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Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3602 PALE FIRE
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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 4:40 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3602
>
> > Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:56:40 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 286
>
> > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> >
> > Lotta' red in this book. A marker of the King and, in its many shades
> > (gradatively?), a repeating intersection point in the paths of our two
> > lemniscating bicycle writers, but is it a clew, or a lure? Or
> > texture? The color red can also be a trigger for an epileptic
> > seizure, particularly epilepsy in children....a-and Synesthesia
> > can cause seeing the color red....The line also echoes the title,
> > the only instance in the poem according to Boyd. (I thought
> > Boyd's Shade-as-ghost reading of this section, especially the
> > clasped hands across the ocean passage, engaging, compelling
> > even, in certain regards, but I remain unconvinced that any
> > single neat theory excludes all others. Keep your Doyle, I'll
> > take Chandler....Charles Albert's Kinbote as an epileptic fugue
> > state manifestation has some interesting features as well...)
> > Kinbote tells us this is the last line on the twenty third card
> > (Anyone counted the blank lines and canto breaks and checked the
> > math?). Kinbote also tells us that Gradus, on the same day, flies
> > from Copenhagen to Paris, ending the paragraph with, "[e]ven in
> > Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture". An allusion to
> > the fatal approach of death-by-Gradus, but is it also a
> > suggestion of some more premonitory connection between Shade's
> > line and Gradus' own jet-trail? On the other hand, maybe evidence
> > of some "sinister" influence. "Who could have guessed?", asks
> > Kinbote...who could have guessed, indeed...
> >
> > Gradus is on a Mission, he seeks the location of the exiled King,
> > and his leaders believe that Oswin Bretwit, former counsel in
> > Paris, has that information (rightly so, according to Kinbote).
> > Bretwit, composer of chess problems, now seems to be the
> > composee. But the moves enacted are entirely witless. Both
> > misapprehend the other's tricks and each, in turn, repeatedly
> > blunders their own. "I defy anybody to find in the annals of plot
> > and counterplot anything more inept and boring" says Kinbote.
> > Hardly worth our attention, it would seem....except that it's
> > Nabakov, and we know to be suspicious of his word....but doesn't
> > N know that, by now, we know?....and, of course, we can know that
> > N knows that we know...."Never go in against a Sicilian, when
> > *death* is on the line!"....
> >
> > Gradus hopes to exchange a "bundle of precious family papers" for the
> > whereabouts of the King. But, as the "Latin tag" to the note from
> > Baron B suggests, the letters prove empty of any revelation for
> > Bretwit; already of public record and not even the originals.
> > Gradus changes tactics at this point and in a pantomimic scene
> > tries to bribe Bretwit into giving him the information he is
> > looking for. Accidentally, and unknowingly, he's partly
> > successful, but fails to seize the opportunity, and the comedy of
> > errors continues. Bretwit's next move is to mis-identify Gradus
> > as a fellow Karlist and Gradus, briefly, has the key, literally
> > in his hands, that could give him what he is after √ a possible
> > checkmate. But at the crucial (climatic!?) moment, a moment
> > verging on a fugue-like transcendence for Bretwit, Gradus
> > displays his chronic impotence and fumbles his chances away. He
> > buttons up and Bretwit, in a final act of misapprehension, misses
> > his oppotunity to
> > thwart the falsely exposed assassin.
> >
> > Of course, the accidental and farcical nature of Gradus' and Bretwit's
> > meeting, and its fateful outcome, stands in sharp contrast to the
> > clockwork progression towards Shade's assassination that Kinbote
> > sets up at the beginning of this commentary (just as Shade counts
> > down the moments, complete with clock, preceding Hazel's death in
> > the poem; another aspect of, "even in Arcady am I", the
> > suggestion that throughout Life we are ghosted by Death). But
> > maybe there's some _Hamlet_ to this scene as well; Hamlet's
> > production of his father's murder. Gradus and Bretwit enact a
> > pantomime, and mirrored, performance of Kinbote's efforts to make
> > Shade's poem his own. The "batch of eighty cards[...]held by a
> > rubber band" becomes the bundled "precious family papers" tied
> > with a string. The index cards are kept in a plain "manila
> > envelope" (another cocoon/butterfly image) while the letters are
> > "prefixed" by a note which suggests that they are empty words -
> > shells of meaning... There is also the "neat pile" of letters and
> > the "tidy [...] hand" that the "text of [the] poem is written
> > in". Finally, the wastepaper basket that Bretwit flings the
> > letters into might correspond to the "backyard auto-da-fe'" that
> > incinerates Shade's drafts, but while Gradus deliberately picks
> > up the string, fallen at his feet, and adds it to the worthless
> > letters in the trash, Kinbote "religiously" puts back the rubber
> > band after examining the "precious" cards for the last time (see
> > as well, line 533: "this slender rubber band/Which always forms,
> > when dropped, an ampersand". Also, "[M]ysterious bits of string"
> > show up as one of the "'psychokinetic' manifestations of Aunt
> > Maude" on pg. 165). Question is, who does this performance
> > expose, or is the mirror-play intended, instead, to hide?
> >
> > One more notable aspect of this commentary is Kinbote's tenderness for
> > Bretwit - an unlikely attraction that parallels the relationship
> > between Shade and Kinbote. He describes Bretwit as "sickly" and
> > "featureless", a "pallid gland", and, intellectually, a dolt. But
> > Kinbote then expresses a sense of profound connection between
> > them, "a symbol of valor and self-abnegation", that veers towards
> > some sexual attraction, "I could have spanked the dear man".
> >
> >
> > Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:57:06 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > Line 287: humming as you pack
> >
> > On July 7th, the day Shade pens this line, Kinbote has a doctors
> > appointment and, on the way, self medicates so as not to mislead
> > "credulous science". His nervousness he blames on the appointment
> > itself, but we might suspect that he's a little anxious about the
> > previous day's "gifts" to the Shades. On seeing Sybil leaving a
> > shop with a new "traveling grip", the sight of the grip grips
> > Kinbote with panic. It turns out, though, that their travel plans
> > aren't till the end of the month, after Shade finishes his poem.
> > Kinbote tries to find out where, but Sybil prevaricates - the
> > sought, of the last commentary, is now the seeker. By chance, or
> > perhaps through the machinations of "black winged fate" (see
> > previous commentary), Kinbote gleans the information from their
> > mutual doctor and immediately makes reservations for a cabin "on
> > the mountainside above Cedarn". In the Tirolean fantasies that
> > ensue, Kinbote prefers the version "conjured" by Shade, "Among
> > the lupines and the aspens", to the doctor's "stolid" accounting.
> > The doctor, of course, is right; "dry", "drear" and dead.
> > Black-winged fate, indeed; when Kinbote arrives at the cabin,
> > Shade is dead, and his own "work" is about to begin.
> >
> > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming then what is
> > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > ghostly visitor?...
> >
> >
> >
> > Line 293: She
> >
> > Short (Commentary discursions aside), pertinently informative, to the
> > point,-to the poem even-...not many "she"'s in Kinbote's life I guess...
> >
> >
> >
> > Line 316: The Toothwort White haunted our woods in May
> >
> > Frankly, Kinbote's uncertainty here makes me uncertain.
> > "Toothwort" seems unconnected with butterflies and, though
> > "White" is a common appellation for butterflies, is it so oddly
> > used here in connection with a white flower? Why is Kinbote so
> > intent on linking this line to butterflies and winged "folklore
> > characters", subverting the ghostly imagery the line evokes?
> > Going so far as to write a wholly unconvincing variant as
> > support. (Interestingly, I googled a message from a Nabakov
> > Yahoo! Group where the author claims, mistakenly I think, "The
> > Toothwort White is Pieris virginienses[sic]". Pieris virginiensis
> > is, in fact, the West Virginia White.)
> >
> >
> > Line 319: wood duck
> >
> > Kinbote's description is spot on, and entirely reminiscent of his lost
> > Zembla, particularly as lost to the swan-like "yellowing ivory
> > tower" of Shade's poem. An American trait, Kinbote laments, that
> > extends to the "science" of naming animals, not to mention to the
> > very foundation of the American state of mind...
> >
> > Line 334: Would never come for her
> >
> > "Would he ever come for me?", pines Kinbote, though he never did
> > for Disa....BTW, "ping-pong"...joined twins, but with one back-to?...
> >
> >
> > Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:58:07 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 347
>
> Line 347: old barn
>
> Before we enter the barn, Kinbote introduces us to its owner, Paul
Hetzner.
> This "gaunt solemn German", man of the here-and-now, was one of Shade's
> favorite "fellow ramblers" (fellow traveler? see Notes). Esteemed by Shade
> for "knowing 'the names of things'", Kinbote jealously cautions that
> Hetzner's naming is not to be trusted; "monstrosities", "Germanisms" or,
> worse even, made up on the fly. OK, ironies abound here, but note in
> particular the contrast of "monstrosities" with Kinbote's complaint, in
the
> line 319 commentary, that "popular nomenclature of American
animals[...]has
> not yet acquired the patina of European *faunal* names [my emphasis]."
> Kinbote ends his account of Hetzner with a description of his favorite,
umm,
> watering hole. "Here Papa pisses." remarks H's son. An act that carries
with
> it the obvious territorial connotations, consistent with the several
canine
> references in this passage, but also, I think, binds him to the immediate
> landscape as texture - a temporal and physical present repeatedly renewed,
> turned-over, and lacking the abstract text of historians, poets and
> prophets. But in the end, the course of history washes Hetzner away; his
> wife leaves him, taking their child, the farmhouse is sold and torn down
to
> make way for a drive-in theater; the present, turned-under the reflective
> surfaces of the past and future. After Hetzner's death while sleeping in
the
> old barn (note the cocoon-like imagery of his "sleeping bag"), it too is
> demolished at Shade's request - purportedly a fire hazard, though also,
> perhaps, an hazard to Hazel's psychic condition. Fittingly, flittingly
even,
> in its place arises a weed and butterfly patch, ghost-like amidst the
> "goldenrod all around it".
>
> After Hetzner's death there is a reported haunting in the barn that
prompts
> Hazel to investigate the scene herself, as part of a psychology class
paper.
> Hazel visits the barn three nights, but only sees/hears the ghost once,
> while alone. Details of the first visit are dictated to Kinbote by Jane P.
> ("a pillar of reliability"...as reported by Jane), for the second, Kinbote
> has selectively copied a "transcript based on jottings" made by Hazel
during
> the visit, the third is fabricated completely by Kinbote, though we are
> assured it "cannot be too far removed from the truth". What are we to make
> of such lengths gone to to present us with these "pathetic" scenes?
Kinbote
> is even able to restrain himself from digressing into another Zembla
> episode, unlike when he might have gotten more information on Hazel from
> Shade himself, to relate the events of the three nights.
>
> The first night is a wash-out, the pyrotechnics of a storm overwhelm
> anything the ghost might produce. Hazel fails to find a companion for the
> second visit, but decides, despite her parents attempts to stop her, to go
> it alone. Only nine minutes after settling in, she hears "scrappy and
> scrabbly sounds". Six minutes later, a "roundlet of pale light" appears,
> inviting play it would seem. Then, "gone". Twelve minutes more, and it
> returns. The "luminous circlet" assures Hazel that it is not a
> will-of-the-wisp, or trickster, but that "it" *is* dead. In the process,
> Hazel and the apparition work out a crude means of communication on the
wall
> of the barn, a "keyboard of dry wood"(line 649). With great effort and
> persistence, Hazel records "a short line of simple letter-groups". Later,
> despite "abominable" headaches, and with "endless" effort and "infinite
> patience and disgust", Kinbote applies himself (to the point, even, of
> distraction from his more appealing night-games) to cracking the code.
He's
> compelled by a line in Shade's poem that urges the discovery of a secret
> "pattern in the game". "[T]here is a merciful preponderance of a's" we are
> told, in this "abracadabra"...but Kinbote's many and lengthy pains finally
> come to nothing. Another "diabolical" red herring? Boyd does a pretty good
> translation, a pretty good pattern, but is it The Pattern? Is there a
> pattern at all? After all, a player of games of words might find it
> interesting to see how many "sensible" solutions might be formed of a
> non-sensible problem...perhaps it really would take, literally, "endless"
> effort and "infinite patience" to solve...
>
> Before any more data is collected, a resumption of the "scrabbling" and a
> sudden charge by the light frightens Hazel out of the barn. In a sense,
she
> awakens to a nightmare; suddenly realizing how unnatural the apparition
is,
> she flees into the familiar night. But comforting reality reverts back to
> nightmare when she misapprehends her father, waiting for her return, as a
> ghost.
>
> Kinbote claims a third night, which satisfies his sense of symmetry,
though
> no notes survive. Nonetheless, he presents what he claims as an account
not
> "too far removed from the truth" (compared to the preceding "truth", it
may
> not be far off at all...). Hazel is accompanied by her parents this time
but
> the family scene provides no further evidence of the haunting. Ironically,
> though, Hazel believes her parents to be mocking her and is pushed further
> along the path to suicide. Perhaps the sense of this is the reason for
> Shade's "confusely" manner in talking about the barn episode.
>
> Horatio's third night watch....dog days, animal nick-names, madness,
jointed
> time, incommunicable messages, pale luminous lights, ghostly fathers and
> suicide...Hamlet seems unavoidable, but I'd be foolhardy indeed to venture
> such waters. Jasper?
>
> The interplay of possible identities of the apparition in this commentary
is
> notable. The circlet of light is linked to Hetzner through the barn,
though
> its difficulty in communicating, as well as the mention of her cane, might
> suggest Aunt Maude, as Boyd has argued. In an earlier commentary (Line
230),
> Kinbote reports Jane's claim that the Shade's believe the earlier
> manifestation of Aunt Maude's ghost, a "domestic ghost", to be an "outward
> extension or expulsion of [Hazel's] insanity", and fear that her
experiences
> in the barn may be a repeat performance. Also, returning home, after
fleeing
> from the barn, Shade appears, briefly, as a ghost to Hazel. Finally, there
> is Kinbote's reproduction of Shade's poem, _NoE_, which asks, what if
> electricity is a ghostly manifestation, informing, perhaps, a comment in
the
> poem on Hazel's "strange force of character"(line 344). As a footnote,
> Kinbote adds that on the authority of "science", we know that "the Earth
> would not merely fall apart, but vanish like a ghost, if Electricity were
> removed from the world." If we transcribe "Electricity" as ghost, we get,
> the world falls apart if the ghost is removed....The world of this
story?...
>
> Makes my head spin...
>
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:59:09 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 347-Line 376
>
> Line 347-348: She twisted words
>
> I'm not sure what to make of this commentary. Kinbote points out the
> unlikely coincidence that a "mirror-word" example that he uses with Shade,
> redips/spider, is also one of the words Hazel used to "twist". Evidence,
he
> claims, of a resemblance between Hazel and himself. Or is that,
reZEMBLAnce?
> A *mirrored* image, where right is left and depression is manic?
>
>
>
> Line 367-370: then-pen, again-explain
>
> Some punning, at least, going on in these "curious" lines. At line 369,
> "[...] then again:", not only do we get the word "then" again, but the
"en"
> sound is repeated additionally as well, as Kinbote notes. There is also
the
> guarded/pen pun that I think was pointed out previously on the list.
>
>
>
> Line 376: poem
>
> It seems Eliot is the target here, but why? Because of his less
disciplined
> blank verse (Shade)? Or, his lack of zemblian fancy(Kinbote)?
>
>
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:11:28 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 287-Line 334
>
> > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > Line 287: humming as you pack
> > >
> > > "Dr. Ahlert"
> > > Ail and hurt.
> Or Dr. Alert. Probably both considering Nabokov's penchant for word play.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:16:49 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 347-Line 348
>
> > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > "hoyden"
> > > OED -- ├ 1. A rude, ignorant, or awkward fellow; a clown, boor. Obs.
> See, Vincent A. Maeder... V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:21:24 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming then what
is
> > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > ghostly visitor?...
> Cedar Barn? V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:21:48 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 286
>
> > > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > >
> > > > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> > > >
> > > > Lotta' red in this book. A marker of the King and, in its many
shades
> > > > (gradatively?), a repeating intersection point in the paths of our
two
> > > > lemniscating bicycle writers, but is it a clew, or a lure? Or
> > > > texture? The color red can also be a trigger for an epileptic
> > > > seizure, particularly epilepsy in children....a-and Synesthesia
> > > > can cause seeing the color red....The line also echoes the title,
> > > > the only instance in the poem according to Boyd.
> >
> Also, the color of blood shed by Mr. Shade and, subsequently and
presumably,
> by Mr. Kinbote himself. Also, thinking of the reference to dogwood as the
> wood of choice for crucifixion, the shedding of blood as Christian
> reference. Also, Amber is a close relative to red. V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:22:12 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 286
>
> > > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > > "Verba volant, scripta manent"
> > > > Words fly away, writing remains. Butterfly and cocoon? These
> > > > letters, then, are the husk of some more sublime exchange.
> >
> Again, the afterlife issues. Brings back the commentary on the Amber
> reference left by the cicada which flies away. Perhaps an overarching
> commentary by Nabokov on the nature of the artistic process in general,
> writing in particular, where the artist holds the art in the cocoon of his
> mind until it is deposited behind like amber waiting for the wary critic
> to be trapped in its goo. V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:03:05 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > then what is
> > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > ghostly visitor?...
>
> > Cedar Barn? V.
>
> Barn with cedar siding, see: http://www.methowlands.com/estates.html
(scroll
> down to the last picture, the "Ski trail runs through it" listing)
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:13:13 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > then what is
> > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > ghostly visitor?...
>
> > Cedar Barn? V.
>
> Sorry, should have been http://www.methow-lands.com/estates.html
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 18:40:40 +0000
> From: "Ghetta Life" <ghetta_outta@hotmail.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 287-Line 334
>
> >From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> > > >
> > > > "Dr. Ahlert"
> > > > Ail and hurt.
> >Or Dr. Alert. Probably both considering Nabokov's penchant for word
play.
>
> Or All Hurt (as in he's not good for you)
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> High-speed Internet access as low as $29.95/month (depending on the local
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 11:53:21 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Cedarn
>
> 'Cedarn' is a word in its own right meaning 'of or pertaining to cedar.'
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: 13 Oct 2003 15:12:51 -0400
> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 14:03, Scott Badger wrote:
> > > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > > then what is
> > > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > > ghostly visitor?...
> >
> > > Cedar Barn? V.
> >
> > Barn with cedar siding, see: http://www.methowlands.com/estates.html
(scroll
> > down to the last picture, the "Ski trail runs through it" listing)
> >
> > Scott Badger
> >
>
>
> Cedarn means pertaining to cedar. Coleridge used it to describe a
> hillside in Kublai Khan. . I think the association in our book is with
> the use of the wood as a preservative. Closets are lined with cedar
> wood to protect clothes from moths etc. Kinbote has taken Pale Fire to a
> place where it can be preserved.
>
> Additionally cedars have red berries of the type favored by waxwings. In
> fact there is a waxwing species called cedar waxwing.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:08:14 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Cedarn
>
> Keith McMullen wrote:
> >
> > 'Cedarn' is a word in its own right meaning 'of or pertaining to cedar.'
>
> See as well, The Index S
>
> the banal pun on the homophone "seadarn" or "seayarn."
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:18:14 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > From: Paul Mackin
> > On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 14:03, Scott Badger wrote:
> > > > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > > > then what is
> > > > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > > > ghostly visitor?...
> > >
> > > > Cedar Barn? V.
> > >
> > > Barn with cedar siding, see: http://www.methowlands.com/estates.html
> > (scroll
> > > down to the last picture, the "Ski trail runs through it" listing)
> > >
> > > Scott Badger
> > >
> >
> >
> > Cedarn means pertaining to cedar. Coleridge used it to describe a
> > hillside in Kublai Khan. . I think the association in our book is with
> > the use of the wood as a preservative. Closets are lined with cedar
> > wood to protect clothes from moths etc. Kinbote has taken Pale Fire to a
> > place where it can be preserved.
> >
> Compare with the metaphor of the amber left behind by the cicada which
> preserves the ant. Of course, amber preserves by entrapment versus cedar.
> V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 15:18, Vincent A. Maeder wrote:
> > >
> > > Cedarn means pertaining to cedar. Coleridge used it to describe a
> > > hillside in Kublai Khan. . I think the association in our book is with
> > > the use of the wood as a preservative. Closets are lined with cedar
> > > wood to protect clothes from moths etc. Kinbote has taken Pale Fire to
a
> > > place where it can be preserved.
> > >
> > Compare with the metaphor of the amber left behind by the cicada which
> > preserves the ant. Of course, amber preserves by entrapment versus
cedar.
> > V.
>
> Yes, the preservative quality of amber is a double edged sword.
>
> In the refutation of LaFontaine it is the entrapment quality that counts
> (Dead is the mandible) but applying the image in a wider sense we might
> say that though the poet dies the poem is to be immortalized by
> Kinbote's commentary.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 19:33:24 +0000
> From: "Ghetta Life" <ghetta_outta@hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes Line 286
>
> >From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> >
> > > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> > >
> > > "Even in Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture."
> >>
> > > Kinbote seems to be linking Shade's "jet's pink trail" with Gradus'
> >flight from Copenhagen to Paris. Interestingly, a different version is
> >erroneously quoted at:
> >http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/pale/summ4.html
> > > "Even in Arcady am I," says Dementia, chained to her gray column." I
> >don't recognize it, and couldn't find the source (a sign of my own
arcadian
> >intellect, I'm sure.), but "Dementia" is suggestive of Kinbote and could
> >also point to the insane asylum escapee, Jack Grey.
> > >
> > > Also from the same site: "The name "D'Argus" is hardly a disguise as
it
> >is an anagram of "Gradus." The name "Argus" alludes to Greek mythology.
> >Argus was a watchman▀not an assassin, and another anagram of the name
> >"Gradus" is GUARDS. The earlier commentary foreshadowed the arrival of
> >"Dementia" in "Arcadia." In Greek mythology, Argus was the watchman for
the
> >town of Arcadia, ridding the utopia of pests, giants, and monsters."
>
> http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Argus1.html
>
> "Argus has been called "The All-seeing", because he had eyes in his whole
> body, or perhaps only one hundred eyes in his head that slept two at a
time
> in turn while the rest remained on guard.
>
> Argus was known for having killed a remarkable bull which ravaged Arcadia,
> and for having caught asleep and killed the monster Echidna, who used to
> carry off passers-by. Also when a Satyr wronged the Arcadians and robbed
> them of their cattle, Argus killed him."
>
> Ulysses dog (the one to first recognized him on his return) was named
Argus,
> as was the builder of the Argo, the ship of the Argonauts.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Instant message during games with MSN Messenger 6.0. Download it now FREE!
> http://msnmessenger-download.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:57:46 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Seadarn
>
> Less nimbly now through brakes they wind,
> And ford wild creeks where men have drowned;
> They skirt the pool, avoid the fen,
> And so till night, when down they lie,
> Their steeds still saddled, in wooded ground:
> Rein in hand they slumber then,
> Dreaming of Mosby's cedarn den.
>
> The Scout toward Aldie
> by Herman Melville
>
> Down to a sunless sea.
> So twice five miles of fertile ground
> With walls and towers were girdled round:
> And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
> Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
> And here were forests ancient as the hills,
> Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
>
> But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
> Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
>
> Kubla Khan
> by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
>
> Gently draw off the clear and tomb it yet,
> For other twenty days, in cedarn casks!
> Where through trance, surely, prophecy will set;
> As, dedicated to light temple-tasks,
> The young priest dreams the unknown mystery.
> Through Ariadne, knelt disconsolate
> In the sea▓s marge, so well▓d back warmth which throbb▓d
> With nuptial promise: she
> Turn▓d; and, half-choked through dewy glens, some great,
> Some magic drone of revel coming sobb▓d.
>
> A Duet
> by Thomas Sturge Moore
>
> That instant, the White Whale made a sudden rush among the remaining
> tangles of the
> other lines; by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more involved boats
> of Stubb and Flask towards his flukes; dashed them together like two
> rolling husks on a surf-beaten beach, and then, diving down into the
> sea, disappeared in a boiling maelstrom, in which, for a space, the
> odorous cedarn chips of the wrecks danced round and round, like the
> grated nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch.
>
> Moby-Dick
> by Herman Melville
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:56:30 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Cedarn
>
> >>>See as well, The Index S<<<
>
> Prof. C. is not in the Index (which see p. 310) , and neither is 'S.'
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:37:55 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes Line 287-Line 334
>
> > > > "Dr. Ahlert"
>
> Plus, 'Ahlert' is an actual last name.
>
> One example is a pediatric dentist
> named Dr. Ahlert in Oklahoma. His
> associate is Dr. Boyd.
>
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:hii0S9A3zKMJ:examiner-enterprise.com/di
> splay/inn_business/b069.txt+%22dr.+ahlert%22&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 13:01:37 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Character Index Koan
>
> Prof. C. is "not in the Index."
> E. is "not in the Index."
> S is not in the Index.
>
> G and K are in the Index.
>
> All of the above are mentioned in the Index.
>
> ------------------------------
>na> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 19:39:58 -0400
> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes Line 286
>
> Ghetta Life wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> >>
> >> > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> >> >
> >> > "Even in Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture."
> >>
> >>>
> >> > Kinbote seems to be linking Shade's "jet's pink trail" with Gradus'
> >> flight from Copenhagen to Paris. Interestingly, a different version
> >> is erroneously quoted at:
> >> http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/pale/summ4.html
> >> > "Even in Arcady am I," says Dementia, chained to her gray column."
> >> I don't recognize it, and couldn't find the source (a sign of my own
> >> arcadian intellect, I'm sure.), but "Dementia" is suggestive of
> >> Kinbote and could also point to the insane asylum escapee, Jack Grey.
> >> >
> >> > Also from the same site: "The name "D'Argus" is hardly a disguise
> >> as it is an anagram of "Gradus." The name "Argus" alludes to Greek
> >> mythology. Argus was a watchman▀not an assassin, and another anagram
> >> of the name "Gradus" is GUARDS. The earlier commentary foreshadowed
> >> the arrival of "Dementia" in "Arcadia." In Greek mythology, Argus was
> >> the watchman for the town of Arcadia, ridding the utopia of pests,
> >> giants, and monsters."
> >
> >
> > http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Argus1.html
> >
> > "Argus has been called "The All-seeing", because he had eyes in his
> > whole body, or perhaps only one hundred eyes in his head that slept
> > two at a time in turn while the rest remained on guard.
> >
> > Argus was known for having killed a remarkable bull which ravaged
> > Arcadia, and for having caught asleep and killed the monster Echidna,
> > who used to carry off passers-by. Also when a Satyr wronged the
> > Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, Argus killed him."
> >
> > Ulysses dog (the one to first recognized him on his return) was named
> > Argus, as was the builder of the Argo, the ship of the Argonauts.
> >
> In Latin it's Et in Arcadia ego Virgil
>
>
> Also the name of a Poussin painting. (shepherds discovering a tomb)
>
> P.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3602
> ********************************
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
> with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 4:40 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3602
>
> > Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:56:40 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 286
>
> > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> >
> > Lotta' red in this book. A marker of the King and, in its many shades
> > (gradatively?), a repeating intersection point in the paths of our two
> > lemniscating bicycle writers, but is it a clew, or a lure? Or
> > texture? The color red can also be a trigger for an epileptic
> > seizure, particularly epilepsy in children....a-and Synesthesia
> > can cause seeing the color red....The line also echoes the title,
> > the only instance in the poem according to Boyd. (I thought
> > Boyd's Shade-as-ghost reading of this section, especially the
> > clasped hands across the ocean passage, engaging, compelling
> > even, in certain regards, but I remain unconvinced that any
> > single neat theory excludes all others. Keep your Doyle, I'll
> > take Chandler....Charles Albert's Kinbote as an epileptic fugue
> > state manifestation has some interesting features as well...)
> > Kinbote tells us this is the last line on the twenty third card
> > (Anyone counted the blank lines and canto breaks and checked the
> > math?). Kinbote also tells us that Gradus, on the same day, flies
> > from Copenhagen to Paris, ending the paragraph with, "[e]ven in
> > Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture". An allusion to
> > the fatal approach of death-by-Gradus, but is it also a
> > suggestion of some more premonitory connection between Shade's
> > line and Gradus' own jet-trail? On the other hand, maybe evidence
> > of some "sinister" influence. "Who could have guessed?", asks
> > Kinbote...who could have guessed, indeed...
> >
> > Gradus is on a Mission, he seeks the location of the exiled King,
> > and his leaders believe that Oswin Bretwit, former counsel in
> > Paris, has that information (rightly so, according to Kinbote).
> > Bretwit, composer of chess problems, now seems to be the
> > composee. But the moves enacted are entirely witless. Both
> > misapprehend the other's tricks and each, in turn, repeatedly
> > blunders their own. "I defy anybody to find in the annals of plot
> > and counterplot anything more inept and boring" says Kinbote.
> > Hardly worth our attention, it would seem....except that it's
> > Nabakov, and we know to be suspicious of his word....but doesn't
> > N know that, by now, we know?....and, of course, we can know that
> > N knows that we know...."Never go in against a Sicilian, when
> > *death* is on the line!"....
> >
> > Gradus hopes to exchange a "bundle of precious family papers" for the
> > whereabouts of the King. But, as the "Latin tag" to the note from
> > Baron B suggests, the letters prove empty of any revelation for
> > Bretwit; already of public record and not even the originals.
> > Gradus changes tactics at this point and in a pantomimic scene
> > tries to bribe Bretwit into giving him the information he is
> > looking for. Accidentally, and unknowingly, he's partly
> > successful, but fails to seize the opportunity, and the comedy of
> > errors continues. Bretwit's next move is to mis-identify Gradus
> > as a fellow Karlist and Gradus, briefly, has the key, literally
> > in his hands, that could give him what he is after √ a possible
> > checkmate. But at the crucial (climatic!?) moment, a moment
> > verging on a fugue-like transcendence for Bretwit, Gradus
> > displays his chronic impotence and fumbles his chances away. He
> > buttons up and Bretwit, in a final act of misapprehension, misses
> > his oppotunity to
> > thwart the falsely exposed assassin.
> >
> > Of course, the accidental and farcical nature of Gradus' and Bretwit's
> > meeting, and its fateful outcome, stands in sharp contrast to the
> > clockwork progression towards Shade's assassination that Kinbote
> > sets up at the beginning of this commentary (just as Shade counts
> > down the moments, complete with clock, preceding Hazel's death in
> > the poem; another aspect of, "even in Arcady am I", the
> > suggestion that throughout Life we are ghosted by Death). But
> > maybe there's some _Hamlet_ to this scene as well; Hamlet's
> > production of his father's murder. Gradus and Bretwit enact a
> > pantomime, and mirrored, performance of Kinbote's efforts to make
> > Shade's poem his own. The "batch of eighty cards[...]held by a
> > rubber band" becomes the bundled "precious family papers" tied
> > with a string. The index cards are kept in a plain "manila
> > envelope" (another cocoon/butterfly image) while the letters are
> > "prefixed" by a note which suggests that they are empty words -
> > shells of meaning... There is also the "neat pile" of letters and
> > the "tidy [...] hand" that the "text of [the] poem is written
> > in". Finally, the wastepaper basket that Bretwit flings the
> > letters into might correspond to the "backyard auto-da-fe'" that
> > incinerates Shade's drafts, but while Gradus deliberately picks
> > up the string, fallen at his feet, and adds it to the worthless
> > letters in the trash, Kinbote "religiously" puts back the rubber
> > band after examining the "precious" cards for the last time (see
> > as well, line 533: "this slender rubber band/Which always forms,
> > when dropped, an ampersand". Also, "[M]ysterious bits of string"
> > show up as one of the "'psychokinetic' manifestations of Aunt
> > Maude" on pg. 165). Question is, who does this performance
> > expose, or is the mirror-play intended, instead, to hide?
> >
> > One more notable aspect of this commentary is Kinbote's tenderness for
> > Bretwit - an unlikely attraction that parallels the relationship
> > between Shade and Kinbote. He describes Bretwit as "sickly" and
> > "featureless", a "pallid gland", and, intellectually, a dolt. But
> > Kinbote then expresses a sense of profound connection between
> > them, "a symbol of valor and self-abnegation", that veers towards
> > some sexual attraction, "I could have spanked the dear man".
> >
> >
> > Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:57:06 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > Line 287: humming as you pack
> >
> > On July 7th, the day Shade pens this line, Kinbote has a doctors
> > appointment and, on the way, self medicates so as not to mislead
> > "credulous science". His nervousness he blames on the appointment
> > itself, but we might suspect that he's a little anxious about the
> > previous day's "gifts" to the Shades. On seeing Sybil leaving a
> > shop with a new "traveling grip", the sight of the grip grips
> > Kinbote with panic. It turns out, though, that their travel plans
> > aren't till the end of the month, after Shade finishes his poem.
> > Kinbote tries to find out where, but Sybil prevaricates - the
> > sought, of the last commentary, is now the seeker. By chance, or
> > perhaps through the machinations of "black winged fate" (see
> > previous commentary), Kinbote gleans the information from their
> > mutual doctor and immediately makes reservations for a cabin "on
> > the mountainside above Cedarn". In the Tirolean fantasies that
> > ensue, Kinbote prefers the version "conjured" by Shade, "Among
> > the lupines and the aspens", to the doctor's "stolid" accounting.
> > The doctor, of course, is right; "dry", "drear" and dead.
> > Black-winged fate, indeed; when Kinbote arrives at the cabin,
> > Shade is dead, and his own "work" is about to begin.
> >
> > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming then what is
> > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > ghostly visitor?...
> >
> >
> >
> > Line 293: She
> >
> > Short (Commentary discursions aside), pertinently informative, to the
> > point,-to the poem even-...not many "she"'s in Kinbote's life I guess...
> >
> >
> >
> > Line 316: The Toothwort White haunted our woods in May
> >
> > Frankly, Kinbote's uncertainty here makes me uncertain.
> > "Toothwort" seems unconnected with butterflies and, though
> > "White" is a common appellation for butterflies, is it so oddly
> > used here in connection with a white flower? Why is Kinbote so
> > intent on linking this line to butterflies and winged "folklore
> > characters", subverting the ghostly imagery the line evokes?
> > Going so far as to write a wholly unconvincing variant as
> > support. (Interestingly, I googled a message from a Nabakov
> > Yahoo! Group where the author claims, mistakenly I think, "The
> > Toothwort White is Pieris virginienses[sic]". Pieris virginiensis
> > is, in fact, the West Virginia White.)
> >
> >
> > Line 319: wood duck
> >
> > Kinbote's description is spot on, and entirely reminiscent of his lost
> > Zembla, particularly as lost to the swan-like "yellowing ivory
> > tower" of Shade's poem. An American trait, Kinbote laments, that
> > extends to the "science" of naming animals, not to mention to the
> > very foundation of the American state of mind...
> >
> > Line 334: Would never come for her
> >
> > "Would he ever come for me?", pines Kinbote, though he never did
> > for Disa....BTW, "ping-pong"...joined twins, but with one back-to?...
> >
> >
> > Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:58:07 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 347
>
> Line 347: old barn
>
> Before we enter the barn, Kinbote introduces us to its owner, Paul
Hetzner.
> This "gaunt solemn German", man of the here-and-now, was one of Shade's
> favorite "fellow ramblers" (fellow traveler? see Notes). Esteemed by Shade
> for "knowing 'the names of things'", Kinbote jealously cautions that
> Hetzner's naming is not to be trusted; "monstrosities", "Germanisms" or,
> worse even, made up on the fly. OK, ironies abound here, but note in
> particular the contrast of "monstrosities" with Kinbote's complaint, in
the
> line 319 commentary, that "popular nomenclature of American
animals[...]has
> not yet acquired the patina of European *faunal* names [my emphasis]."
> Kinbote ends his account of Hetzner with a description of his favorite,
umm,
> watering hole. "Here Papa pisses." remarks H's son. An act that carries
with
> it the obvious territorial connotations, consistent with the several
canine
> references in this passage, but also, I think, binds him to the immediate
> landscape as texture - a temporal and physical present repeatedly renewed,
> turned-over, and lacking the abstract text of historians, poets and
> prophets. But in the end, the course of history washes Hetzner away; his
> wife leaves him, taking their child, the farmhouse is sold and torn down
to
> make way for a drive-in theater; the present, turned-under the reflective
> surfaces of the past and future. After Hetzner's death while sleeping in
the
> old barn (note the cocoon-like imagery of his "sleeping bag"), it too is
> demolished at Shade's request - purportedly a fire hazard, though also,
> perhaps, an hazard to Hazel's psychic condition. Fittingly, flittingly
even,
> in its place arises a weed and butterfly patch, ghost-like amidst the
> "goldenrod all around it".
>
> After Hetzner's death there is a reported haunting in the barn that
prompts
> Hazel to investigate the scene herself, as part of a psychology class
paper.
> Hazel visits the barn three nights, but only sees/hears the ghost once,
> while alone. Details of the first visit are dictated to Kinbote by Jane P.
> ("a pillar of reliability"...as reported by Jane), for the second, Kinbote
> has selectively copied a "transcript based on jottings" made by Hazel
during
> the visit, the third is fabricated completely by Kinbote, though we are
> assured it "cannot be too far removed from the truth". What are we to make
> of such lengths gone to to present us with these "pathetic" scenes?
Kinbote
> is even able to restrain himself from digressing into another Zembla
> episode, unlike when he might have gotten more information on Hazel from
> Shade himself, to relate the events of the three nights.
>
> The first night is a wash-out, the pyrotechnics of a storm overwhelm
> anything the ghost might produce. Hazel fails to find a companion for the
> second visit, but decides, despite her parents attempts to stop her, to go
> it alone. Only nine minutes after settling in, she hears "scrappy and
> scrabbly sounds". Six minutes later, a "roundlet of pale light" appears,
> inviting play it would seem. Then, "gone". Twelve minutes more, and it
> returns. The "luminous circlet" assures Hazel that it is not a
> will-of-the-wisp, or trickster, but that "it" *is* dead. In the process,
> Hazel and the apparition work out a crude means of communication on the
wall
> of the barn, a "keyboard of dry wood"(line 649). With great effort and
> persistence, Hazel records "a short line of simple letter-groups". Later,
> despite "abominable" headaches, and with "endless" effort and "infinite
> patience and disgust", Kinbote applies himself (to the point, even, of
> distraction from his more appealing night-games) to cracking the code.
He's
> compelled by a line in Shade's poem that urges the discovery of a secret
> "pattern in the game". "[T]here is a merciful preponderance of a's" we are
> told, in this "abracadabra"...but Kinbote's many and lengthy pains finally
> come to nothing. Another "diabolical" red herring? Boyd does a pretty good
> translation, a pretty good pattern, but is it The Pattern? Is there a
> pattern at all? After all, a player of games of words might find it
> interesting to see how many "sensible" solutions might be formed of a
> non-sensible problem...perhaps it really would take, literally, "endless"
> effort and "infinite patience" to solve...
>
> Before any more data is collected, a resumption of the "scrabbling" and a
> sudden charge by the light frightens Hazel out of the barn. In a sense,
she
> awakens to a nightmare; suddenly realizing how unnatural the apparition
is,
> she flees into the familiar night. But comforting reality reverts back to
> nightmare when she misapprehends her father, waiting for her return, as a
> ghost.
>
> Kinbote claims a third night, which satisfies his sense of symmetry,
though
> no notes survive. Nonetheless, he presents what he claims as an account
not
> "too far removed from the truth" (compared to the preceding "truth", it
may
> not be far off at all...). Hazel is accompanied by her parents this time
but
> the family scene provides no further evidence of the haunting. Ironically,
> though, Hazel believes her parents to be mocking her and is pushed further
> along the path to suicide. Perhaps the sense of this is the reason for
> Shade's "confusely" manner in talking about the barn episode.
>
> Horatio's third night watch....dog days, animal nick-names, madness,
jointed
> time, incommunicable messages, pale luminous lights, ghostly fathers and
> suicide...Hamlet seems unavoidable, but I'd be foolhardy indeed to venture
> such waters. Jasper?
>
> The interplay of possible identities of the apparition in this commentary
is
> notable. The circlet of light is linked to Hetzner through the barn,
though
> its difficulty in communicating, as well as the mention of her cane, might
> suggest Aunt Maude, as Boyd has argued. In an earlier commentary (Line
230),
> Kinbote reports Jane's claim that the Shade's believe the earlier
> manifestation of Aunt Maude's ghost, a "domestic ghost", to be an "outward
> extension or expulsion of [Hazel's] insanity", and fear that her
experiences
> in the barn may be a repeat performance. Also, returning home, after
fleeing
> from the barn, Shade appears, briefly, as a ghost to Hazel. Finally, there
> is Kinbote's reproduction of Shade's poem, _NoE_, which asks, what if
> electricity is a ghostly manifestation, informing, perhaps, a comment in
the
> poem on Hazel's "strange force of character"(line 344). As a footnote,
> Kinbote adds that on the authority of "science", we know that "the Earth
> would not merely fall apart, but vanish like a ghost, if Electricity were
> removed from the world." If we transcribe "Electricity" as ghost, we get,
> the world falls apart if the ghost is removed....The world of this
story?...
>
> Makes my head spin...
>
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:59:09 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Summary Line 347-Line 376
>
> Line 347-348: She twisted words
>
> I'm not sure what to make of this commentary. Kinbote points out the
> unlikely coincidence that a "mirror-word" example that he uses with Shade,
> redips/spider, is also one of the words Hazel used to "twist". Evidence,
he
> claims, of a resemblance between Hazel and himself. Or is that,
reZEMBLAnce?
> A *mirrored* image, where right is left and depression is manic?
>
>
>
> Line 367-370: then-pen, again-explain
>
> Some punning, at least, going on in these "curious" lines. At line 369,
> "[...] then again:", not only do we get the word "then" again, but the
"en"
> sound is repeated additionally as well, as Kinbote notes. There is also
the
> guarded/pen pun that I think was pointed out previously on the list.
>
>
>
> Line 376: poem
>
> It seems Eliot is the target here, but why? Because of his less
disciplined
> blank verse (Shade)? Or, his lack of zemblian fancy(Kinbote)?
>
>
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:11:28 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 287-Line 334
>
> > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > Line 287: humming as you pack
> > >
> > > "Dr. Ahlert"
> > > Ail and hurt.
> Or Dr. Alert. Probably both considering Nabokov's penchant for word play.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:16:49 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 347-Line 348
>
> > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > "hoyden"
> > > OED -- ├ 1. A rude, ignorant, or awkward fellow; a clown, boor. Obs.
> See, Vincent A. Maeder... V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:21:24 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming then what
is
> > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > ghostly visitor?...
> Cedar Barn? V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:21:48 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 286
>
> > > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > >
> > > > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> > > >
> > > > Lotta' red in this book. A marker of the King and, in its many
shades
> > > > (gradatively?), a repeating intersection point in the paths of our
two
> > > > lemniscating bicycle writers, but is it a clew, or a lure? Or
> > > > texture? The color red can also be a trigger for an epileptic
> > > > seizure, particularly epilepsy in children....a-and Synesthesia
> > > > can cause seeing the color red....The line also echoes the title,
> > > > the only instance in the poem according to Boyd.
> >
> Also, the color of blood shed by Mr. Shade and, subsequently and
presumably,
> by Mr. Kinbote himself. Also, thinking of the reference to dogwood as the
> wood of choice for crucifixion, the shedding of blood as Christian
> reference. Also, Amber is a close relative to red. V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:22:12 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 286
>
> > > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine@ncia.net]
> > > > "Verba volant, scripta manent"
> > > > Words fly away, writing remains. Butterfly and cocoon? These
> > > > letters, then, are the husk of some more sublime exchange.
> >
> Again, the afterlife issues. Brings back the commentary on the Amber
> reference left by the cicada which flies away. Perhaps an overarching
> commentary by Nabokov on the nature of the artistic process in general,
> writing in particular, where the artist holds the art in the cocoon of his
> mind until it is deposited behind like amber waiting for the wary critic
> to be trapped in its goo. V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:03:05 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > then what is
> > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > ghostly visitor?...
>
> > Cedar Barn? V.
>
> Barn with cedar siding, see: http://www.methowlands.com/estates.html
(scroll
> down to the last picture, the "Ski trail runs through it" listing)
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:13:13 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > then what is
> > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > ghostly visitor?...
>
> > Cedar Barn? V.
>
> Sorry, should have been http://www.methow-lands.com/estates.html
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 18:40:40 +0000
> From: "Ghetta Life" <ghetta_outta@hotmail.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes Line 287-Line 334
>
> >From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> > > >
> > > > "Dr. Ahlert"
> > > > Ail and hurt.
> >Or Dr. Alert. Probably both considering Nabokov's penchant for word
play.
>
> Or All Hurt (as in he's not good for you)
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> High-speed Internet access as low as $29.95/month (depending on the local
> service providers in your area). Click here. https://broadband.msn.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 11:53:21 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Cedarn
>
> 'Cedarn' is a word in its own right meaning 'of or pertaining to cedar.'
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: 13 Oct 2003 15:12:51 -0400
> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 14:03, Scott Badger wrote:
> > > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > > then what is
> > > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > > ghostly visitor?...
> >
> > > Cedar Barn? V.
> >
> > Barn with cedar siding, see: http://www.methowlands.com/estates.html
(scroll
> > down to the last picture, the "Ski trail runs through it" listing)
> >
> > Scott Badger
> >
>
>
> Cedarn means pertaining to cedar. Coleridge used it to describe a
> hillside in Kublai Khan. . I think the association in our book is with
> the use of the wood as a preservative. Closets are lined with cedar
> wood to protect clothes from moths etc. Kinbote has taken Pale Fire to a
> place where it can be preserved.
>
> Additionally cedars have red berries of the type favored by waxwings. In
> fact there is a waxwing species called cedar waxwing.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:08:14 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Cedarn
>
> Keith McMullen wrote:
> >
> > 'Cedarn' is a word in its own right meaning 'of or pertaining to cedar.'
>
> See as well, The Index S
>
> the banal pun on the homophone "seadarn" or "seayarn."
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:18:14 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334
>
> > From: Paul Mackin
> > On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 14:03, Scott Badger wrote:
> > > > > > > If "Utana" is Utah/Montana and "Idoming" is Idaho/Wyoming
> > > > then what is
> > > > > > > Cedarn? Cedar barn? It's in the cabin at Cedarn where Kinbote
> > > > > > > inaccurately transcribes the words of Shade,...*Kinbote's*
> > > > > > > ghostly visitor?...
> > >
> > > > Cedar Barn? V.
> > >
> > > Barn with cedar siding, see: http://www.methowlands.com/estates.html
> > (scroll
> > > down to the last picture, the "Ski trail runs through it" listing)
> > >
> > > Scott Badger
> > >
> >
> >
> > Cedarn means pertaining to cedar. Coleridge used it to describe a
> > hillside in Kublai Khan. . I think the association in our book is with
> > the use of the wood as a preservative. Closets are lined with cedar
> > wood to protect clothes from moths etc. Kinbote has taken Pale Fire to a
> > place where it can be preserved.
> >
> Compare with the metaphor of the amber left behind by the cicada which
> preserves the ant. Of course, amber preserves by entrapment versus cedar.
> V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 15:18, Vincent A. Maeder wrote:
> > >
> > > Cedarn means pertaining to cedar. Coleridge used it to describe a
> > > hillside in Kublai Khan. . I think the association in our book is with
> > > the use of the wood as a preservative. Closets are lined with cedar
> > > wood to protect clothes from moths etc. Kinbote has taken Pale Fire to
a
> > > place where it can be preserved.
> > >
> > Compare with the metaphor of the amber left behind by the cicada which
> > preserves the ant. Of course, amber preserves by entrapment versus
cedar.
> > V.
>
> Yes, the preservative quality of amber is a double edged sword.
>
> In the refutation of LaFontaine it is the entrapment quality that counts
> (Dead is the mandible) but applying the image in a wider sense we might
> say that though the poet dies the poem is to be immortalized by
> Kinbote's commentary.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 19:33:24 +0000
> From: "Ghetta Life" <ghetta_outta@hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes Line 286
>
> >From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> >
> > > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> > >
> > > "Even in Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture."
> >>
> > > Kinbote seems to be linking Shade's "jet's pink trail" with Gradus'
> >flight from Copenhagen to Paris. Interestingly, a different version is
> >erroneously quoted at:
> >http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/pale/summ4.html
> > > "Even in Arcady am I," says Dementia, chained to her gray column." I
> >don't recognize it, and couldn't find the source (a sign of my own
arcadian
> >intellect, I'm sure.), but "Dementia" is suggestive of Kinbote and could
> >also point to the insane asylum escapee, Jack Grey.
> > >
> > > Also from the same site: "The name "D'Argus" is hardly a disguise as
it
> >is an anagram of "Gradus." The name "Argus" alludes to Greek mythology.
> >Argus was a watchman▀not an assassin, and another anagram of the name
> >"Gradus" is GUARDS. The earlier commentary foreshadowed the arrival of
> >"Dementia" in "Arcadia." In Greek mythology, Argus was the watchman for
the
> >town of Arcadia, ridding the utopia of pests, giants, and monsters."
>
> http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Argus1.html
>
> "Argus has been called "The All-seeing", because he had eyes in his whole
> body, or perhaps only one hundred eyes in his head that slept two at a
time
> in turn while the rest remained on guard.
>
> Argus was known for having killed a remarkable bull which ravaged Arcadia,
> and for having caught asleep and killed the monster Echidna, who used to
> carry off passers-by. Also when a Satyr wronged the Arcadians and robbed
> them of their cattle, Argus killed him."
>
> Ulysses dog (the one to first recognized him on his return) was named
Argus,
> as was the builder of the Argo, the ship of the Argonauts.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Instant message during games with MSN Messenger 6.0. Download it now FREE!
> http://msnmessenger-download.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:57:46 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Seadarn
>
> Less nimbly now through brakes they wind,
> And ford wild creeks where men have drowned;
> They skirt the pool, avoid the fen,
> And so till night, when down they lie,
> Their steeds still saddled, in wooded ground:
> Rein in hand they slumber then,
> Dreaming of Mosby's cedarn den.
>
> The Scout toward Aldie
> by Herman Melville
>
> Down to a sunless sea.
> So twice five miles of fertile ground
> With walls and towers were girdled round:
> And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
> Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
> And here were forests ancient as the hills,
> Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
>
> But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
> Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
>
> Kubla Khan
> by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
>
> Gently draw off the clear and tomb it yet,
> For other twenty days, in cedarn casks!
> Where through trance, surely, prophecy will set;
> As, dedicated to light temple-tasks,
> The young priest dreams the unknown mystery.
> Through Ariadne, knelt disconsolate
> In the sea▓s marge, so well▓d back warmth which throbb▓d
> With nuptial promise: she
> Turn▓d; and, half-choked through dewy glens, some great,
> Some magic drone of revel coming sobb▓d.
>
> A Duet
> by Thomas Sturge Moore
>
> That instant, the White Whale made a sudden rush among the remaining
> tangles of the
> other lines; by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more involved boats
> of Stubb and Flask towards his flukes; dashed them together like two
> rolling husks on a surf-beaten beach, and then, diving down into the
> sea, disappeared in a boiling maelstrom, in which, for a space, the
> odorous cedarn chips of the wrecks danced round and round, like the
> grated nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch.
>
> Moby-Dick
> by Herman Melville
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:56:30 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Cedarn
>
> >>>See as well, The Index S<<<
>
> Prof. C. is not in the Index (which see p. 310) , and neither is 'S.'
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:37:55 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes Line 287-Line 334
>
> > > > "Dr. Ahlert"
>
> Plus, 'Ahlert' is an actual last name.
>
> One example is a pediatric dentist
> named Dr. Ahlert in Oklahoma. His
> associate is Dr. Boyd.
>
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:hii0S9A3zKMJ:examiner-enterprise.com/di
> splay/inn_business/b069.txt+%22dr.+ahlert%22&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 13:01:37 -0700
> From: "Keith McMullen" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Character Index Koan
>
> Prof. C. is "not in the Index."
> E. is "not in the Index."
> S is not in the Index.
>
> G and K are in the Index.
>
> All of the above are mentioned in the Index.
>
> ------------------------------
>na> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 19:39:58 -0400
> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes Line 286
>
> Ghetta Life wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> >>
> >> > Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
> >> >
> >> > "Even in Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture."
> >>
> >>>
> >> > Kinbote seems to be linking Shade's "jet's pink trail" with Gradus'
> >> flight from Copenhagen to Paris. Interestingly, a different version
> >> is erroneously quoted at:
> >> http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/pale/summ4.html
> >> > "Even in Arcady am I," says Dementia, chained to her gray column."
> >> I don't recognize it, and couldn't find the source (a sign of my own
> >> arcadian intellect, I'm sure.), but "Dementia" is suggestive of
> >> Kinbote and could also point to the insane asylum escapee, Jack Grey.
> >> >
> >> > Also from the same site: "The name "D'Argus" is hardly a disguise
> >> as it is an anagram of "Gradus." The name "Argus" alludes to Greek
> >> mythology. Argus was a watchman▀not an assassin, and another anagram
> >> of the name "Gradus" is GUARDS. The earlier commentary foreshadowed
> >> the arrival of "Dementia" in "Arcadia." In Greek mythology, Argus was
> >> the watchman for the town of Arcadia, ridding the utopia of pests,
> >> giants, and monsters."
> >
> >
> > http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Argus1.html
> >
> > "Argus has been called "The All-seeing", because he had eyes in his
> > whole body, or perhaps only one hundred eyes in his head that slept
> > two at a time in turn while the rest remained on guard.
> >
> > Argus was known for having killed a remarkable bull which ravaged
> > Arcadia, and for having caught asleep and killed the monster Echidna,
> > who used to carry off passers-by. Also when a Satyr wronged the
> > Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, Argus killed him."
> >
> > Ulysses dog (the one to first recognized him on his return) was named
> > Argus, as was the builder of the Argo, the ship of the Argonauts.
> >
> In Latin it's Et in Arcadia ego Virgil
>
>
> Also the name of a Poussin painting. (shepherds discovering a tomb)
>
> P.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3602
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