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Re: [NABOKOV] Notes on Pale Fire, D.Zimmer
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DZ: ..."PF commentary.Indeed I tried to be succinct. I simply had to because my appendix as it is occupies more than 200 pages and is almost as long as the novel itself, much too long for an edition meant not for scholars but for the general reading public. As to line 238-46, it is true that in my note I spelt La Fontaine the way he is spelled in the catalogues of the Bibliothèque Francaise [...] And after all, I never intended to deprive my fellow commentators of future work."
JM: Dear D.Zimmer: "Tatsächtlich", your objective way of proffering complex information and organizing excerpts is inspiring because it highlights events to which I'd been blind without "depriving" me of a sense of personal discovery.
I have one or two questions.
(1) When you observed that "La Fontaine irrte", in your commentary, you used a different expression from the one chosen for the poem ( Shade's "Lafontaine was wrong"/"La Fontaine lag falsch"): did you have any particular indication in mind concerning "irrte/lag falsch"?
(2) I understood, from your notes, that VN had coined the word "ombriole" ( joining shadow + aureole) for Joe Lavender's "photographs of the artistic type" ..."lampshades with landscapes...which combined exquisite beauty with highly indecent subject matter."
Don Johnson once brought up news on photographic plates that show objects which "shine through" in three dimensions - but I cannot remember their (Greek?) designation now, nor can I be more precise about this past information. And yet, I connected your "shadowy aureole" to DJ's find, and to the transparencies mentioned in your quote [VN-List, January 06, 2009 : "Nabokov said: " in certain species, the wings of the pupated butterfly begin to show in exquisite miniature through the wing-cases of the chrysalis a few days before emergence. It is the pathetic sight of an iridiscent future transpiring through the shell of the past, something of the kind I experience when dipping into my books written in the twenties." (Int18 123)"]
There is a more utilitarian, albeit non-luminous derivation for VN's coinage of "ombriole" - such as the English "umbrella". Isn't this size-indicator by "ole" or "ella" an option commonly favored by biologists (as in "flagella")?
Do you see this ombriole's very suggestive "aureole" as a creation that is independent from the influence of an "ella" diminutive?
(3) After I read (with my insufficient knowledge of German) your comments about Michael Wood on "authorial trespassing" and also on Kinbote's indiscretions in his role as a fictional scholar, I wondered how should I designate CK's omniscience about Gradus together with his revelation, at that point in his notes, about his being on familiar terms with Joe Lavender [ "the ombrioles Lavender collected (and I am sure Joe will not resent this indiscretion) ..."]
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JM: Dear D.Zimmer: "Tatsächtlich", your objective way of proffering complex information and organizing excerpts is inspiring because it highlights events to which I'd been blind without "depriving" me of a sense of personal discovery.
I have one or two questions.
(1) When you observed that "La Fontaine irrte", in your commentary, you used a different expression from the one chosen for the poem ( Shade's "Lafontaine was wrong"/"La Fontaine lag falsch"): did you have any particular indication in mind concerning "irrte/lag falsch"?
(2) I understood, from your notes, that VN had coined the word "ombriole" ( joining shadow + aureole) for Joe Lavender's "photographs of the artistic type" ..."lampshades with landscapes...which combined exquisite beauty with highly indecent subject matter."
Don Johnson once brought up news on photographic plates that show objects which "shine through" in three dimensions - but I cannot remember their (Greek?) designation now, nor can I be more precise about this past information. And yet, I connected your "shadowy aureole" to DJ's find, and to the transparencies mentioned in your quote [VN-List, January 06, 2009 : "Nabokov said: " in certain species, the wings of the pupated butterfly begin to show in exquisite miniature through the wing-cases of the chrysalis a few days before emergence. It is the pathetic sight of an iridiscent future transpiring through the shell of the past, something of the kind I experience when dipping into my books written in the twenties." (Int18 123)"]
There is a more utilitarian, albeit non-luminous derivation for VN's coinage of "ombriole" - such as the English "umbrella". Isn't this size-indicator by "ole" or "ella" an option commonly favored by biologists (as in "flagella")?
Do you see this ombriole's very suggestive "aureole" as a creation that is independent from the influence of an "ella" diminutive?
(3) After I read (with my insufficient knowledge of German) your comments about Michael Wood on "authorial trespassing" and also on Kinbote's indiscretions in his role as a fictional scholar, I wondered how should I designate CK's omniscience about Gradus together with his revelation, at that point in his notes, about his being on familiar terms with Joe Lavender [ "the ombrioles Lavender collected (and I am sure Joe will not resent this indiscretion) ..."]
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/