Matt Roth: In Canto Two, Shade
describes his "little scissors" (183) as a "synthesis of sun and star." I
have never understood this image. I've looked at my own nail scissors in an
attempt to see what Shade was seeing, alas to no avail. Help!
It seems that Matt's query of several years ago
was never answered. Meanwhile, the answer is simple. Any Russian
child knows the riddle: Dva kontsa, dva kol'tsa, poseredine gvozdik
("Two ends, two rings, a tack in the middle"). What that is? A pair of
scissors. Shade seems to compare the scissors's gvozdik
(the small nail, or "tack") to a star and one of the two handle rings
to the sun (the other handle ring would be then a parhelion). At least, I
am at loss to see how a pair of scissors could incorporate the sun and a
star in any other way.*
When the sun is shining, stars are not visible (and vice
versa). While parting fragments of space, Shade's little scissors
unite day and night.** Interestingly, a few lines later (188-189)
Shade compares his index finger to the lean College astronomer
Starover Blue (the name that suggests a star
can be visible in the blue sky). According to Kinbote (n. to
line 627), the astronomer's grandfather was a Russian Old Believer
(starover) named Sinyavin (from siniy,
"blue") who married Stella Lazurchik, an Americanized Kashube.*** While
stella is Latin for "star", the name Lazurchik comes from
lazur', Russian for "azure". On the other hand, it reminds one of
larchik, Russian for "small box". The phrase a larchik prosto
otkryvalsya (the punch line of Krylov's fable "Larchik") means
"the explanation/solution was quite simple" and seems to suggest that, like
Krylov's larchik, the novel Pale Fire can be
opened (does have a simple solution) after all. Perhaps, even the crown jewels
can be discovered by the reader? May be, they are hidden not in Zembla
(zemlya is Russian for "land", "earth") but in the
sky swarming, according to a Chekhov character, with diamonds? There
is a constellation Corona Borealis ("the Northern Crown") in the
northern skies.
A tentative anagram: sea + Starbottle
+ Neva + nikto + tochka = Seattle + Saratov + Botkin +
Netochka
Starbottle - Starover
Blue's nickname
Neva - the river that
flows through St. Petersburg, VN's home city
nikto - Russ.,
nobody
tochka - Russ., spot,
dot; full stop
Seattle - the city in
the USA whither Sinyavin migrated
Saratov - Sinyavin's
home city
Botkin - Kinbote's real
name
Netochka - Oscar
Nattochdag's nickname (after the heroine of Dostoevsky's unfinished
novel)
*In her response to Matt's query, Carolyn Kunin tried to
synthesize the two words, "sun" and "star", coming up with a possible
synthesis "Saturn". Like a pair of scissors, Saturn does have rings. But there
are seven of them, not just a pair. Besides, the rings of Saturn
resemble the scissors handle rings as little as Saturn does
a finger.
**At the end of his note to line 627 Kinbote
mentions Oscar Nattochdag, a Zemblan Professor in New Wye, whose name
means "night and day" in Swedish. His nickname, Netochka, hints at
Netochka Nezvanov, the heroine of Dostoevsky's unfinished novel, and reminds one
of a Russian saying nezvanyi gost' khuzhe tatarina, "the uninvited
guest is worse than a Tartar".
***The Kashubes are Slavic people who live in N Poland
near the mouth of the Vistula. In one of his poems, VN's friend Khodasevich
makes his mother say to him, then an infant, that the Vistula is the bluest of
all rivers (ditya, vsekh rek sinee Visla). Khodasevich invented Vasiliy
Travnikov, who rivals Vasiliy Shishkov (invented by VN) in being the
greatest Russian invented poet.
Alexey Sklyarenko