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Re: Fwd: Re: Why did Pale Fire's Disa laugh?
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> Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 07:48:04 -0800
> From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
...
>
> Dear Mike,
>
> The "family jewels" joke, it seems to me, is more of a verbal gag than a
> visual one, and so the shape of the literal jewels is not essential to
> the gag.
>
> The expression "family jewels" is yours - - Kinbote speaks often, but
> only,
> of "crown jewels" - - surely not a distinction that requires any
> expertise.
Or a distinction that makes a difference, since the Crown Jewels are
also the royal family's family jewels (in the literal sense).
> The family jewels are, so to speak, where the family jewels would be
> expected to be.
>
> Buried in a hole in the ground?
>
> Perhaps a jewelry expert could tell us: is it laughable that some
> 18th-century Zemblan emperor, maybe even Uran the Last, might have added
> a piece of paste jewelry to the crown-jewel collection?
It doesn't have to be reasonable any more than the king's chute
into the swimming pool or his "whole mountain of gift boys" do,
as you remark below.
Anyway, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate says that that kind of foil is
"put under an inferior or paste stone", so it doesn't have to be
paste. Just as the "Black Prince's ruby" in the British crown jewels
is a spinel, we can imagine inferior stones getting into the Zemblan
crown jewels. If we feel like it.
> The cold hard fact is that, even in the novel Pale Fire, there is no
> actual
> Zembla, hence no actual crown jewels. So if the country & its jewels
> are
> paste, why not just let the Russians have them and keep the last laugh
> for yourself?
>
> Let's agree to disagree on this one,
I'll have to disagree with you too. I agree that Zembla is
Kinbote's invention, but nonetheless we can enjoy the
correspondences in his inventions--that he takes _Disa_ orchids
to Disa, that she loathes Curdy Buff because the king deceived her
with him, and the like. So it's in keeping with Kinbote's character
as I see it to put clues to his Crown Jewels puzzle into his
narrative, and we can have the fun of solving them.
By the way, thank you for telling me that "Steinmann" is a real
German word. I'm a bit disappointed that it's a discovery rather
than an invention, but such is literature. And thanks to Mike for
setting me straight on Kinbote's doubleganger, which I had carelessly
misunderstood.
Jerry Friedman
Yahoo! Mail
Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour:
http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html
----- End forwarded message -----
> From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
...
>
> Dear Mike,
>
> The "family jewels" joke, it seems to me, is more of a verbal gag than a
> visual one, and so the shape of the literal jewels is not essential to
> the gag.
>
> The expression "family jewels" is yours - - Kinbote speaks often, but
> only,
> of "crown jewels" - - surely not a distinction that requires any
> expertise.
Or a distinction that makes a difference, since the Crown Jewels are
also the royal family's family jewels (in the literal sense).
> The family jewels are, so to speak, where the family jewels would be
> expected to be.
>
> Buried in a hole in the ground?
>
> Perhaps a jewelry expert could tell us: is it laughable that some
> 18th-century Zemblan emperor, maybe even Uran the Last, might have added
> a piece of paste jewelry to the crown-jewel collection?
It doesn't have to be reasonable any more than the king's chute
into the swimming pool or his "whole mountain of gift boys" do,
as you remark below.
Anyway, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate says that that kind of foil is
"put under an inferior or paste stone", so it doesn't have to be
paste. Just as the "Black Prince's ruby" in the British crown jewels
is a spinel, we can imagine inferior stones getting into the Zemblan
crown jewels. If we feel like it.
> The cold hard fact is that, even in the novel Pale Fire, there is no
> actual
> Zembla, hence no actual crown jewels. So if the country & its jewels
> are
> paste, why not just let the Russians have them and keep the last laugh
> for yourself?
>
> Let's agree to disagree on this one,
I'll have to disagree with you too. I agree that Zembla is
Kinbote's invention, but nonetheless we can enjoy the
correspondences in his inventions--that he takes _Disa_ orchids
to Disa, that she loathes Curdy Buff because the king deceived her
with him, and the like. So it's in keeping with Kinbote's character
as I see it to put clues to his Crown Jewels puzzle into his
narrative, and we can have the fun of solving them.
By the way, thank you for telling me that "Steinmann" is a real
German word. I'm a bit disappointed that it's a discovery rather
than an invention, but such is literature. And thanks to Mike for
setting me straight on Kinbote's doubleganger, which I had carelessly
misunderstood.
Jerry Friedman
Yahoo! Mail
Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour:
http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html
----- End forwarded message -----