Matthew Roth [to JM's "aren't you stretching too much
the power of words when you apply almost every meaning of terms, such as "wick",
as having been considered by and simultaneously included in one
sentence?] Who knows? At what point should we stop imagining
possibilities? Or are you simply saying that my hypothesis was stated too
declaratively? If so, I will concede the point: I'm guessing. [...] I
suppose the meaning related to bays supports the notion that the ocean line
docking is his razor shaving the wick of Shade's mouth?
JM: Oh...I'm all in favor of irradiating words, endless
imaginative possibilities and inspired guess-work (yours are
usually quite successful). Perhaps I considered that "your
hypothesis was stated too declaratively"?
By the way, you just offered
a novel possibility ( a docking liner as Shade's razor, while
he applies it to the wick of his mouth): Very interesting!
Could Dave Haan (who in 2008 sent a Nab-posting
about it*), Alexey Sklyarenko, or another good soul help me to
find "rain-sparkling
crystograms" in Russian (they occur in "The Defense", "The Eye",...)
and explain their use in Nabokov's Russian novels, or their more general
meaning?
.......................................................................................
* Last week, while exchanging ideas with Dave Haan (who sent me a
fascinating link related to Nabokov and chess, cf http://issuu.com/jholbo/docs/poeticsandproblematics, I learned that Nabokov describes "fairy chess," and that one of
its moves is named, like the Erkönig in "Pale Fire", ...the night-rider
...
A
night-rider appearing in a contrapunctal canto,
with King Charles singing it, too, while
fleeing from Zembla. These verses must imply in a lively
raid.