-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Katsell [mailto:jerry3@roadrunner.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 3:31 PM
To: 'NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU'
Subject: Bohemians in New Wye

            Dear List,

 

 

Judging by the marvelous photos supplied by Leland de la Durantaye on 1/5/07, Bombycilla garrulous, the Bohemian waxwing, may surely be the waxwing intended in PF. Its breast and belly are the right shade (deep ash-gray), the only shade that could produce that “smudge of ashen fluff” on Shade’s windowpane. The garrulous bird is the hermeneutic jumping-off point of the entire poem and attendant Kinbotean commentary. The Cedar waxwing’s feathering appears too tawny and yellow for the job. The dark yet ashy shading of the Bohemian waxwing also fits well with Priscilla Meyer’'s comments in Find What the Sailor Has Hidden (185) about the bird’s associations with the death theme (Sterbevogel) in the novel.

 

Jerry Katsell