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jock talk (fwd)
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2004 7:24 PM -0700
From: naiman@socrates.Berkeley.EDU
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: jock talk
------------------ Akiko's suggestion casts a light on the "jock talk" that
R. criticizes in more fashionable writers. Jacques' ultimatum to Armande
is quite literally Jacques talk, and the Jacques are all jocks...
I had always assumed that the word jock (as in sportsman) came from
jock-strap, and it does. But the OED informs one that jock-strap is
extremely literal, since the jock that is strapped refer to the genitals
of a man (or, more rarely, a woman). It is defined in that sense by a
dictionary as far back as 1790, and that meaning is preserved in a 1972
Dictionary of Contemporary and American Usage (again per OED).
Eric
On Thu, 12 Aug 2004, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> ------------------
> Inspired by Eric's stimulating comments, I thought of a
> few things.
>
> Perhaps the J boys--Jack, Jake, Jacque, Jimmy--could be genitals too. That
> is not only from my fantasy, but also from ADA: "Marina knew aroma and
> hombre, and an anatomical term with a "j" hanging in the middle" (I. 6).
> Brian Boyd's note: El ojo means "the eye" and was the title of the 1967
> Spanish translation of Nabokov's novella The Eye; cojon means "testicle"
> (from ADAonline).
> It cannot be said about Julia, though.
>
> > "This is, I believe, IT (italicized); not the crude anguish of physical
> death but the
> > incomparable pangs of the mysterious mental maneuver needed to pass fro
> > mone state of being to another. Easy, you know, does it, son". Is the
> > final maneuver akin to a proofreader's, replacing fit with it?
>
> Very interesting. Then HP might be required to change IT to TT, the
> ultimate proofreading. When he accomplishes it, he can enter another
> world, the world of TT. I thought and think that "IT" alludes to the
> unnamable, "what we cannot speak about" of Wittgenstein. But HP's last
> proofreading is also tempting. I think in this novel there can be plural
> things layering translucently over the text, and it is possible that more
> than one thing hidden in the same place. But this is the crucial point...
>
> Akiko
>
>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
>
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2004 7:24 PM -0700
From: naiman@socrates.Berkeley.EDU
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: jock talk
------------------ Akiko's suggestion casts a light on the "jock talk" that
R. criticizes in more fashionable writers. Jacques' ultimatum to Armande
is quite literally Jacques talk, and the Jacques are all jocks...
I had always assumed that the word jock (as in sportsman) came from
jock-strap, and it does. But the OED informs one that jock-strap is
extremely literal, since the jock that is strapped refer to the genitals
of a man (or, more rarely, a woman). It is defined in that sense by a
dictionary as far back as 1790, and that meaning is preserved in a 1972
Dictionary of Contemporary and American Usage (again per OED).
Eric
On Thu, 12 Aug 2004, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> ------------------
> Inspired by Eric's stimulating comments, I thought of a
> few things.
>
> Perhaps the J boys--Jack, Jake, Jacque, Jimmy--could be genitals too. That
> is not only from my fantasy, but also from ADA: "Marina knew aroma and
> hombre, and an anatomical term with a "j" hanging in the middle" (I. 6).
> Brian Boyd's note: El ojo means "the eye" and was the title of the 1967
> Spanish translation of Nabokov's novella The Eye; cojon means "testicle"
> (from ADAonline).
> It cannot be said about Julia, though.
>
> > "This is, I believe, IT (italicized); not the crude anguish of physical
> death but the
> > incomparable pangs of the mysterious mental maneuver needed to pass fro
> > mone state of being to another. Easy, you know, does it, son". Is the
> > final maneuver akin to a proofreader's, replacing fit with it?
>
> Very interesting. Then HP might be required to change IT to TT, the
> ultimate proofreading. When he accomplishes it, he can enter another
> world, the world of TT. I thought and think that "IT" alludes to the
> unnamable, "what we cannot speak about" of Wittgenstein. But HP's last
> proofreading is also tempting. I think in this novel there can be plural
> things layering translucently over the text, and it is possible that more
> than one thing hidden in the same place. But this is the crucial point...
>
> Akiko
>
>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
>
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L