Subject
TT-8 HP's college poem. Typographic icons
From
Date
Body
"Blest are suspension dots ... The sun was setting
a heavenly example to the lake...
This is one of many typographic icons, i.e., punctuation marks that
graphically resemble an object under discussion, to be found in TT and
elswhere in VN's work. "Suspension dots" is the British term for ellipses
marks. Hence the "..." actually illustrate the set of tiny reflected
setting suns reflected in the lake.
TT, as befits a novella about an editor/proofreader, has a lot of these
typographic icons as I call them. For a more general sketch of this
Nabokovian stylistic device, see my article at the URL below.
<http://www.nabokovmuseum.org/PDF/Johnson.pdf>
P.S. NB this "works" only if the British term "suspension dots" (not the
"American ellipses") is used. See the copy of the first page of the TT
typescript on the NYPL "N under glass" exhibit for an exchange between VN
and his editor over "Britishisms."
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
a heavenly example to the lake...
This is one of many typographic icons, i.e., punctuation marks that
graphically resemble an object under discussion, to be found in TT and
elswhere in VN's work. "Suspension dots" is the British term for ellipses
marks. Hence the "..." actually illustrate the set of tiny reflected
setting suns reflected in the lake.
TT, as befits a novella about an editor/proofreader, has a lot of these
typographic icons as I call them. For a more general sketch of this
Nabokovian stylistic device, see my article at the URL below.
<http://www.nabokovmuseum.org/PDF/Johnson.pdf>
P.S. NB this "works" only if the British term "suspension dots" (not the
"American ellipses") is used. See the copy of the first page of the TT
typescript on the NYPL "N under glass" exhibit for an exchange between VN
and his editor over "Britishisms."
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L