Subject
Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I. Hullo
From
Date
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Thursday, July 08, 2004 1:26 AM +0900
From: Sergey Karpukhin <shrewd@irk.ru>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: Re: Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
My Concise OED (10th edition, revised, 2002) says 'hullo' is a variant
spelling of 'hello'. The unorthodox spelling may well be just one of the
liberties Mr. R takes with the English language (as an outsider), but it is
not completely un-English (cf. Sherlock Holmes stories that Dane mentions).
What is interesting about the narrator's English is his use of British
terms ("boot," "telly" in Chapter 2). Perhaps just an accident (pace Zoran
Kuzmanovich).
The beginning of the novel, as Brian Boyd pointed out on more than one
occasion, is "the strangest beginning any story ever had". The British
author Ian McEwan in one of his interviews said that the first chapter of a
novel must be like a highly addictive drug to make the reader hit the
ground running (it was actually an entry in his diary, a "little
exhortation" he called it). The first chapter of LOLITA has the same
addictive effect: the fact that there is a murder in the book is divulged
by a "throwaway" remark in the first chapter ("You can always count on a
murderer for a fancy prose style").
Sergey Karpukhin
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 5:30 AM
Subject: Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
> ------------------
> Greetings
> I'm very glad you started this....nobody ever wants to go first.
> 1. The hullo I've always thought of as not only a greating to Person
> ('doesn't hear me') but also kind of a exclamation of discovery (a la
> Sherlock Holmes...he says it in almost every story after The Sign of
Four).
> It comes from one of a group of angels/observers/narrators (I think Boyd
> has written something about that.) Why it is spelt the way it is, I don't
> know (phonetically?).
> 2. No Idea but isn't he mention in Ada as well.
> Dane
> --------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> ED. The "HULLO" marks the narrator as a non-native speaker of English
> ----------------------------------
>
> > From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> > Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
> > Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:06:17 -0700
> >
> > Since no one has taken the initiative in the TT read, I offer an opening
> > thought and query.
> >
> > 1. What's with that "Hullo"? Who are the characters in Ch. I? Evidence?
> >
> > 2. The second paragraph introduces the TIME theme. Is there, BTW, a
person
> > out there conversant with Henri Bergson's ideas on TIME, who can montior
> > the theme as we read?
> >
> > 3. My own opening shot:
> > If the future existed (which it doesn't), "Persons might then
> > straddle
> > the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object."
> > This is a very neat metaphor. The two ends of the "seesaw" depict the
> > PAST & the FUTURE. The PRESENT is the fulcrum astride which the
individual
> > looks at the PAST and FUTURE from the PRESENT. The word "SEESAW"
> > encapsulates the present (or future) tense of "to see" while the "saw"
is
> > the past tense.
> > Very apt, if etymologically inaccurate. The playground object's
> > name
> > involves a reduplication of "saw" in the sense of "sawing logs" and
refers
> > to the up & down motion of the act.
> > Out of curiosity, I checked Sergey Ilyin's Russian translation in
> > the
> > SYMPOSIUM volumes. He translates "seesaw" as "kachayushchaya doska"
> > (swinging board) thus losing the semantic play which is, I suspect,
> > untranslatable. It might be entertaining to look at translations into
> > other languages to see how it is handled.
> > Note also that VN points out at the start that the imagery is not
> > entirely
> > successful since in Mr. R's view the future (one end of the board)
> > doesn't exist.
> > I suspect what VN means is that while the FUTURE may exist as an
> > abstract
> > concept, it remains vacant or unpopulated until someone arrives to sit
on
> > the far end of the seesaw.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > D. Barton Johnson
> > NABOKV-L
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Add photos to your e-mail with MSN Premium. Get 2 months FREE*
>
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=ht
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>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
>
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Thursday, July 08, 2004 1:26 AM +0900
From: Sergey Karpukhin <shrewd@irk.ru>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: Re: Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
My Concise OED (10th edition, revised, 2002) says 'hullo' is a variant
spelling of 'hello'. The unorthodox spelling may well be just one of the
liberties Mr. R takes with the English language (as an outsider), but it is
not completely un-English (cf. Sherlock Holmes stories that Dane mentions).
What is interesting about the narrator's English is his use of British
terms ("boot," "telly" in Chapter 2). Perhaps just an accident (pace Zoran
Kuzmanovich).
The beginning of the novel, as Brian Boyd pointed out on more than one
occasion, is "the strangest beginning any story ever had". The British
author Ian McEwan in one of his interviews said that the first chapter of a
novel must be like a highly addictive drug to make the reader hit the
ground running (it was actually an entry in his diary, a "little
exhortation" he called it). The first chapter of LOLITA has the same
addictive effect: the fact that there is a murder in the book is divulged
by a "throwaway" remark in the first chapter ("You can always count on a
murderer for a fancy prose style").
Sergey Karpukhin
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 5:30 AM
Subject: Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
> ------------------
> Greetings
> I'm very glad you started this....nobody ever wants to go first.
> 1. The hullo I've always thought of as not only a greating to Person
> ('doesn't hear me') but also kind of a exclamation of discovery (a la
> Sherlock Holmes...he says it in almost every story after The Sign of
Four).
> It comes from one of a group of angels/observers/narrators (I think Boyd
> has written something about that.) Why it is spelt the way it is, I don't
> know (phonetically?).
> 2. No Idea but isn't he mention in Ada as well.
> Dane
> --------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> ED. The "HULLO" marks the narrator as a non-native speaker of English
> ----------------------------------
>
> > From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> > Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I
> > Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:06:17 -0700
> >
> > Since no one has taken the initiative in the TT read, I offer an opening
> > thought and query.
> >
> > 1. What's with that "Hullo"? Who are the characters in Ch. I? Evidence?
> >
> > 2. The second paragraph introduces the TIME theme. Is there, BTW, a
person
> > out there conversant with Henri Bergson's ideas on TIME, who can montior
> > the theme as we read?
> >
> > 3. My own opening shot:
> > If the future existed (which it doesn't), "Persons might then
> > straddle
> > the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object."
> > This is a very neat metaphor. The two ends of the "seesaw" depict the
> > PAST & the FUTURE. The PRESENT is the fulcrum astride which the
individual
> > looks at the PAST and FUTURE from the PRESENT. The word "SEESAW"
> > encapsulates the present (or future) tense of "to see" while the "saw"
is
> > the past tense.
> > Very apt, if etymologically inaccurate. The playground object's
> > name
> > involves a reduplication of "saw" in the sense of "sawing logs" and
refers
> > to the up & down motion of the act.
> > Out of curiosity, I checked Sergey Ilyin's Russian translation in
> > the
> > SYMPOSIUM volumes. He translates "seesaw" as "kachayushchaya doska"
> > (swinging board) thus losing the semantic play which is, I suspect,
> > untranslatable. It might be entertaining to look at translations into
> > other languages to see how it is handled.
> > Note also that VN points out at the start that the imagery is not
> > entirely
> > successful since in Mr. R's view the future (one end of the board)
> > doesn't exist.
> > I suspect what VN means is that while the FUTURE may exist as an
> > abstract
> > concept, it remains vacant or unpopulated until someone arrives to sit
on
> > the far end of the seesaw.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > D. Barton Johnson
> > NABOKV-L
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Add photos to your e-mail with MSN Premium. Get 2 months FREE*
>
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=ht
> tp://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines
>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
>
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L