Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0015184, Thu, 26 Apr 2007 23:17:53 EDT

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Re: QUERY: Some nagging questions on PF
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In a message dated 4/26/2007 6:35:29 PM Central Daylight Time,
MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU writes:
>
>
> Dear list,
> I have a few nagging questions re: Pale Fire that I no doubt share with
> others. In no particular order:
>
> 1. 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!
>
He is standing in front of a sunlit window as he pares his nails and may be
describing the reflection of sunlight in the chrome/stainless steel of the nail
scissors. The problem is that "sun" and "star" aren't exactly the
Nabokovian thesis-antithesis that leads to synthesis, since the sun is a star, etc.
There's also the sense of the round part of the scissors (sun) and the pointed
blades (star). Otherwise, I'm baffled too. And he doesn't even mention
fingernail "moons."



> 2. In the same scene, Shade snips off "thin strips" of "scarf-skin" from
> his fingers. Though "scarf-skin" has traditionally referred to the entire
> outer layer of the skin, it here refers to the skin around the cuticle, I think.
> That said, I have nowhere near enough skin around my cuticles to snip with
> a pair of scissors! I have heard of pushing the skin up, as I guess they do
> during manicures, but is it really normal/possible to have enough excess skin
> there to trim off "strips" with scissors?
>

I have often cut off thickened layers of skin around the fingernails--not the
nails themselves but the skin that grows thick at their corners.

> 3. I've never understood what "Old Pan would call from every painted hill"
> (326) refers to, or how it follows from the discussion of Hazel's
> appearance.
>

This simply seems to be a reference to Hazel's (likely) permanent viriginity
(323) and the fact that she will never be summoned to the procreative rituals
of this fertility god. Cf. Cummings's "in just spring."

> 4. In the commentary (C.894), what is the "eerie note that had throbbed
> by" to which the German visitor replies, "Strange, strange"?
>

Not sure about this. Maybe the German has figured out that Shade, in his
circumspect way, is trying to conceal Kinbote's identity? Anyway, he drops the
subject at this point.

> Thanks ahead of time to any and all.
>
> Matt Roth
>


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