial
> > site of the Zemblan crown jewels.
> >
> > Let me explain. Forgive the long e-mail that follows.
> >
> > Of all the puzzles of Pale Fire, the one that most stands out is the
hunt
> > for the crown jewels. Kinbote constantly calls our attention to the
> mystery
> > of their hiding place. When discussing the Russian pair, Niagarin and
> > Andronnikov, who have been sent to find the crown jewels, Kinbote
> expresses,
> > with more than "pardonable satisfaction," that the jewels "were, and
still
> > are, cached in a totally different--and quite unexpected--corner of
> Zembla"
> > (244). He later tells us that Gradus's suitcase and raincoat are
probably
> > still in a train station locker, "as snug as my gemmed scepter, ruby
> > necklace, and diamond-studded crown in--no matter, where" (276). The
index
> > entry for Charles II begs us to look up the entry for the jewels: "q.v.
by
> > all means" (306).
> >
> > It is the loudest, most emphasized puzzle in the novel, and yet it seems
> to
> > have the least inspired solution. Everyone (Boyd, Johnson, etc.) seems
to
> > agree that the jewels are in Kobaltana--as of course they are. But can't
> we
> > be more specific than that? (And perhaps someone has--please correct me
> > if I've overlooked it.)
> >
> > Nabokov sort of called the jewel hunt to a halt by saying, in the 1967
> > interview with Appel, that the jewels were "in the ruins, sir, of some
old
> > barracks in Kobaltana (q.v.); but do not tell it to the Russians."
(Strong
> > Opinions, 92).
> >
> > It's a disappointingly vague solution to a puzzle that calls such
> > extravagant attention to itself. I used to think that it was the whole
> > solution. But some of my students, over the past five years, have
> convinced
> > me otherwise.
> >
> > Here is what we've come up with:
> >
> > The crown jewels are in Kobaltana--yes. But there's more.
> >
> > 1) The king passes through Kobaltana, and sees the hiding place (or
> taynik),
> > during his trek over the Bera mountain range.
> >
> > 2)The jewels are buried under a steinmann.
> >
> > 3) Kinbote cannot resist the temptation to call our attention to their
> > precise hiding place.
> >
> > Let's start from the beginning. Here is the usual solution to the
puzzle.
> >
> > 1. Index: Andronikov and Niagarin: "Russian experts in search of
buried
> > treasure." Conclusion: the jewels are buried.
> >
> > 2. Index: Niagarin and Andronikov: "Russian 'experts' still in search
of
> > buried treasure." Note the scare quotes: now they're not real experts.
> > Solution: jewels' location comes somewhere between the two entries,
> between
> > A and N.
> >
> > 3. The most suspicious entry in the index is the one for Kobaltana: "a
> once
> > fashionable mountain resort near the ruins of some old barracks now a
cold
> > and desolate spot of difficult access and no importance but still
> remembered
> > in military families and forest castles, not in the text." (310) Because
> of
> > the entry, we can say that the jewels are buried in Kobaltana.
> >
> > This is where everyone usually stops. But I humbly suggest that we can
go
> > further. We can say where Kobaltana is; we can point directly to the
> taynik;
> > we can even speculate about how the jewels got there.
> >
> > Here goes:
> >
> > When kept captive in the palace, Charles the Beloved was moved from his
> > original room
> > because he was accused of using a "fop's hand mirror" (121) to signal to
> > someone. This being a Nabokov novel, we're inclined to suspect that the
> king
> > probably was, in fact, signalling to someone. What can be seen from his
> > window? Who could be receiving signals from the hand mirror?
> >
> > We learn (119) that "one could make out with the help of field glasses
> lithe
> > youths diving into the swimming pool of a fairy tale sport club, and the
> > English ambassador in old-fashioned flannels playing tennis with the
> Basque
> > coach on a clay court as remote as paradise." With the "fop's hand
mirror"
> > he was able to signal to the tennis courts; and we just happen to know
the
> > identity of a certain "tennis ace" named Julius Steinmann, "son of the
> well
> > known philanthropist" (153), after whom--perhaps?--the "steinmann"
> (Zemblan
> > for "cairn") was named. (Or is "steinmann" a real German term for
> "cairn"?)
> >
> > Julius Steinmann is called "an especially brilliant impersonator of the
> > King" (153), which will be very important in a minute. Young Steinmann
> > could also have received information--and the jewels themselves--from
> Odon,
> > since we also know that "through [Odon] the king kept in touch with
> numerous
> > adherents, young nobles, artists, college athletes, gamblers, Black Rose
> > paladins, members of fencing clubs, and other men of fashion and
> adventure"
> > (120). The Keeper of the Treasure, one Baron Bland, "had a helper"
(243),
> > who we might presume was Odon. Could the king have been signalling his
> > preferred hiding place for the jewels?
> >
> > Then the King escapes. He is dropped by Odon "at the edge of the
Mandevil
> > Forest" (139). Mandevil Forest is near Kobaltana: it is near a "once
> > fashionable mountain resort"--something we can deduce from the following
> > information. Charles's English tutor once sprained his ankle during "a
> > picnic in
> > the Mandevil Forest" (124). After Odon drops the king off near the
> Mandevil
> > Forest,
> > Charles remembers "the times he had picnicked hereabouts--in another
part
> of
> > the forest but on the same mountainside, and higher up, as a boy, on the
> > boulderfield where Mr. Campbell had once twisted an ankle and had to be
> > carried down, smoking his pipe, by two husky attendants. Rather dull
> > memories, on the whole. Wasn't there a hunting box nearby--just beyond
> > Silfhar Falls? Good capercaillie and woodcock shooting--a sport much
> enjoyed
> > by his late mother Queen Blenda, a tweedy and horsy queen" (139). Sounds
> > like a "mountainous resort" was nearby.
> >
> > So we've found the mountainous resort. Kobaltana could be nearby. But
what
> > about the "ruins of the old barracks"? Do we know of any military
> > installations in Zembla? We know that they haven't had any wars during
> > Charles's reign ("Mars never marred his record," 75) but there are a
> couple
> > of references to military activity--indeed, there are references to
> > Charles's military service. There is one time in his life when he spends
> > half his time "with his regiment" (104), and when he stays in the
peasant
> > Griff's house he sees a "a color print" of himself as "an elegant
> guardsman"
> > (141). This doesn't prove much, but it does associate the
> location--Mandevil
> > Forest, where Griff lives--with Charles in a military uniform (where he
> > would have made a lot of mischief in the barracks?). This is a stretch,
I
> > know.
> >
> > When the king ascends further up the mountainside (getting near the
> mountain
> > resort where he once picnicked with Campbell), he sees a "red-sweatered,
> > red-capped doubleganger" (143) whom he at first mistakes for his own
> > reflection. It would take an "especially brilliant impersonator" (153)
to
> > give the appearance of one's own reflection; only the aforementioned
> Julius
> > Steinmann could pull it off. After the impersonator disappears, the King
> > shudders with "alfear (uncontrollable fear caused by elves)"; he murmurs
> "a
> > family prayer," crosses himself, and moves on.
> >
> > Then he sees that "upon an adjacent ridge a steinmann (a heap of stones
> > erected as a memento of an ascent) had donned a cap of red wool in his
> > honor." The crown jewels, I think, are buried here. Why? Because
> immediately
> > after walking on, when he reaches the pass in the very next
> paragraph--when
> > he looks out and observes the beauty of the Bera mountain range--he
> > describes the mountains as though they were jewels in a box. Look at the
> > passage: he is describing a box of precious jewels:
> >
> > "Northward melted the green, gray, bluish mountains--Falkberg with its
> hood
> > of snow [a pearl ring?], Mutraberg with the fan of its avalanche [isn't
a
> > fan a common design on earrings and pendants?], Paberg (Mt. Peacock),
and
> > others,--separated by narrow dim valleys with intercalated cotton-wool
> bits
> > of cloud that seemed placed between the receding sets of ridges to
prevent
> > their flanks from scraping against one another [as cotton-wool separates
> > jewels in a box]. Beyond them, in the final blue, loomed Mt. Glitterntin
> > ["glitter"], a serrated edge of bright foil ["a thin layer of metal
placed
> > under a gem in a closed setting to improve its color or brilliancy"
> > -Webster's]; and southward, a tender haze enveloped more distant ridges
> > which led to one another in an endless array, through every grade of
soft
> > evanescence." (144)
> >
> > Later, in the index, the Bera Range is described as "glittering" (305).
> Note
> > also that Kinbote has put great emphasis on the difficulty of the
> > climb--meaning that the hiding place would be, as the Kobaltana entry
> > mandates, "a spot of difficult access." This is the King's surreptitious
> > tribute to his family's jewelry.
> >
> > He is calling our attention to two things at once: the jewelry-like
> > appearance of the mountains, and the strange phallus-like tribute of the
> > steinmann. Remember Disa's reaction to news of their hiding place?
> > "Perfunctorily she inquired about the crown jewels; he revealed to her
> their
> > unusual hiding place, and she melted in girlish mirth as she had not
done
> > for years and years." (212) "Girlish mirth"? Something is funny about
> their
> > location. Why would she laugh if they were merely hidden in some
barracks?
> > She laughs because the crown jewels are under an erect phallus: a
> > "steinmann" with its "red cap" is above the--ahem--family jewels.
> >
> > If the jewels are under the steinmann, it's easier to explain
> > why, at the novel's end, Kinbote puts such importance on the steinmann:
> >
> > "What theme?" said Shade absently, as he leaned on my arm and gradually
> > recovered the use of his numb limb.
> > "Our blue inenubilable Zembla, and the red-capped Steinmann, and the
> > motorboat in the sea cave, and--" (288)
> >
> > There are problems to the solution. For example, why would
> > Steinmann wait until the king escaped to go hide the jewels? Isn't this
> > solution contradicted by Nabokov himself in the 1967 interview? (Why, at
> > least, did Nabokov say the jewels were "in" the barracks rather than
> "near"
> > them?) Is it an absurd leap to say that the jewels are under a steinmann
> > just because we see a man likely to be Steinmann right before we see an
> > especially noteworthy steinmann, followed by a jewel-like mountain
range?
> >
> > There are probably many other problems. This, at least, is what I and
some
> > high school students in Brooklyn came up with. For the few people with
the
> > patience to read this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
> >
> > Respectfully,
> > Mike Donohue
> >
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
>
----- End forwarded message -----