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Re: Fwd: TT-20 Ajar doors, beams of light, and misprints
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EDNOTE. The ray of light motif is indeed widewspread in VN's work. As far as I
recall, the first extended references to it were made by W.W. Rowe in
_Nabokov's Spectral Dimension_.
------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp -----
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:24:50 +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
Dear Eric and All,
Thank you for the excellent parallels.
The slant light in TT reminded me of the light on Lolita sleeping in the
Enchanted Hunter's (but there is no misprint):
The door of the lighted bathroom stood ajar; in addition to that, a skeleton
glow came through the Venetian blind from the outside arclights; these
intercrossed rays penetrated the darkness of the bedroom and revealed the
following situation.
Clothed in one of her old nightgowns, my Lolita lay on her side with her
back to me, in the middle of the bed. Her lightly veiled body and bare limbs
formed a Z. She had put both pillows under her dark tousled head; a band of
pale light crossed her top vertebrae. (I. 29)
I think "hazily" ("Yes, it did, hazily") suggests Dolores Haze or rather
the ghost of Charlotte Haze. I agree with you that TT is full of parodic
reversals of VN's great hits. In L the moon light prevents HH from
approaching Lolita
until the morning while in TT, as you mentioned, the moon light escaping
from the living room is
closed out and cannot do
anything to help Armande from HP's unconscious assault. A parody of BS is
more meaningful with the misprint, but I think L is also twisted and
layered.
Best wishes,
Akiko
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 4:41 AM
Subject: Fwd: TT-20 Ajar doors, beams of light, and misprints
> from E. Naiman
>
> Going over a few of the chapters I had not spent much time on last
> fall.
> It is worth noting that in Armande's last words to Hugh "she murmured
> something about the light." Hugh has come into the room: Did that wake
> her? Yes, it did, hazily, or at least teased a hole in the hay, and she
> murmured something about the light."
> Immediately afterwards we read: "Actually
> all that impinged on the darkness was an angled beam from the living room,
> the door of which he had left ajar. He now closed it gently as he groped
> his way to the bed."
> If in many ways TT is a parodic reversal of VN's greatest hits, (recall
> Hugh and Armande on the couch, a scene where Lolita knows exactly what she
> is doing, indeed it is the way SHE can best experience sexual pleasure),
> here is another one -- the end of Bend Sinister, where Krug is wakened in
> his cell:
> It was at that moment, just after Krug had fallen through the bottom of
> a confused dream and sat up on the straw with a gasp --and just before his
> reality, his remembered hideous misfortune could pounce upon him -- it was
> then that I felt a pang of pity for Adam and slid towards him along an
> inclined beam of pale light -- causing instantaneous madness, but at least
> saving him from the senseless agony of his logical fate."
> Note how the scene in TT is similar -- but completely ineffective in
> "saving" either Hugh or Armande. Hugh goes mad and in madness kills
> Armande rather than escaping from a nightmare. The inclined beam of light
> isn't an escape hatch -- rather the light from the room of the living is
> closed off -- here the door of doom does not stay ajar (cf. Pnin).
> Finally, look at the misprint later corrected by Hugh:
>
> "that he would have to consult an ophthalmologist sometime next
> mouth. He substituted an 'n' for the wrong letter and continued to scan
> the motlep proof into which the blackness of closed vision was not
> turning."
>
> Bend Sinister, of course, ends with the classic, uncorrected "misprint", a
> misprint that, uncorrected, with N NOT substituted for the wrong letter,
> is part of the affirmation of the "IMPRINT we leave in the intimate
> texture of space." In TT the misprint is corrected as if it were
> meaningless -- and Hugh and Armande plunge into tragedy.
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
recall, the first extended references to it were made by W.W. Rowe in
_Nabokov's Spectral Dimension_.
------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp -----
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:24:50 +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
Dear Eric and All,
Thank you for the excellent parallels.
The slant light in TT reminded me of the light on Lolita sleeping in the
Enchanted Hunter's (but there is no misprint):
The door of the lighted bathroom stood ajar; in addition to that, a skeleton
glow came through the Venetian blind from the outside arclights; these
intercrossed rays penetrated the darkness of the bedroom and revealed the
following situation.
Clothed in one of her old nightgowns, my Lolita lay on her side with her
back to me, in the middle of the bed. Her lightly veiled body and bare limbs
formed a Z. She had put both pillows under her dark tousled head; a band of
pale light crossed her top vertebrae. (I. 29)
I think "hazily" ("Yes, it did, hazily") suggests Dolores Haze or rather
the ghost of Charlotte Haze. I agree with you that TT is full of parodic
reversals of VN's great hits. In L the moon light prevents HH from
approaching Lolita
until the morning while in TT, as you mentioned, the moon light escaping
from the living room is
closed out and cannot do
anything to help Armande from HP's unconscious assault. A parody of BS is
more meaningful with the misprint, but I think L is also twisted and
layered.
Best wishes,
Akiko
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 4:41 AM
Subject: Fwd: TT-20 Ajar doors, beams of light, and misprints
> from E. Naiman
>
> Going over a few of the chapters I had not spent much time on last
> fall.
> It is worth noting that in Armande's last words to Hugh "she murmured
> something about the light." Hugh has come into the room: Did that wake
> her? Yes, it did, hazily, or at least teased a hole in the hay, and she
> murmured something about the light."
> Immediately afterwards we read: "Actually
> all that impinged on the darkness was an angled beam from the living room,
> the door of which he had left ajar. He now closed it gently as he groped
> his way to the bed."
> If in many ways TT is a parodic reversal of VN's greatest hits, (recall
> Hugh and Armande on the couch, a scene where Lolita knows exactly what she
> is doing, indeed it is the way SHE can best experience sexual pleasure),
> here is another one -- the end of Bend Sinister, where Krug is wakened in
> his cell:
> It was at that moment, just after Krug had fallen through the bottom of
> a confused dream and sat up on the straw with a gasp --and just before his
> reality, his remembered hideous misfortune could pounce upon him -- it was
> then that I felt a pang of pity for Adam and slid towards him along an
> inclined beam of pale light -- causing instantaneous madness, but at least
> saving him from the senseless agony of his logical fate."
> Note how the scene in TT is similar -- but completely ineffective in
> "saving" either Hugh or Armande. Hugh goes mad and in madness kills
> Armande rather than escaping from a nightmare. The inclined beam of light
> isn't an escape hatch -- rather the light from the room of the living is
> closed off -- here the door of doom does not stay ajar (cf. Pnin).
> Finally, look at the misprint later corrected by Hugh:
>
> "that he would have to consult an ophthalmologist sometime next
> mouth. He substituted an 'n' for the wrong letter and continued to scan
> the motlep proof into which the blackness of closed vision was not
> turning."
>
> Bend Sinister, of course, ends with the classic, uncorrected "misprint", a
> misprint that, uncorrected, with N NOT substituted for the wrong letter,
> is part of the affirmation of the "IMPRINT we leave in the intimate
> texture of space." In TT the misprint is corrected as if it were
> meaningless -- and Hugh and Armande plunge into tragedy.
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----