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EDNOTE. I'm sure our German subscribers will be in a better position to clarify
this, but "Gruss Gott" is what I learned in German conversation classes 50
years ago.
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 16:22:37 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 2:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Fwd: TT-15 Introductory Notes (corrected)]
Hi, Don perhaps I´m way off the mark but "greetings" in German, " Gruss Gott" (
from what I remember) are very typical in the Austria and in some rural areas
in Germany. Of course, "Greeting God" might have a roman equivalent in "Ave,
Caesar", or even in our unfortunate modern " Heil Hitler".
I only mention this because I was a little absendmindedly reading the note about
"the little hikers" and the word "like hitlers" suddenly popped up. I don´t know
if it would be meaningful in the context now under scrutiny.
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 1:42 PM
Subject: [Fwd: TT-15 Introductory Notes (corrected)]
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From: "Akiko Nakata" <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>, <chtodel@cox.net>
Subject: TT-15 Introductory Notes (corrected)
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 16:23:40 +0900
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Sorry, Don. TT 15 notes I sent lacks most page/line numbers (sorry again!) and
includes a couple of typos.
Best, Akiko
------------------------------------------------------
52.08: as if by a Flemish master's hand: Cf. "To leap, or try to lower oneself
on knotted ledgelinen (the knotting was being demonstrated by a medievalish,
sort of Flemish, long-necked shopgirl in a speculum at the back of his dream),
seemed to him madness, . . ." (Ch. 20).
52.14: "*godilles*" and "*wedeln*" (rom?): An ascillating movement of the body
in skiing that involves short quick turns straight down the fall line. The
technique, developed in Austria in the 1950s, was just filtering into English
dictionaries in the 1960s, hence the "rom?" (a proofreader's query: roman, or
italics?) (Brian Boyd's note to the LoA TT).
52.15-17: the painted little people skimming along, losing a ski here, a pole
there, or victoriously veering in a spray of silver powder: We were advised to
learn to "skim" in the beginning of the novel: "Novices must learn to skim over
matter if they want to stay all the exact level of the moment" (Ch. 1). HP does
not follow Armande's advice to learn to ski, i.e., to skim. Cf. Don Barton
Johnson, "Transparent Things" in *The Garland Companion,* pp. 729-730.
53.03-09:He never could pinpoint, with his dazzled and watery eyes, Armande's
silhouette among the skiers. Once, however, he was sure he had caught her,
floating and flashing, red-anoraked, . . . and abruptly changing into a goggled
stranger: The theme of the elusive in spacetime. Hugh also takes Mr. R's
secretary for Julia: "when she put back the receiver and turned out to be a
totally different girl" (Ch. 18).
53.10-12: Presently she appeared from another side of the terrace, in glossy
green nylon, carrying her skis, but with her formidable boots still on: Hugh
was following a skier in a red anorak believing she was Armande, but actually
she was skiing in green. He is again deceived by the red-green "mnemoptical"
trick. This time he remembers green as red. But is there anything that could
make him remember the color as red instead of green?
53.11: in glossy green nylon: Armande of the scene was previewed in Ch. 5 and
will be appearing in Ch. 26 as a green figurine of a female skier.
53.14-15: "You look like the first girl on the moon": Apollo 11 landed on the
moon on July 20, 1969, three months before VN set about TT. Neil A. Armstrong
and Michael Collins on the moon were repeatedly reported and broadcasted over
the world. I have no idea whether or not VN had a special interest in the
project, but he must have seen the news.
"The moon" also connects with the tradename of her boots.
53.20: Mondstein Sexy: As Brian Boyd notes, Mondstein is Moonstone.
The tradename alludes to the moon, stones, Wittgenstein, and the gay sexual
party because of which Armande has left Jacques.
53.31-33: Jacques had demanded her presence at the onanistic sessions . . .
Jacques had now presented her with an ultimatum--either she join them in their
nasty games or he would cease being her lover: reminds us of the promiscuity
which Quilty demanded Lolita to take part in.
53.25: the heavenly cable car; 54.01-02: The gondola would have gone on
gliding forever in a blue haze sufficient for paradise: VN also liked the
cableway: "My favorite method of locomotion, though, is the cable way, and
especially the chairlift. I find enchanting and dreamy in the best sense of the
word to glide in the morning sun from valley to timberline in that magic seat,
and watch from above my own shadow--with the ghost of a butterfly net in the
ghost of a fist--as it keeps gently ascending in sitting profile along the
flowery slope below, among dancing Ringlets and skimming Fritillaries
(Interviewed by Simona Morini in 1972, *SO* 200). Cf. "Or else, at a ski
lodge, I would see her floating away from me, celestial and solitary in an
ethereal chairlift, up and up, to a glittering summit where laughing athletes
stripped to the waist were waiting for her, for her" (*Lolita* II.2).
54.08: buvette: Refreshment room (Brain Boyd's note to the LoA TT).
54.29-30: She consented to pull them down only just as far as necessary. Nor
did she let him kiss her, or caress her thighs: preludes her unnatural sexual
demands in their married life.
55.19-20: with its sense of "all-is-well" despite her worst moods, her
silliest caprices, her harshest demands: Cf. "Despite our tiffs, despite her
nastiness, despite all the fuss and faces she made, and the vulgarity, and the
danger, and the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my
elected paradise . . ." (*Lolita* II.3). I feel *Lolita* lingering around this
chapter.
54.23-24: A long file of little boys followed by a scout master climbed toward
them: HP cannot find the unforgettable place in his pilgrim: "He had not even
found the spot in the woods where gay band of little hikers had interrupted an
unforgettable kiss" (Ch. 25).
54.27: "Gruss Gott,": Greetings (Brain Boyd's note to the LoA TT).
Akiko Nakata
----- End forwarded message -----