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Re: VN's synaesthesia for Blue (fwd)
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Sunday, August 01, 2004 9:53 PM +0100
From: Nick Grundy <nick@bsad.org>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: Re: VN's synaesthesia for Blue
> What is the color blue associated with in VN's works? Shade of blue
> are predominant in RLSK. All help appreciated.
>
> -Sandy Drescher
I'm always a bit nervous of getting carried away with colour given John
Shade's thoughts on the matter, but blue crops up a good deal in Pnin,
where it tends to denote his happiness or love. At Cooks Castle a sort of
second home for Pnin (and almost a part of Russia) a score of small
butterflies have a celestial hue and resemble blue snow-flakes, the
wallpaper in his room as a boy in Russia has a pale-blue background, a
globe in his house shows Russia[?]painted a pale blue, Lizas eyes are
transparent blue or "brilliant blue", becoming aquamarine (p.37) - a
mix of blue and green - in Pnins mind after she has left him for the
second time.
I can't say if this applies elsewhere - certainly didn't notice it
prominently in Speak, Memory, Pale Fire, or Lolita...
Nick.
------------------------------------
EDNOTE. And Nabokov's field of lep specialization was the "Blues", the
Lycindae
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Sunday, August 01, 2004 9:53 PM +0100
From: Nick Grundy <nick@bsad.org>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: Re: VN's synaesthesia for Blue
> What is the color blue associated with in VN's works? Shade of blue
> are predominant in RLSK. All help appreciated.
>
> -Sandy Drescher
I'm always a bit nervous of getting carried away with colour given John
Shade's thoughts on the matter, but blue crops up a good deal in Pnin,
where it tends to denote his happiness or love. At Cooks Castle a sort of
second home for Pnin (and almost a part of Russia) a score of small
butterflies have a celestial hue and resemble blue snow-flakes, the
wallpaper in his room as a boy in Russia has a pale-blue background, a
globe in his house shows Russia[?]painted a pale blue, Lizas eyes are
transparent blue or "brilliant blue", becoming aquamarine (p.37) - a
mix of blue and green - in Pnins mind after she has left him for the
second time.
I can't say if this applies elsewhere - certainly didn't notice it
prominently in Speak, Memory, Pale Fire, or Lolita...
Nick.
------------------------------------
EDNOTE. And Nabokov's field of lep specialization was the "Blues", the
Lycindae
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L