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Re: THOUGHTS on QUERIES: PF, several
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"creased the pillow" does not necessarily-or even probably-refer to a count of intercourse. Marital intimacy (I am partly speaking from personal experience) does not consist solely of copulation. Sleeping together-I mean "sleeping together" in its slumbering denotation, not its copulatory connotation-is an act of intimacy (I read John and Sybil as an intimate couple): it is an act of security, closeness (both emotional and proximal), emotional closeness. And if slumbering together rather than copulating is the meaning, then the number 4,000 does work out. I therefore also see no reason to postulate twin beds; indeed, creased pillows implies a single bed.
Eric Hyman
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Nabokv-L
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 8:26 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS on QUERIES: PF, several
-------- Original Message --------
Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERIES: PF, several
Date:
Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:46:04 -0800 (PST)
From:
Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com><mailto:jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
Reply-To:
jerry_friedman@yahoo.com<mailto:jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU><mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
--- On Tue, 2/10/09, Matthew Roth <MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU><mailto:MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU> wrote:
> 1. In lines 275-280, Shade says that his head has
> "creased" Sybil's pillow
> 4000 times. Questions: Is Shade referring to how many times
> he and Sybil have had intercourse?
Yes.
> If so, that means they've had sex on average twice a
> week for 40 years! Do we believe that?
Not necessarily. "Everybody lies about sex." (Robert
Heinlein.) And it must be an estimate--Shade wouldn't
have kept count. Of course they might have had sex more
often as newlyweds and less often after turning 60. Or
something.
> Does this imply that they sleep in
> separate rooms (as did VN and Vera)?
Or twin beds, or he always goes over to her side.
> Why would the normally reserved Shade
> tell the world how many times he has had sex with his wife?
> Seems out of character.
I don't quite see that. The poem doesn't strike me as
reserved at all.
> 2. In his note to line 181, Kinbote seems to guess that JS
> and Sybil are
> having a pre-dawn sexual encounter. He says that he
> "smiled indulgently,
> for, according to my deductions, only two nights had passed
> since the
> three-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-ninth time--but no
> matter." Why does the
> thought of Shade and Sybil having sex cause Kinbote, who
> openly detests Sybil, to smile indulgently?
His favorite poet is getting some, maybe. Now that you
mention it, "indulgently" could refer to Kinbote's not
even minding that Shade is with Sybil.
> Is this passage meant to confirm Shade's
> twice-a-week calculation?
Makes sense to me, though there are five months that he's
silent about (not that we want a light-by-light tally).
> Kinbote refers to "the bedroom." Does this mean
> that Shade and Sybil share a bedroom?
Probably, now that you mention it.
> 3. The math of Hazel's barn transcription doesn't
> seem to work. In Hazel's
> Remarks, she says she began the alphabet eighty times but
> seventeen times
> got no response. That should leave us with 63 positive
> responses, but
> Hazel's transcription only contains 61 letters. We seem
> to be two letters
> short. Did VN (or Hazel, or Kinbote?) do the math wrong?
Nothing could be more likely, in my opinion. I thank
Carolyn for reminding me of her version of the puzzle.
> 4. Why, in lines 357 & 978, does Shade refer to Hazel
> as "my darling," when
> throughout the rest of the poem he has addressed the poem
> to Sybil and, thus, used "our" ("She'd criticize
> ferociously our projects"; "when we lost
> our child")?
The obvious answer is that she wasn't Sybil's darling.
But in general, Shade talks about what he feels and does,
but only what Sybil does. I think. And "darling" is an
expression of feeling.
> 5. Is the image (from the Index) of Thurgus the Third
> "in a dressing gown
> of green silk, and carrying a flambeau in his raised
> hand" supposed to make
> us think of the Statue of Liberty? If so, does this
> reinforce the notion
> that the passage from the palace to the "green
> room" is equivalent to
> Botkin's passage from the Old World to green Arcady
> (New Wye)?
I like it!
> 6. Is the Bera Range named after the King of Sodom (Genesis
> 14:2)?
Why not?
> 7. Why does Shade blubber into Sybil's shoulder blade
> in the gloam of Lilac Lane?
He blubbers it, not into it--rather like slobbering it or
nuzzling it with his blubbery face, in my imagination.
> Where is Lilac Lane?
Somewhere near New Wye? Maybe John and Sybil end up there
after leaving the picnic together.
(In another sense, somewhere near Coriolanus Lane?)
> 8. Has anyone managed to produce a landscape map of the
> Shade and Goldsworth houses?
Nobody had when Jansy asked the same question.
> As many times as I read the note to
> 47-48, I cannot get it straight.
Kinbote doesn't give us exact information. I think the
main problem is how Kinbote on his porch can see Shade's
backyard auto-da-fe (Foreword, p. 15 of Vintage edition,
wrong page number in Timeline) although he can't see the
back of Shade's house. Answer: these are big half-rural
houses on big plots--it's fifty yards from Kinbote's
house to Shade's, though they seem to face each other
across the road--and Shade's incinerator is near one
edge or the other of his property?
Hope there's something useful there.
Jerry Friedman
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Eric Hyman
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Nabokv-L
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 8:26 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS on QUERIES: PF, several
-------- Original Message --------
Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERIES: PF, several
Date:
Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:46:04 -0800 (PST)
From:
Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com><mailto:jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
Reply-To:
jerry_friedman@yahoo.com<mailto:jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU><mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
--- On Tue, 2/10/09, Matthew Roth <MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU><mailto:MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU> wrote:
> 1. In lines 275-280, Shade says that his head has
> "creased" Sybil's pillow
> 4000 times. Questions: Is Shade referring to how many times
> he and Sybil have had intercourse?
Yes.
> If so, that means they've had sex on average twice a
> week for 40 years! Do we believe that?
Not necessarily. "Everybody lies about sex." (Robert
Heinlein.) And it must be an estimate--Shade wouldn't
have kept count. Of course they might have had sex more
often as newlyweds and less often after turning 60. Or
something.
> Does this imply that they sleep in
> separate rooms (as did VN and Vera)?
Or twin beds, or he always goes over to her side.
> Why would the normally reserved Shade
> tell the world how many times he has had sex with his wife?
> Seems out of character.
I don't quite see that. The poem doesn't strike me as
reserved at all.
> 2. In his note to line 181, Kinbote seems to guess that JS
> and Sybil are
> having a pre-dawn sexual encounter. He says that he
> "smiled indulgently,
> for, according to my deductions, only two nights had passed
> since the
> three-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-ninth time--but no
> matter." Why does the
> thought of Shade and Sybil having sex cause Kinbote, who
> openly detests Sybil, to smile indulgently?
His favorite poet is getting some, maybe. Now that you
mention it, "indulgently" could refer to Kinbote's not
even minding that Shade is with Sybil.
> Is this passage meant to confirm Shade's
> twice-a-week calculation?
Makes sense to me, though there are five months that he's
silent about (not that we want a light-by-light tally).
> Kinbote refers to "the bedroom." Does this mean
> that Shade and Sybil share a bedroom?
Probably, now that you mention it.
> 3. The math of Hazel's barn transcription doesn't
> seem to work. In Hazel's
> Remarks, she says she began the alphabet eighty times but
> seventeen times
> got no response. That should leave us with 63 positive
> responses, but
> Hazel's transcription only contains 61 letters. We seem
> to be two letters
> short. Did VN (or Hazel, or Kinbote?) do the math wrong?
Nothing could be more likely, in my opinion. I thank
Carolyn for reminding me of her version of the puzzle.
> 4. Why, in lines 357 & 978, does Shade refer to Hazel
> as "my darling," when
> throughout the rest of the poem he has addressed the poem
> to Sybil and, thus, used "our" ("She'd criticize
> ferociously our projects"; "when we lost
> our child")?
The obvious answer is that she wasn't Sybil's darling.
But in general, Shade talks about what he feels and does,
but only what Sybil does. I think. And "darling" is an
expression of feeling.
> 5. Is the image (from the Index) of Thurgus the Third
> "in a dressing gown
> of green silk, and carrying a flambeau in his raised
> hand" supposed to make
> us think of the Statue of Liberty? If so, does this
> reinforce the notion
> that the passage from the palace to the "green
> room" is equivalent to
> Botkin's passage from the Old World to green Arcady
> (New Wye)?
I like it!
> 6. Is the Bera Range named after the King of Sodom (Genesis
> 14:2)?
Why not?
> 7. Why does Shade blubber into Sybil's shoulder blade
> in the gloam of Lilac Lane?
He blubbers it, not into it--rather like slobbering it or
nuzzling it with his blubbery face, in my imagination.
> Where is Lilac Lane?
Somewhere near New Wye? Maybe John and Sybil end up there
after leaving the picnic together.
(In another sense, somewhere near Coriolanus Lane?)
> 8. Has anyone managed to produce a landscape map of the
> Shade and Goldsworth houses?
Nobody had when Jansy asked the same question.
> As many times as I read the note to
> 47-48, I cannot get it straight.
Kinbote doesn't give us exact information. I think the
main problem is how Kinbote on his porch can see Shade's
backyard auto-da-fe (Foreword, p. 15 of Vintage edition,
wrong page number in Timeline) although he can't see the
back of Shade's house. Answer: these are big half-rural
houses on big plots--it's fifty yards from Kinbote's
house to Shade's, though they seem to face each other
across the road--and Shade's incinerator is near one
edge or the other of his property?
Hope there's something useful there.
Jerry Friedman
Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en%0d%0a>
Contact the Editors<mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"<http://www.nabokovonline.com>
Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
View Nabokv-L Policies<http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Manage subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
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/