Subject
Re: Query: "tummock" in Nabokov? (fwd)
Date
Body
Tim Henderson <thenders@mail.lanline.com>wrote:
The following appears on an Updike tribute page (
http://www.users.fast.net/~joyerkes/Item0.html ) -- the only other
reference I found is to the fact that snowy owls apparently use them
exclusively for nesting...
It is nice to hear from a good friend and long-time page reader in the
UK, Andrew Hewitt. He gives us some long overdue and excellent help
about the word
"tummock." Thanks, Andrew, and yes, Updike does chooseshis words
carefully.
15 August 1998
It's been some time since I had a good look through the Updike site --
what a lot of information, ideas, comments and reactions you present.
There are very
few literary/cultural sites as good as yours.
I notice that one of your correspondents back in May was querying the
meaning of the word "tummock" (it appears in the story "How to Love
America..." in
Problems, in the sentence "...his life in a blood-blind moment wrenched
from his chest like a root from a tummock").
Tummock is a local (ie East Anglian) word that means more or less the
same as "hummock", a "hillock or knoll; a piece of rising ground, esp.
in a marsh". The
fenland connection may give Updike's choice of "tummock" that extra bit
of resonance. When you drain a fen, you use the tummocks to build up the
'wall' that
will eventually keep out the water. So ripping something out of a
tummock could lead to a breach that lets the water in (or out)....so the
use of tummock
strengthens the imagery of an untimely gushing-out of one's lifeblood.
Maybe! I'm often accused of exceedingly far-fetched readings...perhaps
this is seeing too
much into a single word -- making a mountain out of a tummock. On the
other hand, Updike does choose his words carefully...
Best wishes
Andrew Hewitt // andrew@maynardmalone.co.uk
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Henderson, Database Manager work: thenders@mail.lanline.com
Gannett Suburban Newspapers home: thomas.henderson@mne.net
1 Gannett Drive (914) 694-5309
White Plains, NY 10604
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears on an Updike tribute page (
http://www.users.fast.net/~joyerkes/Item0.html ) -- the only other
reference I found is to the fact that snowy owls apparently use them
exclusively for nesting...
It is nice to hear from a good friend and long-time page reader in the
UK, Andrew Hewitt. He gives us some long overdue and excellent help
about the word
"tummock." Thanks, Andrew, and yes, Updike does chooseshis words
carefully.
15 August 1998
It's been some time since I had a good look through the Updike site --
what a lot of information, ideas, comments and reactions you present.
There are very
few literary/cultural sites as good as yours.
I notice that one of your correspondents back in May was querying the
meaning of the word "tummock" (it appears in the story "How to Love
America..." in
Problems, in the sentence "...his life in a blood-blind moment wrenched
from his chest like a root from a tummock").
Tummock is a local (ie East Anglian) word that means more or less the
same as "hummock", a "hillock or knoll; a piece of rising ground, esp.
in a marsh". The
fenland connection may give Updike's choice of "tummock" that extra bit
of resonance. When you drain a fen, you use the tummocks to build up the
'wall' that
will eventually keep out the water. So ripping something out of a
tummock could lead to a breach that lets the water in (or out)....so the
use of tummock
strengthens the imagery of an untimely gushing-out of one's lifeblood.
Maybe! I'm often accused of exceedingly far-fetched readings...perhaps
this is seeing too
much into a single word -- making a mountain out of a tummock. On the
other hand, Updike does choose his words carefully...
Best wishes
Andrew Hewitt // andrew@maynardmalone.co.uk
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Henderson, Database Manager work: thenders@mail.lanline.com
Gannett Suburban Newspapers home: thomas.henderson@mne.net
1 Gannett Drive (914) 694-5309
White Plains, NY 10604
----------------------------------------------------------------------