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[NABOKOV-LIST] Fauns, faunlets and Nijinky
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Dear List,
I recently watched the movie "Nijinsky" (1980), directed by Herbert Ross, screenplay by Hugh Wheeler based on Romula Nijinsky's biography.
Alan Bates was Diaghilev; George de la Pena played Nijinsky (his interpretation of the Debussy's L'Apres Midi d'un Faune was outstanding); Leslie Browne was Romola, Alan Badel interpreted Baron de Gunsburg and Jeremy Irons, Fokine.
I remembered the interesting article by Monica Manolescu in The Nabokovian,57,Fall 2006 ("Old, Mad, Gray Nijinski" in Lolita) and various past postings about ivy-clad Nijinsky and the faunlet Gordon, in Ada, where VN was particularly cruel to "catamites"*.
In Lolita Nijinski is "all thighs and fig leaves", in Ada the faunlet Pedro performs a "Nurjinski leap" and Diaghilev appears as "Dangleleaf".
We also find in Ada: "Whose brush was it now? A titillant Titian? A drunken Palma Vecchio? [...] Faun Exhausted by Nymph? Swooning Satyr?[...]A moment later the Dutch took over: Girl stepping into a pool [...]" which carries watery links to Pedro ['Permit me, Ivan, to get you also a nice cold Russian kok?' said Pedro - really a very gentle and amiable youth at heart. 'Get yourself a cocoanut,' replied nasty Van, testing the poor faun...Claudius, at least, did not court Ophelia].
Concerning VN's references to Arcadian faunlets & nymphets, catamites and his Lolita "brood" was how Diaghilev's very real ones caused, apparently, less scandal than VN's "nymphets" in novel and movies. The critical articles about "Nijinski" which I found were different in tone from those concerning Kubrick's and Adrian Lynne's "Lolita". In both cases we find pedophilia but the destinies of young boys and girls seem to arouse different reactions from spectators.
(Btw: I wonder if VN had read Life of Nijinsky, 1933, by Romola de Pulszky?)
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* One example: "A famous French floramor was never the same after the Earl of Langburn discovered his kidnapped son, a green-eyed frail faunlet, being examined by a veterinary whom the Earl shot dead by mistake."
In Pale Fire, Gordon might indicate not only Narcissus at the pool, but also Nijinsky's Faun: a slender but strong-looking lad of fourteen ...a leopard-spotted loincloth...lovely bestial face...the graceful boy wreathed about the loins with ivy [..]. The young woodwose had now closed his eyes and was stretched out supine on the pool's marble margin [...] Lavender asked: "Sure you aren't a mucking snooper from that French rag?" "A what?" said Gradus, pronouncing the last word as "vot." "A mucking snooping son of a bitch?" Gradus hung up[...] a pair of sandals on its marble rim - all that remained of Narcissus.
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I recently watched the movie "Nijinsky" (1980), directed by Herbert Ross, screenplay by Hugh Wheeler based on Romula Nijinsky's biography.
Alan Bates was Diaghilev; George de la Pena played Nijinsky (his interpretation of the Debussy's L'Apres Midi d'un Faune was outstanding); Leslie Browne was Romola, Alan Badel interpreted Baron de Gunsburg and Jeremy Irons, Fokine.
I remembered the interesting article by Monica Manolescu in The Nabokovian,57,Fall 2006 ("Old, Mad, Gray Nijinski" in Lolita) and various past postings about ivy-clad Nijinsky and the faunlet Gordon, in Ada, where VN was particularly cruel to "catamites"*.
In Lolita Nijinski is "all thighs and fig leaves", in Ada the faunlet Pedro performs a "Nurjinski leap" and Diaghilev appears as "Dangleleaf".
We also find in Ada: "Whose brush was it now? A titillant Titian? A drunken Palma Vecchio? [...] Faun Exhausted by Nymph? Swooning Satyr?[...]A moment later the Dutch took over: Girl stepping into a pool [...]" which carries watery links to Pedro ['Permit me, Ivan, to get you also a nice cold Russian kok?' said Pedro - really a very gentle and amiable youth at heart. 'Get yourself a cocoanut,' replied nasty Van, testing the poor faun...Claudius, at least, did not court Ophelia].
Concerning VN's references to Arcadian faunlets & nymphets, catamites and his Lolita "brood" was how Diaghilev's very real ones caused, apparently, less scandal than VN's "nymphets" in novel and movies. The critical articles about "Nijinski" which I found were different in tone from those concerning Kubrick's and Adrian Lynne's "Lolita". In both cases we find pedophilia but the destinies of young boys and girls seem to arouse different reactions from spectators.
(Btw: I wonder if VN had read Life of Nijinsky, 1933, by Romola de Pulszky?)
................................................................................................
* One example: "A famous French floramor was never the same after the Earl of Langburn discovered his kidnapped son, a green-eyed frail faunlet, being examined by a veterinary whom the Earl shot dead by mistake."
In Pale Fire, Gordon might indicate not only Narcissus at the pool, but also Nijinsky's Faun: a slender but strong-looking lad of fourteen ...a leopard-spotted loincloth...lovely bestial face...the graceful boy wreathed about the loins with ivy [..]. The young woodwose had now closed his eyes and was stretched out supine on the pool's marble margin [...] Lavender asked: "Sure you aren't a mucking snooper from that French rag?" "A what?" said Gradus, pronouncing the last word as "vot." "A mucking snooping son of a bitch?" Gradus hung up[...] a pair of sandals on its marble rim - all that remained of Narcissus.
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/