The actual exchange of letters between Nabokov
and 'Bunny' Wilson reveals a particular kind of emotion that is rather rarefied
in Nabokov's novels, namely, affectionate warmth:
"fondness," which ranges from a special type of preference
for edibles and things, to a tender cuddly love for puppies, young
children, elderly people and (why not?) mankind.
I wondered how well "fondness" fared in
Nabokov's novels, should one could count the frequency of the word, or evaluate
its varying contexts, to register the gamut of emotions explored by him as a
writer. My first results were baffling, perhaps because, at least in Ada
and in Lolita, there was a contamination from "being fond of" to "fondling,"
that contrasts with Nabokov's extra-novelistic recommendation to "fondle the
details" (‘In reading, one should notice and fondle
details.There is nothing wrong about the moonshine of generalization
when it comes after the sunny trifles of the book have been lovingly
collected." ( ‘Good Readers and Good Writers’ in
Lectures on Literature (ed. Fredson Browers, Harvest Book, San Diego,
1980).
An informal search in the internet led me to
approach "to fondle" and "to pet" ("my pet," charged with contrasting meanings,
is how Ada sometimes addresses her half-sister) although what would have been
originally "explicitly innocent and nonsexual," in fondling and in
"wuffle"*, and related to children and animals, will now acquire a
depreciative erotic sense.
As I see it, Nabokov's employ of the English
noun "fondness" is marked by mostly negative aond
conflictual feelings.**
............................................................................................................................................................................................
*
A site for "Urban Dictionary" described "wuffle": 1.) The verb form of
"affection;" the act of being affectionate. To demonstrate physical affection,
especially in ways that do not have specific other names. Ie to nuzzle, cuddle
and pet. Explicitly innocent and nonsexual - one "wuffles" a lover the same way
one wuffles a child or pet. May imply an emulation of the way an animal
demonstrates affection, ie, how a cat will rub its face up against someone. 2.)
A dimunitve form of nonromantic, nonsexual love in the sense of affection or
fondness. Used to express the desire to give affection towards someone being
cute or endearing (I chose only the first two of a list).
** - Fondness in "Ada, or Ardour":
1. In "Ada" it is a British reviewer who
exhibits a "journalist’s fondness for ...phoney
wordplay," although "fond" at first seems to be associated to Uncle
Dan's falling "comfortably in love with Marina," in
relation to "a fondly made
topcoat". Marina, herself, keeps "a secret
fondness for salty jokes" and ellicits "a fond
deprecation" after being praised about the softness of her
expensive fur coat. Ada and Lucette are "fond ...of
Russian fare and Russian floor shows" and whores ( Flora)
may flash "a fond farewell." while a
tolerant comment, added to Van's text, is written "in Ada's
fondest hand." Van, in his turn, vents his anger in a "fond way" but he also may be "fond of Ada's cotton
frock" although he intends to "soil it." (something which we'll later
find directly related to the act of "fondling": "he had fondled and fouled her many times in the course of the last
ten days, but was not sure if her name was really Adora..." and this
reappers in: "on the bench where he had recently fondled and
fouled a favorite, lanky, awkward, black girl student"..
now surprisingly related to his feelings of guilt towards his mother,when
"Van tortured himself with thoughts of insufficient filial
affection — a long story of unconcern, amused scorn, physical repulsion, and
habitual dismissal"). Van does try, once in a while,"to squeeze out some fondness for her but as usual failed and as
usual told himself that Ada did not love her mother either, a vague and cowardly
consolation." but, more realisticaly, he notes that "nothing... can be construed as allowing itself to be deciphered by
a witch doctor who can then cure a madman or give comfort to a killer by laying
the blame on a too fond, too fiendish or too indifferent parent
." At other times, the tender cuddly protection ellicits other kinds
of thoughts for in " 'real' life we are creatures of
chance in an absolute void — unless we be artists ourselves, naturally; but in a
good play I feel authored, I feel passed by the board of censors, I feel secure,
with only a breathing blackness before me (instead of our Fourth-Wall Time), I
feel cuddled in the embrace of puzzled Will (he thought I was you) or in that of
the much more normal Anton Pavlovich, who was always passionately fond of long
dark hair.’"
2. Fondness might appear as "tendresse" (
Demon's, towards Ada: The bizarre enthusiast had developed
the same tendresse for her as he had always had for Van) or
related to pets, or to pity, as in the case of Ada, towards Fritillaries:‘Our fondest dream,’ she continued, ‘Krolik’s and my fondest dream,
was to describe and depict the early stages, from ova to pupa," since "a caterpillar needs exquisite care!" while we
learn that Van was fond of kissing girlish Ada's
pitifully gnawed hands...
3. In "Ada," fondness is predominantly a feeling related to nurses and
butlers. Vivian Darkbloom
translates Bouteillan's sentence in French (p.126): "no, Sir, I simply am very fond of you, Sir, and of your young
lady." (‘Non, Monsieur,’ answered Bouteillan, holding on to his cap. ‘Non. Tout simplement j’aime bien Monsieur et sa
demoiselle.’ ) typical of Demon's and
Van's "old comedy retainer's," who may be as loyal
and observant as "a fond relative or faithful
retainer," and who welcomes his master "with a
fond bow."
4. We learn about the perils of being
fond. It's not Ada, but Lucette who is able to admire "fondly ...his long lashes while
pitying his tender skin..." - a dangerous feeling in her case: "A wet
nurse's (Ruby Black) and later Lucette's tender feelings for Van led to madness,
"anguish and calamity." ( "for no sooner did all the fond,
all the frail, come into close contact with him...than they were bound to know
anguish and calamity, unless strengthened by a strain of his father’s demon
blood.")
5. In keeping with the hazards of fond softness
and pity, here linked to parental care, we find that Marina, "took some professional pleasure in playing the hackneyed part of a
fond mother, proud of her daughter’s charm and humor..." or
knitted "her brows and shook her head acting the fond,
worried mother though, in point of fact, she bore her daughters even less
affection than she had for cute Dack and pathetic Dan."
It befalls Demon to consider (in Van's fantasy) how
his love for Marina had changed: "How strange that when one
met after a long separation a chum or fat aunt whom one had been fond of as a
child the unimpaired human warmth of the friendship was rediscovered at once,
but with an old mistress this never happened — the human part of one’s affection
seemed to be swept away with the dust of the inhuman passion, in a wholesale
operation of demolishment."
To fondle in "Ada,
or Ardour":
1.related to Demon's marriage to Aqua, "out of spite
and pity, a not unusual blend," because Van registers Marina's "perverse vainglory," when she "used to affirm in bed that Demon’s senses must have been
influenced by a queer sort of ‘incestuous’ (whatever that term means) pleasure
(in the sense of the French plaisir, which works up a lot of supplementary
spinal vibrato), when he fondled, and savored, and delicately parted and
defiled, in unmentionable but fascinating ways, flesh (une chair) that was both
that of his wife and that of his mistress, the blended and brightened charms of
twin peris, an Aquamarina both single and double, a mirage in an emirate, a
germinate gem, an orgy of epithelial alliterations."
2. A puzzling
link between fondling and Mr Nymphobottomus's petting: " ...she said, or said later she’d said — while he continued to fondle
the flow of her hair, and to massage and rumple her nightdress...She turned to
him and next moment he was kissing her bare shoulder, and pushing against her
like that soldier behind in the queue./.../ First time I hear about him. I
thought old Mr Nymphobottomus had been my only predecessor." Also
during their lovemaking, Ada "fondled him; she entwined
him: thus a tendril climber coils round a column..."
3.
Fondling may be related to twinning entwinement, depreciation and cruelty:
"He still hoped to get rid for a moment of dull Cordula and
find something cruel to make dull Ada dissolve in bright tears. But that was
prompted by his amour-propre, not by their sale amour. He would die with an old
pun on his lips. And why ‘dirty’? Did he feel any Proustian pangs? None. On the
contrary: a private picture of their fondling each other kept pricking him with
perverse gratification. Before his inner bloodshot eye Ada was duplicated and
enriched, twinned by entwinement, giving what he gave, taking what he took:
Corada, Adula. It struck him that the dumpy little Countess resembled his first
whorelet, and that sharpened the itch." And courtesan loves who
were"picked up in a café between Grasse and Nice, and
another, a part-time model (you have seen her fondling a virile lipstick in
Fellata ads), aptly nicknamed Swallowtail by the patrons of a Norfolk Broads
floramor." (indeed, Van would die with an old pun on his lips...) Other
fantastic additions refer to "Vaniada's Adventures" by which "Virgin chatelaines in marble-floored manors fondled their lone
flames fanned by Van’s romance."
4. Is there a defiled "platonic love" element in a reference to Mr.
Platonov whose gouty feet Van had inadvertently, but angrily, trod upon:
‘Cordula,’ said the old actress (with the same apropos with
which she once picked up and fondled a fireman’s cat that had strayed into Fast
Colors in the middle of her best speech), ‘why don’t you go with this angry
young demon to the
tea-car? "