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Re: SIGHTING: VN and synaesthesia
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Frances Assa [on S.Klein's link to VN and synaesthesia]: "Regarding "Inside the Mind of a Synaesthete" note the following sentence bringing us back, once again, to apes and monkeys: "Researchers have learned that even chimpanzees associate low notes with darker colors with high notes with brighter ones."
JM: Fran Assa observes a return to captive apes and monkeys in the link, carrying a report from Nature (by Ewen Callaway) that she underlined:"Apes' association of tones and shades may hold clues to human synaesthesia and language. Chimpanzees meld sounds and colours, associating light objects with high tones and dark objects with deeper tones[...].To determine whether humans learn to associate sounds and colours from others, or whether they are innate and do not require language, Ludwig searched for the associations in captive chimpanzees."
How about a simian synaesthetic sense of smell ? In Ada, or Ardor, Van notes that "Sounds have colors, colors have smells. The fire of Lucette’s amber runs through the night of Ada’s odor and ardor, and stops at the threshold of Van’s lavender goat." (p.419)
There are other types of sensorial associations in Ada, now related to memory and to "family smells," "the artistry of asymmetry" and "the strong charm of coincidence." (however, I cannot understand what Van means):
1. "Her [Lucette's] ember-bright hair flew into his face and smelt of a past summer. Family smell; yes, coincidence: a set of coincidences slightly displaced; the artistry of asymmetry."
2. "Hey, and here’s Alonso, the swimming-pool expert. I met his sweet sad daughter at a Cyprian party — she felt and smelt and melted like you. The strong charm of coincidence’."
Lucette's "amber" is related, among other things, to parfumerie*. I wonder if her coloring also links her (in particular!) to the dirty unmentionable 'lammer' and to Van's consistently avoiding her
(a) "hydrodynamic telephones and other miserable gadgets that were to replace those that had gone k chertyam sobach’im (Russian ‘to the devil’) with the banning of an unmentionable ‘lammer.’
p.25. lammer: amber (Fr: l’ambre), allusion to electricity.
(b) " Van regretted that because Lettrocalamity (Vanvitelli’s old joke!) was banned allover the world, its very name having become a ‘dirty word’
p.118. Lettrocalamity: a play on Ital. elettrocalamita, electromagnet./*
Watching Lucette's diving skills in Ada, Van "put on his tinted glasses and watched her stand on the diving board, her ribs framing the hollow of her intake as she prepared to ardis into the amber. He wondered, in a mental footnote that might come handy some day, if sunglasses or any other varieties of vision, which certainly twist our concept of ‘space,’ do not also influence our style of speech." (isn't that a return to synaesthesia?)
.
The reference to succinum or gum-stone, another wiki-reference, carries me over to John Shade's "gum-logged ant" in Pale Fire and to Kinbote's commentary.** Also in Pale Fire there are alphabetical references that go "from Amber to Zen" and a line by Shade that might be linked to Lucette's dive (The amber spectacles for life’s eclipse)
It seems that the significant "amber" can carry VN readers a long long way -as this commentary that started merely with a quote to Fran Assa, about color smells. ..
...................................................................................................................
* Wikipedia carries an etymologic explanation that confirms Darkbloom's and relates one of its uses to parfumerie.
"Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap), which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times.Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry... The English word amber derives from the Arabic anbar, via Medieval Latin ambar and Old French ambre. The word originally referred to a precious oil derived from the Sperm whale (now called ambergris)[ ] The word ambar was brought to Europe by the Crusaders....Amber is discussed by Theophrastus, possibly the first historical mention of the material, in the 4th century BC. The Greek name for amber was ??e?t??? (elektron), "formed by the sun", and it was connected to the sun god (Helios), one of whose titles was Elector or the Awakener.[6] According to the myth, when Helios' son Phaëton was killed, his mourning sisters became poplars, and their tears became the origin of elektron, amber.[7]
The modern terms "electricity" and "electron" derive from the Greek word for amber, and come from William Gilbert's research showing that amber could attract other substances. The presence of insects in amber was noticed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, and led him to theorize correctly that, at some point, amber had to be in a liquid state to cover the bodies of insects. Hence he gave it the expressive name of succinum or gum-stone..".
** As we were walking home the day she died, An empty emerald case, squat and frog-eyed, Hugging the trunk; and its companion piece, A gum-logged ant. (Shade, line 240). CK note to line 238 (empty emerald case) "The cigale’s companion piece, the ant, is about to be embalmed in amber." (Kinbote compressed ideas turning the cigale into the ant's companion piece: the poem allows another interpretation)
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JM: Fran Assa observes a return to captive apes and monkeys in the link, carrying a report from Nature (by Ewen Callaway) that she underlined:"Apes' association of tones and shades may hold clues to human synaesthesia and language. Chimpanzees meld sounds and colours, associating light objects with high tones and dark objects with deeper tones[...].To determine whether humans learn to associate sounds and colours from others, or whether they are innate and do not require language, Ludwig searched for the associations in captive chimpanzees."
How about a simian synaesthetic sense of smell ? In Ada, or Ardor, Van notes that "Sounds have colors, colors have smells. The fire of Lucette’s amber runs through the night of Ada’s odor and ardor, and stops at the threshold of Van’s lavender goat." (p.419)
There are other types of sensorial associations in Ada, now related to memory and to "family smells," "the artistry of asymmetry" and "the strong charm of coincidence." (however, I cannot understand what Van means):
1. "Her [Lucette's] ember-bright hair flew into his face and smelt of a past summer. Family smell; yes, coincidence: a set of coincidences slightly displaced; the artistry of asymmetry."
2. "Hey, and here’s Alonso, the swimming-pool expert. I met his sweet sad daughter at a Cyprian party — she felt and smelt and melted like you. The strong charm of coincidence’."
Lucette's "amber" is related, among other things, to parfumerie*. I wonder if her coloring also links her (in particular!) to the dirty unmentionable 'lammer' and to Van's consistently avoiding her
(a) "hydrodynamic telephones and other miserable gadgets that were to replace those that had gone k chertyam sobach’im (Russian ‘to the devil’) with the banning of an unmentionable ‘lammer.’
p.25. lammer: amber (Fr: l’ambre), allusion to electricity.
(b) " Van regretted that because Lettrocalamity (Vanvitelli’s old joke!) was banned allover the world, its very name having become a ‘dirty word’
p.118. Lettrocalamity: a play on Ital. elettrocalamita, electromagnet./*
Watching Lucette's diving skills in Ada, Van "put on his tinted glasses and watched her stand on the diving board, her ribs framing the hollow of her intake as she prepared to ardis into the amber. He wondered, in a mental footnote that might come handy some day, if sunglasses or any other varieties of vision, which certainly twist our concept of ‘space,’ do not also influence our style of speech." (isn't that a return to synaesthesia?)
.
The reference to succinum or gum-stone, another wiki-reference, carries me over to John Shade's "gum-logged ant" in Pale Fire and to Kinbote's commentary.** Also in Pale Fire there are alphabetical references that go "from Amber to Zen" and a line by Shade that might be linked to Lucette's dive (The amber spectacles for life’s eclipse)
It seems that the significant "amber" can carry VN readers a long long way -as this commentary that started merely with a quote to Fran Assa, about color smells. ..
...................................................................................................................
* Wikipedia carries an etymologic explanation that confirms Darkbloom's and relates one of its uses to parfumerie.
"Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap), which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times.Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry... The English word amber derives from the Arabic anbar, via Medieval Latin ambar and Old French ambre. The word originally referred to a precious oil derived from the Sperm whale (now called ambergris)[ ] The word ambar was brought to Europe by the Crusaders....Amber is discussed by Theophrastus, possibly the first historical mention of the material, in the 4th century BC. The Greek name for amber was ??e?t??? (elektron), "formed by the sun", and it was connected to the sun god (Helios), one of whose titles was Elector or the Awakener.[6] According to the myth, when Helios' son Phaëton was killed, his mourning sisters became poplars, and their tears became the origin of elektron, amber.[7]
The modern terms "electricity" and "electron" derive from the Greek word for amber, and come from William Gilbert's research showing that amber could attract other substances. The presence of insects in amber was noticed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, and led him to theorize correctly that, at some point, amber had to be in a liquid state to cover the bodies of insects. Hence he gave it the expressive name of succinum or gum-stone..".
** As we were walking home the day she died, An empty emerald case, squat and frog-eyed, Hugging the trunk; and its companion piece, A gum-logged ant. (Shade, line 240). CK note to line 238 (empty emerald case) "The cigale’s companion piece, the ant, is about to be embalmed in amber." (Kinbote compressed ideas turning the cigale into the ant's companion piece: the poem allows another interpretation)
Search archive with Google:
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/