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Fw: TT ( present and past )
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello ; Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Cc: Akiko Nakata ; don barton johnson
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 9:55 AM
Subject: TT ( present and past )
Hello, Don
I´ve exchanged a few hurried messages with Akiko about T. T" , trying to check, among other things, what had already been discussed at the list.
She also mailed me past references at the List which, perhaps, would be worthwhile to freshen up by offering them once again for discussion.
I shall be adding these older postings at the end, mainly because I´m intrigued by the VN-Baron R link ( which must be another kind of drape that hides and reveals at the same time) and I thought the reference to three ( Person/Peterson as Pereson, Person and fils as in the Trinity, as the 3 P(oses) ) and the various triangles could be more explored by us all.
Jansy
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Dear Akiko
Baron R, probably Adam von Librikov, would he be Nabokov himself? ( or his clumsy shade... Blinds?Ooops... Has anyone thought of Shade as referring to "blinds", unseeing Shade, like closed windows or slates?)
And Hugh, could he be Van? ( there are several indicators along TT... even with the Burning Barn sequence of "Golden Window/Burning Window/burning doll-house"). But it does not make any sense, not at all.
Jansy
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Dear Jansy,
Yes, R, AvL is VN. It was pointed out so many years ago.
Thank you for the shade-blind connection. I have no idea whether or not someone has mentioned it before.
I think HP could be converted Van.
Yes, there are a lot of Ada allusions in TT.
I am very pleased to hear now you like TT so much. You made TT project rewarding. Thank you!
Akiko
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Dear Akiko
If VN enacts a Nabokovian part in "Baron R" , at the same time he would not present himself like HH thru the link bt. the Baron and the "stepfather/stepdaughter/wife" triangles.
This connection must mean that either he is pointing to "an author" or else, to "a narrator" in some special sense, taking Vladimir Nabokov as an "irradiation center" in the plots ( the " vanishing point" he writes about in Ch 24).
If Armande is connected to the crescent, she must also represent Ada ( Diana/Hunter/Moon ).
Could the Moore ( so often repeated) be linked with The Moor ( Othello ) and to "Venetian blinds"?
Jansy
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Dear Jansy,
I have mentioned in my notes the VN-R-HH connection and the Moore-Othello-Venetian blinds connection (but not including Shade from PF). And I am glad that you think the same.
As for "the narrator as "irradiation centers" in a plot" and Armande connected to Ada via crescent, I find very interesting.
Akiko
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Postings from July 2004..................................................................................................
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2004 4:08 AM
Subject: Re: TT-2: "the gentleman from Massachussets" (fwd)
I'm not sure what to make of this just yet, but I can't help noticing that "the gentleman from Massachussets" whom Person sees reflected in the "rapt mirror" in the lift (i.e., himself) is described as having a face that "would have been a rugged, horsey, mountain-climbing arrangment had not his melancholy stoop belied every inch of his fantastic
majesty."
I'd like to call attention to those two final words, "fantastic majesty." Earlier in this chapter, when Person queries the receptionist about the former hotel director, Kronig, he finds out that this director "died last year." At first, though, Person mishears the idiomatic expression that she uses (I have to admit I don't know what it could have been); to him it
sounds as though the director had relocated to become manager of something like "the Fantastic in Blur" or "the Majestic in Chur."
So when Person's appearance is described in terms of "fantastic majesty," one thinks immediately of "the Fantastic" and "the Majestic," which are both associated with death (and the afterlife).
As I said, I don't know yet how to interpret this, but perhaps other contributors will have some ideas about the phrase and its resonances.
Maybe this relates to Mark Bennett's tentative assertion that the narrative is actually circular, beginning after Person's death, and that the first chapter opens "as he makes the transition [from life to death], but Hugh has yet to make the 'mysterious mental maneuver' that is necessary to adjust
to this new 'state of being.'"
Jamie Olson
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: tt-1 person (fwd) (fwd)
In regards to the "person", per-son, pere-son, pere-fils line, is there anything going on with the father/son/ghost tripartite idea?
Darryl Schade
These articles might be interesting.
Rowe, William Woodin. "Transparent Thngs." In Nabokov's Spectral Dimension.
Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis, 1981, pp. 11-16.
Nakata, Akiko. "Boundary-Crossings in Glory and Transparent Things."
URL: http://www10.plala.or.jp/transparentt/Boundary-Crossings.pdf
I treat the father/son/ghost theme in the "Fathers and Sons" section, and in "The Majestic," I mention "fantastic majesty" that Jamie Olson pointed out.
Akiko Nakata