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Re: Fwd: TT-10,13, 14,15 (fwd)
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----- Forwarded message from naiman@socrates.Berkeley.EDU -----
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 23:38:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: naiman@socrates.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: naiman@socrates.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: Fwd: TT-10,13, 14,15 (fwd)
To: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
Dear Don:
I'm not sure what the status of this post is; I sent it in various
pieces before the gap in discussion...
Eric
chapter 10
Alfred Appel's Dark Cinema provides a gloss on "the cinema star
Reubenson who once played old gangsters in Florida-staged films; but not
such actor existed": "Yes, Little Caesar [i.e. Edward G. Robinson] was
really Emmanuel Goldenberg, but by the mid nineteen-forties Robinson had
become a "dramatic actor" - which is to say a weakling" (3).
on chapter 13
45 - "My former stepfather, thank Heavens" Julia is parodying R., "who
had an exasperating way not only of trotting out hackneyed formulas in his
would-be colloquial thickly accented English, but also of getting them
wrong)"
There are several links between chapter 13 and chapter 5
46 - the mistaken translation of snowdrift in French (rafale de vent)
reprises the mistaken translation by Hugh's father for Notre vente
triomphale de soldes. In both case, the mistake involves wind, a theme in
the novel.
48 the end of the chapter '' "Hugh "pulled up short with a curse and went
back to retrieve his parcel" recalls the end of chapter 5 "with an oath
and a sigh Hugh retraced his steps)
45 sonic interruptions:
"Interrupting us with an earspliting crash an impassive waitress"
14: "the thunder of a nonstop train crashed by"
46 "The word you want," said our Person, " is cong'ere, feminine gender, I
learned it from my mother."
This echoes the grammatical reference in chapter 5 ("The masculine ending
and the absence of an acute accent flawed the unintentional pun:
3 Photos
Poses." We hear that echo, too, in chapter 13's mention of the novel
by R, Three Tenses. The word "cong'ere", followed immediately by
"feminine gender" may be something of a tease (french "con"), placing the
word for snowdrift in a contextual pose ose'. (and "I learned it from my
mother" -- is Hugh -- "our Person" being made to curse himself by "the
author"?)
ch.14
tempo turns -- although this is apparently a techinical term, we should
not forget the "Three tenses" and the theme of balancing between past and
future.
the malachite skis should recall the green figurine and the aragonite of
chapter five (Armande RAve and strangling appear there)
ch.15
Armande's invitation to Hugh, made "as casually as if she were suggesting
they pick mushrooms or raspberries": "And now one is going to make love.
I know a nice mosy spot just behind those trees where we won't be
disturbed, if you do it quickly": is a parodic inversion of the mushroom
picking scene in Anna Karenina, where Koznyshev does NOT make a passionate
declaration to Varvara, although he has been mulling it over in his mind.
Instead of speaking about love, the pair can only manage to speak casually
about mushrooms ("So you haven't ound anything? But then of course there
are always fewer in the midle of the wood") The mycological chatter
continues, and Koznyshev is just about to make is declaration, when he
unaccountably asks:
"What is the difference between a white and a birch mushroom?"
Varenka's lips trembled with agitation when she replied:
"There is hardly any difference in the cap. It's the stalks that
are different"
And the moment those words were uttered, both he and she
understood that it was all over, that what should have been said would
never be said, and their agitation, having reached its climax, began to
subside.
The last sentence (i volnenie ikh, doshedshee pred etim do vysshei
stepeni) looks comically suggestive when reread after rereading
Armande's invitation.
Armande here is depicted as something of a mermaid (rusalka) -- her
fishlike flip, the initially (?) daunting layer that girds her lower body.
Nabokov has used this imagery in other works for sexually available or
sexually evocative women. Given the echo of the scene w. the prostitute
earlier in the novel, we might hear a "whore" in "whortleberries" (The
Slender Slut)
Eric
ps re the query on johns, which can refer to any sort of room containing a
toilet.. There is another john joke in Pnin, at the end of chapter four,
when Old Bill Shepherd, just before he goes to the bathroom, dreams of "a
poplar that years ago lightning had struck, killing John Head, a dim,
distant relation."
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 23:38:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: naiman@socrates.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: naiman@socrates.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: Fwd: TT-10,13, 14,15 (fwd)
To: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
Dear Don:
I'm not sure what the status of this post is; I sent it in various
pieces before the gap in discussion...
Eric
chapter 10
Alfred Appel's Dark Cinema provides a gloss on "the cinema star
Reubenson who once played old gangsters in Florida-staged films; but not
such actor existed": "Yes, Little Caesar [i.e. Edward G. Robinson] was
really Emmanuel Goldenberg, but by the mid nineteen-forties Robinson had
become a "dramatic actor" - which is to say a weakling" (3).
on chapter 13
45 - "My former stepfather, thank Heavens" Julia is parodying R., "who
had an exasperating way not only of trotting out hackneyed formulas in his
would-be colloquial thickly accented English, but also of getting them
wrong)"
There are several links between chapter 13 and chapter 5
46 - the mistaken translation of snowdrift in French (rafale de vent)
reprises the mistaken translation by Hugh's father for Notre vente
triomphale de soldes. In both case, the mistake involves wind, a theme in
the novel.
48 the end of the chapter '' "Hugh "pulled up short with a curse and went
back to retrieve his parcel" recalls the end of chapter 5 "with an oath
and a sigh Hugh retraced his steps)
45 sonic interruptions:
"Interrupting us with an earspliting crash an impassive waitress"
14: "the thunder of a nonstop train crashed by"
46 "The word you want," said our Person, " is cong'ere, feminine gender, I
learned it from my mother."
This echoes the grammatical reference in chapter 5 ("The masculine ending
and the absence of an acute accent flawed the unintentional pun:
3 Photos
Poses." We hear that echo, too, in chapter 13's mention of the novel
by R, Three Tenses. The word "cong'ere", followed immediately by
"feminine gender" may be something of a tease (french "con"), placing the
word for snowdrift in a contextual pose ose'. (and "I learned it from my
mother" -- is Hugh -- "our Person" being made to curse himself by "the
author"?)
ch.14
tempo turns -- although this is apparently a techinical term, we should
not forget the "Three tenses" and the theme of balancing between past and
future.
the malachite skis should recall the green figurine and the aragonite of
chapter five (Armande RAve and strangling appear there)
ch.15
Armande's invitation to Hugh, made "as casually as if she were suggesting
they pick mushrooms or raspberries": "And now one is going to make love.
I know a nice mosy spot just behind those trees where we won't be
disturbed, if you do it quickly": is a parodic inversion of the mushroom
picking scene in Anna Karenina, where Koznyshev does NOT make a passionate
declaration to Varvara, although he has been mulling it over in his mind.
Instead of speaking about love, the pair can only manage to speak casually
about mushrooms ("So you haven't ound anything? But then of course there
are always fewer in the midle of the wood") The mycological chatter
continues, and Koznyshev is just about to make is declaration, when he
unaccountably asks:
"What is the difference between a white and a birch mushroom?"
Varenka's lips trembled with agitation when she replied:
"There is hardly any difference in the cap. It's the stalks that
are different"
And the moment those words were uttered, both he and she
understood that it was all over, that what should have been said would
never be said, and their agitation, having reached its climax, began to
subside.
The last sentence (i volnenie ikh, doshedshee pred etim do vysshei
stepeni) looks comically suggestive when reread after rereading
Armande's invitation.
Armande here is depicted as something of a mermaid (rusalka) -- her
fishlike flip, the initially (?) daunting layer that girds her lower body.
Nabokov has used this imagery in other works for sexually available or
sexually evocative women. Given the echo of the scene w. the prostitute
earlier in the novel, we might hear a "whore" in "whortleberries" (The
Slender Slut)
Eric
ps re the query on johns, which can refer to any sort of room containing a
toilet.. There is another john joke in Pnin, at the end of chapter four,
when Old Bill Shepherd, just before he goes to the bathroom, dreams of "a
poplar that years ago lightning had struck, killing John Head, a dim,
distant relation."
----- End forwarded message -----