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Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I (fwd)
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EDNOTE at BOTTOM
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 11:10 PM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> The other characters here are trickier. For sure they are dead. Armande?
> Hugh's father? Julia Moore? Other ideas? Who would be disposed to dissuade
> Mr. from ghost-messaging H.?
I can only afford a few circumstantial evidences for two characters: Armande
and Hugh's father.
Near the end of the novel, we find Armande among the flames that come up the
stairs "humming happily" to murder Hugh.
"Now flames were mounting the stairs, in pairs, in trios, in redskin file,
hand in hand, tongue after tongue, conversing and humming happily. It was
not, though, the heat of their flicker, but the acrid dark smoke that caused
Person to retreat back into the room; excuse me, said a polite flamelet
holding open the door he was vainly trying to close." (Ch. 26)
Throughout the novel, two characters say, "Excuse me": Armande ("prim"ly in
Ch. 15) and Tamworth ("warmly" Ch.10). Armande is called "the little one"
(Ch.14), and as far as we know, Tamworth is not so small as to appear as a
"flamelet."
I suspect the ghost (or one of them) who pulls Mr. R might be Hugh's father.
On the night of his father's death, Hugh felt "the pull of gravity inviting
him to join the night and his father" (Ch. 6). Hugh's father and Armande who
wished Hugh's death must be in the group against Mr. R, who tried to warn
him to leave Witt. They would not be willing to let Mr. R to greet Hugh. On
the other hand, his father's attitude seems to have changed after his son
"died." He might want to leave Hugh alone until he has recovered from "the
incomparable pangs of the mysterious maneuver needed to pass from one state
of being to another."
And they both died in a sort of fall, breaking the tension film of reality,
which Mr. R advises novices not to do.
You might be curious about the "see/saw" in the Japanese translation. I am
afraid that it is just "shiisoo" [seesaw]. There is no other word for the
playground equipment.
Akiko Nakata
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
EDNOTE. Akiko Nakato, my co-commentator on the TTRead has recently been the
co-translator of TT into Japanese. It is a beautifully design volume
containing notes and illustrations.
I agree that Armande and H's father are by far the mostly candidates to
be dissuading R. from warning HP. The suggestion that Armande is the fatal
"flamelet" at the end is intriguing but signaling her identity by
"excuse me" seems to me less probable since (as Akiko points out) other
characters also say this. It is not in the same class as Mr. R's "Hullo"
which is unique to him.
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 11:10 PM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> The other characters here are trickier. For sure they are dead. Armande?
> Hugh's father? Julia Moore? Other ideas? Who would be disposed to dissuade
> Mr. from ghost-messaging H.?
I can only afford a few circumstantial evidences for two characters: Armande
and Hugh's father.
Near the end of the novel, we find Armande among the flames that come up the
stairs "humming happily" to murder Hugh.
"Now flames were mounting the stairs, in pairs, in trios, in redskin file,
hand in hand, tongue after tongue, conversing and humming happily. It was
not, though, the heat of their flicker, but the acrid dark smoke that caused
Person to retreat back into the room; excuse me, said a polite flamelet
holding open the door he was vainly trying to close." (Ch. 26)
Throughout the novel, two characters say, "Excuse me": Armande ("prim"ly in
Ch. 15) and Tamworth ("warmly" Ch.10). Armande is called "the little one"
(Ch.14), and as far as we know, Tamworth is not so small as to appear as a
"flamelet."
I suspect the ghost (or one of them) who pulls Mr. R might be Hugh's father.
On the night of his father's death, Hugh felt "the pull of gravity inviting
him to join the night and his father" (Ch. 6). Hugh's father and Armande who
wished Hugh's death must be in the group against Mr. R, who tried to warn
him to leave Witt. They would not be willing to let Mr. R to greet Hugh. On
the other hand, his father's attitude seems to have changed after his son
"died." He might want to leave Hugh alone until he has recovered from "the
incomparable pangs of the mysterious maneuver needed to pass from one state
of being to another."
And they both died in a sort of fall, breaking the tension film of reality,
which Mr. R advises novices not to do.
You might be curious about the "see/saw" in the Japanese translation. I am
afraid that it is just "shiisoo" [seesaw]. There is no other word for the
playground equipment.
Akiko Nakata
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
EDNOTE. Akiko Nakato, my co-commentator on the TTRead has recently been the
co-translator of TT into Japanese. It is a beautifully design volume
containing notes and illustrations.
I agree that Armande and H's father are by far the mostly candidates to
be dissuading R. from warning HP. The suggestion that Armande is the fatal
"flamelet" at the end is intriguing but signaling her identity by
"excuse me" seems to me less probable since (as Akiko points out) other
characters also say this. It is not in the same class as Mr. R's "Hullo"
which is unique to him.
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L