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TT-3
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Monday, July 12, 2004 1:17 AM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: TT-3
(1) We: "we" narrate this chapter except the sentence "My good Hugh tried
to woggle it in."
"We" demonstrate their clairvoyance through time and space.
(2) "---less" adjectives: bulbless, shadeless, faceless, nameless.
(3) unfinished work: (actually neither), (nobody had), having gone away for
a tool that he never found, (still not closed).
(4) colors: following the mnemoptical trick in the previous chapter, this
chapter enfolds the delicate variation of shades: "dyed a dingy lilac,"
"The bare wood of its tapered end has darkened to plumbeous plum, thus
merging in tint with the blunt tip of graphite," "we could trace the
complicated fate of the shavings, each mauve on one side and tan on the
other when fresh."
(5) Going back a number of seasons: in the course of incalculable seasons
(Ch. 1).
(6) when pencil lead was discovered: An unusually pure deposit of graphite,
thought to be a type of lead, was discovered in Borrowdale, England, in
1564. German Swiss naturalist Konrad von Gesner first described how it
could be used in a wooden holder for writing in 1565 (from Brian Boyd's
notes to the LOA edition).
The Cumberland Pencil Museum is in Keswick, an old market town near
Borrowdale. The history of pencils etc. are on their website
(http://www.pencils.co.uk/p_history.asp).
(7) we see graphite, ground very fine. . .: Koh-I-Noor Pencil Company
published a pamphlet HOW THE PENCIL IS MADE in 1936. A part of it resembles
this passage. In fact, VN learned the details of manufacturing pencils from
a Montreux stationer (VNAY 577). I am tempted to imagine that the stationer
read from the pamphlet to VN. A part of the pamphlet is printed as
"Appendix A" to Henry Petroski, THE PENCIL (Knopf, 1992).
(8) Elias: I found Keith McMullen's post very interesting. A ghost, Peter
[-son], walking on water and then sinking. I have wondered why "Elias"
Borrowdale. He is another miracle-worker[/walker] and forms a motif of
miracle-worker/prophet/hermit. A naked hermit appears on the stage in Ch.
11.
(9) (here a shot of the fleecy fat-giver being butchered, a shot of the
butcher, a shot of the shepherd, a shot of the shepherd's father, a
Mexican): reminds me of LAS HURDES, a notorious pseudo-documentary film
Bnuel shot in Spain. There is no evidence of his seeing the film. The only
VN's comment on Bnuel I have found is that on VIRIDIANA in NABOKOV'S DARK
CINEMA (59). This must be just a coincidence too, but an attractive one:
LAS HURDES was banned from France because Bunuel referred to some other
miserable places such as Savoie in the film. Savoie (and Savoy) is referred
to in Ch. 19.
(10) a newly invented power saw, we see logs...: saw/see ?
Akiko Nakata
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Monday, July 12, 2004 1:17 AM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: TT-3
(1) We: "we" narrate this chapter except the sentence "My good Hugh tried
to woggle it in."
"We" demonstrate their clairvoyance through time and space.
(2) "---less" adjectives: bulbless, shadeless, faceless, nameless.
(3) unfinished work: (actually neither), (nobody had), having gone away for
a tool that he never found, (still not closed).
(4) colors: following the mnemoptical trick in the previous chapter, this
chapter enfolds the delicate variation of shades: "dyed a dingy lilac,"
"The bare wood of its tapered end has darkened to plumbeous plum, thus
merging in tint with the blunt tip of graphite," "we could trace the
complicated fate of the shavings, each mauve on one side and tan on the
other when fresh."
(5) Going back a number of seasons: in the course of incalculable seasons
(Ch. 1).
(6) when pencil lead was discovered: An unusually pure deposit of graphite,
thought to be a type of lead, was discovered in Borrowdale, England, in
1564. German Swiss naturalist Konrad von Gesner first described how it
could be used in a wooden holder for writing in 1565 (from Brian Boyd's
notes to the LOA edition).
The Cumberland Pencil Museum is in Keswick, an old market town near
Borrowdale. The history of pencils etc. are on their website
(http://www.pencils.co.uk/p_history.asp).
(7) we see graphite, ground very fine. . .: Koh-I-Noor Pencil Company
published a pamphlet HOW THE PENCIL IS MADE in 1936. A part of it resembles
this passage. In fact, VN learned the details of manufacturing pencils from
a Montreux stationer (VNAY 577). I am tempted to imagine that the stationer
read from the pamphlet to VN. A part of the pamphlet is printed as
"Appendix A" to Henry Petroski, THE PENCIL (Knopf, 1992).
(8) Elias: I found Keith McMullen's post very interesting. A ghost, Peter
[-son], walking on water and then sinking. I have wondered why "Elias"
Borrowdale. He is another miracle-worker[/walker] and forms a motif of
miracle-worker/prophet/hermit. A naked hermit appears on the stage in Ch.
11.
(9) (here a shot of the fleecy fat-giver being butchered, a shot of the
butcher, a shot of the shepherd, a shot of the shepherd's father, a
Mexican): reminds me of LAS HURDES, a notorious pseudo-documentary film
Bnuel shot in Spain. There is no evidence of his seeing the film. The only
VN's comment on Bnuel I have found is that on VIRIDIANA in NABOKOV'S DARK
CINEMA (59). This must be just a coincidence too, but an attractive one:
LAS HURDES was banned from France because Bunuel referred to some other
miserable places such as Savoie in the film. Savoie (and Savoy) is referred
to in Ch. 19.
(10) a newly invented power saw, we see logs...: saw/see ?
Akiko Nakata
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L