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Fw: 'star' (zvezda) in The Gift (DAR)
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Fet, Victor" <fet@marshall.edu>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 9:25 PM
Subject: RE: 'star' in The Gift
> RE: 'star' in The Gift
>
> (I searched the Russian text of "Dar" online
> (http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/dar.txt) guessing that the word should be
> "zvezdu")
>
> Fyodor uses the word "zvezdu" (from "zvezda", "star"), not the Russian
word
> "planet". In Russian, of course, as in other languages, "a star" often
> means "a planet".
>
> However, it is clear from the context that Fyodor means not moving
> printing shops to another planet of our Solar system but indeed to
> another star (or a planet orbiting another star), because he mentions
> "Earth cooling down in a trillion years". He is talking about the death
> of our Solar system, and in more scientific terms this means rather Sun
> (not Earth) cooling down. (Earth also will cool down eventually when all
> radioactive isotopes which heat its core now will be gone, but fate of
> life on this planet will depend on Sun cooling down).
>
> Our Sun will become a cooler red giant in about 5 billion years, and die
> in another 2 billion years -- so we do not really have "a trillion
> years" as Fyodor says.
>
> Which star is it? We can make a guess.
> The closest "neighbouring star" to us is the famed Alpha Centauri, a
> triple star system, ca. 4.3 light years away.
> Two stars of this system are about same age as our Sun (ca. 5 billion
> years), so they will die at the same time; however, the third one,
> Proxima Centauri (attached) is younger (only about 1 billion years) and
> may be our likely future home -- if it has planets.
>
> I must add that, given VN's profound affection for H.G. Wells, this
> phrase very much reminds me of the famous spectactular chapter XI of the
> "Time Machine" when the Time Traveller observes the dying Sun of the
> future:
>
> `I stopped very gently and sat upon the Time Machine, looking
> round. The sky was no longer blue. North-eastward it was inky
> black, and out of the blackness shone brightly and steadily the
> pale white stars. Overhead it was a deep Indian red and
> starless, and south-eastward it grew brighter to a glowing
> scarlet where, cut by the horizon, lay the huge hull of the sun,
> red and motionless."
>
>
>
>
> Victor Fet
> Department of Biological Sciences
> Marshall University,
> Huntington, WV 25755-2510 USA
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
> Behalf Of D. Barton Johnson
> Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 8:00 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: 'star' in The Gift
>
>
> EDNOTE. A suggestion. It is good that BH specifies edition and page
> number. Alas, the 700 subscribers probably have 50 different editions.
> For citation purposes, it is often best to include chapter and (if
> available) section number. Admittedly this would not be of much help for
> THE GIFT which is quite long but has only 5 chapter and no subdivisions.
> For most of the books, however, indication of chapter (and section)
> number would make it much easier to consult the passage being queried.
> It would probably also result in a larger number of responses.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian Howell" <pakmshlter@yahoo.com>
> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (19
> lines) ------------------
>
> > I'm curious about the word 'star' as used in The Gift,
> > p. 312 of my Penguin edition. Fyodor speculates about 'printing shops
> > being moved ... to a neighbouring star'. Is 'star' being used here in
> > the very loose, incorrect sense of a celestial body like a planet
> > (which is impossible, of course)? Yet, as Fyodor is a
> > poet, he surely woudln't use it like this? Or it a
> > loose translation (for want of a better word)?
> >
> > Brian Howell
> >
> > =====
> > http://www.elasticpress.com/sound_of_white_ants.htm
> > http://www.tobypress.com/books/dance_geometry.htm
> >
> > __________________________________
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