I had been envisioning "elbows raised" as vertical, right angle to his "supine" body. That they "could be seen" suggests slightly, and so I thought this was another reason for their being vertical—as if they'd have to be nearly straight up to be seen. However, now I see that that "elbows raised" could be seen as sticking "out" rather than up, but the idea that he's resting with his hands clasped behind his head is inconsistent with the sorrow in the story and his untidy bed and a kind of sordidness evoked, so I continue to imagine his elbows sticking up as if he had his hands covering his face (this could be to rest or stretch or it could be despair), though I like being reminded by someone else who posted (JM?) of a VN image of a woman removing her necklace. "Supine" draws attention to the face also, lying face up rather than prone.
"When he had gone to bed"
Her husband had gone to bed and the man in the window had gone to bed.
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We can think of the colors in the jars as abstract (abstract color might make a nice "abstract" gift for the son—or maybe they too would terrify)—as if there were any such thing as abstract color, but it is something one who loves color can perceive, or rather the perception of colors especially as enhanced by various textures, substances and contexts, such as the luminosity of jelly and glass jars, not only in artworks but anywhere, encourages such an idea or image as color as abstract or abstract color, or color abstracted, and all such perceptions are also strong feelings among color lovers and painters.
Barrie Karp (with a K!)Search the Nabokv-L archive with Google
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