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TT-12 Introductory Notes (fwd)
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2004 9:02 AM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: TT-12 Introductory Notes
---------------------------------------------------
37.01: A lot of construction work was going on: repeats the last sentence
of the previous chapter. It suggests another narrator takes over from the
previous one? Cf. The first line of Ch. 10 ("He did do something about it,
despite all that fond criticism of himself") is also made from the last
passage of the previous chapter: "I have fallen in love with you but shall
nothing about it" + "fond criticism of."
37.09: an Italian newspaper: *La Stampa* in the previous chapter. Why was
the newspaper named? Is there anything behind the name of the paper besides
the Italian connection?
37.10-11: a woman selling apples: The Eden motif from the previous chapter.
As Eric has pointed out, "yabloni," apple trees, is also associated. So is
Diablonnet, which has an association with "diable" (F).
37.12: An over affectionate large white dog: HP will be seeing the woman
and the dog again in Ch. 22: "a large, white, shivering dog crawled from
behind a crate and with a shock of futile recognition Hugh remembered that
eight years ago he had stopped right here and had noticed that dog, which
was pretty old even then and had now braved fabulous age only to serve his
blind memory." This might be an echo from the old dog waiting for Ulysses
to return, but in TT the old dog does not recognize HP while HP recalls him
with a slight shock. In Ch. 12, the dog looks rather young
(overaffectionate, frisk unpleasantly in his wake) and reminds us of the
imaginary dog in Ch. 2: "like a stupid pet it whined and immediately
followed him into the room."
As Misha mentioned about the chapters 9 and 19, there are some paralells
between the chapters 12 and 22 too.
37.17-19: The cries of children at play came from behind the wall and a
shuttleclock sailed over it to land at his feet. He ignored it: Cf. "A
blond little girl with a badminton racket crouched and picked up her
shuttlecock from the sidewalk" (Ch. 22). As if the same girl--she looks
like Armande in her childhood--had been playing badminton behind the wall.
38.10-11: (which we thought wiser our Person should not recognize): As if
the ghosts were directing HP and the scene.
38.14-15: Charles Chamar, nee Anastasia Petrovna Potapov: A pair of
alliterative names. Anastasia is, for the "average reader," the name of a
Romanov princess, Grand Duchess Anastasia, who was once believed to have
survived assassination. The name sounds like "in a very noble milieu" (Ch.
9).
38.29-30: impossible chestnut suit: Cf. "you know, Timofey, this brown suit
of yours is a mistake: a gentleman does not wear brown" (*Pnin* I. 6).
39.18: "allons dans la maison": Correctly, "entrons dans la maison"?
39.22-23: "psychological obstruction"; 39.24-27: she had to concentrate
upon the idea of trying to fool gravity until something clicked inwardly
and the right jerk happened like the miracle of a sneeze; 40.01-02: the
frame of her deck chair emitted an almost human cry: The seance theme.
40.04: "Everything is well": Cf. "with its sense of 'all-is-well'" (Ch.
15).
40.19-20: attracting tourists from distant countries such as Rhodesia and
Japan: There must be a reason why these two countries are chosen, but I
have no idea. Just because Rhodesia and Japan feel most distant to VN??
40.33-34: the dream of Lutwidgean: Charles (connected with M. Charles
Chamar) Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll is famous/notorious for
photographing girls in nude. As we have seen, there are some allusions to
his books throughout the novel.
41.01-03: the pictures of little Armande in her bath, pressing a
proboscides rubber toy to her shiny stomach or standing up,
dimple-bottomed, to be lathered: Obviously the narrator, probably Mr. R.,
illustrates his pedophiliac fantasy that HH must envy. Cf. " tickling her
in her bath, kissing her wet shoulders, then one day carrying her wrapped
in a big towel to his lair" (Ch. 19).
41.22-24: No matrimonial agency could have offered its clients such
variations on the theme of one virgin; "how dare you exhibit your child to
sensitive strangers?": faintly echoes HH visiting a whorehouse and then a
private home in Paris (*Lolita* I. 6).
41.27-28: the Denton mount of a birdwing butterfly: Cf. "Aunts, however,
kept making me ridiculous presents--such as Denton mounts of resplendent
but really quite ordinary insects" (*Conclusive Evidence* Ch. 6).
42.11-14: "tell her that my system is poisoned by her, by her twenty
sisters, her twenty dwindlings in backcast, and that I shall perish if I
cannot have her": echoes the consciousness of dying Lucette: "As she began
losing track of herself, she thought it proper to infrom a series of
receding Lucettes--telling them to pass it on and on in a track-crystal
regression--that what death amounted to was only a more complete assortment
of the infinite fractions of solitude" (*ADA* III. 5). She perishes because
she cannot have Van.
42.28-30: he groped with the other hand for is reading glasses, without
which, by some vagary of concomitant senses, he could not attend to the
telephone properly: A parody of synaethesia?
42.31: "You Person?": As has been mentioned, the protagonist HP is simply a
person, you, everyone. Also a hint to "Who narrates?" when the narrator
drop "h"s.
43.06-07: a blindman's cup/cap: Which is correct?
43.11: She invited "Percy": Sir Percy is the protagonist of *The Scarlet
Pimpernel* which VN still enjoyed reading by the age of fourteen or
fifteen. The mysterious description in Ch. 24 "even if the lunette has
actually closed around your neck, and the cretinous crown holds its breath"
alluding to the guillotine and also mysterious "Mr. (now Lord) X" could be
connected with Sir Percy.
43.13: Darkened Heat: A snowman might be expected to cool down his sexual
desire, which has been compared to fire/flame, not extraordinary, but they
have an association with the last fire. Cf. "a few firedrops of impatience"
(Ch. 11), "but shade I must have," "the flame of his interest" (Ch. 12).
Akiko Nakata
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2004 9:02 AM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: TT-12 Introductory Notes
---------------------------------------------------
37.01: A lot of construction work was going on: repeats the last sentence
of the previous chapter. It suggests another narrator takes over from the
previous one? Cf. The first line of Ch. 10 ("He did do something about it,
despite all that fond criticism of himself") is also made from the last
passage of the previous chapter: "I have fallen in love with you but shall
nothing about it" + "fond criticism of."
37.09: an Italian newspaper: *La Stampa* in the previous chapter. Why was
the newspaper named? Is there anything behind the name of the paper besides
the Italian connection?
37.10-11: a woman selling apples: The Eden motif from the previous chapter.
As Eric has pointed out, "yabloni," apple trees, is also associated. So is
Diablonnet, which has an association with "diable" (F).
37.12: An over affectionate large white dog: HP will be seeing the woman
and the dog again in Ch. 22: "a large, white, shivering dog crawled from
behind a crate and with a shock of futile recognition Hugh remembered that
eight years ago he had stopped right here and had noticed that dog, which
was pretty old even then and had now braved fabulous age only to serve his
blind memory." This might be an echo from the old dog waiting for Ulysses
to return, but in TT the old dog does not recognize HP while HP recalls him
with a slight shock. In Ch. 12, the dog looks rather young
(overaffectionate, frisk unpleasantly in his wake) and reminds us of the
imaginary dog in Ch. 2: "like a stupid pet it whined and immediately
followed him into the room."
As Misha mentioned about the chapters 9 and 19, there are some paralells
between the chapters 12 and 22 too.
37.17-19: The cries of children at play came from behind the wall and a
shuttleclock sailed over it to land at his feet. He ignored it: Cf. "A
blond little girl with a badminton racket crouched and picked up her
shuttlecock from the sidewalk" (Ch. 22). As if the same girl--she looks
like Armande in her childhood--had been playing badminton behind the wall.
38.10-11: (which we thought wiser our Person should not recognize): As if
the ghosts were directing HP and the scene.
38.14-15: Charles Chamar, nee Anastasia Petrovna Potapov: A pair of
alliterative names. Anastasia is, for the "average reader," the name of a
Romanov princess, Grand Duchess Anastasia, who was once believed to have
survived assassination. The name sounds like "in a very noble milieu" (Ch.
9).
38.29-30: impossible chestnut suit: Cf. "you know, Timofey, this brown suit
of yours is a mistake: a gentleman does not wear brown" (*Pnin* I. 6).
39.18: "allons dans la maison": Correctly, "entrons dans la maison"?
39.22-23: "psychological obstruction"; 39.24-27: she had to concentrate
upon the idea of trying to fool gravity until something clicked inwardly
and the right jerk happened like the miracle of a sneeze; 40.01-02: the
frame of her deck chair emitted an almost human cry: The seance theme.
40.04: "Everything is well": Cf. "with its sense of 'all-is-well'" (Ch.
15).
40.19-20: attracting tourists from distant countries such as Rhodesia and
Japan: There must be a reason why these two countries are chosen, but I
have no idea. Just because Rhodesia and Japan feel most distant to VN??
40.33-34: the dream of Lutwidgean: Charles (connected with M. Charles
Chamar) Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll is famous/notorious for
photographing girls in nude. As we have seen, there are some allusions to
his books throughout the novel.
41.01-03: the pictures of little Armande in her bath, pressing a
proboscides rubber toy to her shiny stomach or standing up,
dimple-bottomed, to be lathered: Obviously the narrator, probably Mr. R.,
illustrates his pedophiliac fantasy that HH must envy. Cf. " tickling her
in her bath, kissing her wet shoulders, then one day carrying her wrapped
in a big towel to his lair" (Ch. 19).
41.22-24: No matrimonial agency could have offered its clients such
variations on the theme of one virgin; "how dare you exhibit your child to
sensitive strangers?": faintly echoes HH visiting a whorehouse and then a
private home in Paris (*Lolita* I. 6).
41.27-28: the Denton mount of a birdwing butterfly: Cf. "Aunts, however,
kept making me ridiculous presents--such as Denton mounts of resplendent
but really quite ordinary insects" (*Conclusive Evidence* Ch. 6).
42.11-14: "tell her that my system is poisoned by her, by her twenty
sisters, her twenty dwindlings in backcast, and that I shall perish if I
cannot have her": echoes the consciousness of dying Lucette: "As she began
losing track of herself, she thought it proper to infrom a series of
receding Lucettes--telling them to pass it on and on in a track-crystal
regression--that what death amounted to was only a more complete assortment
of the infinite fractions of solitude" (*ADA* III. 5). She perishes because
she cannot have Van.
42.28-30: he groped with the other hand for is reading glasses, without
which, by some vagary of concomitant senses, he could not attend to the
telephone properly: A parody of synaethesia?
42.31: "You Person?": As has been mentioned, the protagonist HP is simply a
person, you, everyone. Also a hint to "Who narrates?" when the narrator
drop "h"s.
43.06-07: a blindman's cup/cap: Which is correct?
43.11: She invited "Percy": Sir Percy is the protagonist of *The Scarlet
Pimpernel* which VN still enjoyed reading by the age of fourteen or
fifteen. The mysterious description in Ch. 24 "even if the lunette has
actually closed around your neck, and the cretinous crown holds its breath"
alluding to the guillotine and also mysterious "Mr. (now Lord) X" could be
connected with Sir Percy.
43.13: Darkened Heat: A snowman might be expected to cool down his sexual
desire, which has been compared to fire/flame, not extraordinary, but they
have an association with the last fire. Cf. "a few firedrops of impatience"
(Ch. 11), "but shade I must have," "the flame of his interest" (Ch. 12).
Akiko Nakata
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------