Subject
Re: Kings never die...( Pale Fire)
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Date
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"Old soldiers never die; they only fade away."
General Patton to Congress, upon being recalled to the U.S. and asked to step down, after his over-ambitious campaign to continue the Korean War.
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: jansymello
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 12:49 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Kings never die...( Pale Fire)
Dear List,
When John Shade clasped Kinbote's knee and observed that: kings never die, they only disappear, this sentence reminded me of some old English saying.
Not Oscar Wilde's on dead Americans, nor Peter Pan's tinkle-bell. So I went through an entire section of a "Bloomsbury Reference" ( "Thematic Dictionary of Quotations") searching for quotes on "death" and "disappearance", to no avail.
Vladimir Nabokov appeared eight times:
1. "Like so many ageing college people, Pnin had long ceased to notice the existence of students on the campus"
[(1899-1977) Russian-born US novelist. "Pnin", Ch.3]
2. "Spring and summer did happen in Cambridge almost every year" [RLSK, Ch.5]
3. "Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know." [ "Pnin, Ch.6]
4."Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one" [ "Pale Fire", Commentary ]
5. "Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man" [ Radio Times,Oct.1962]
6. "Lolita, light of my life, dire of my loins. My sin, my Soul." [ "Lolita"]
7. "A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past." [ "Strong Opinions, Ch.20]
8. "Poor Knight! he really had two periods, the first - a dull man writing broken English, the second - a broken man writing dull English" [ RLSK, Ch.1]
Each entry came under a special title: Academics, Cambridge, Education, Life and Death, Literature, Lust, Writers and Writing. I would have selected a completely different set of entries and probably so would everyone at the List. Quite a surprising compilation. Then I decided to try a "google search ". As soon as I found: "Old magicians never die, they just disappear" I thought I had hit the gold pot.
Wrong again if I judge from the context where it was cited. I'll bring up a selection of quotes on the theme - just for the fun of it, starting with OLD MAGICIANS never die, they just disappear. Also, OLD KINGS never die, they just get throne away (oops!).Then came: "old accountants never die, they just lose their balance.", "old actors never die, they just drop a part."; "old alcoholics never die, they just lose their spirit."; "old lawyers never die, they just lose their appeal. "old musicians never die, they just decompose" and, my favourite: " old chinese cooks never die, they just wok away."
In short: does anyone remember some Mother Goose kind of sentence that could have served as a motif for Shade's ?
Jansy
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General Patton to Congress, upon being recalled to the U.S. and asked to step down, after his over-ambitious campaign to continue the Korean War.
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: jansymello
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 12:49 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Kings never die...( Pale Fire)
Dear List,
When John Shade clasped Kinbote's knee and observed that: kings never die, they only disappear, this sentence reminded me of some old English saying.
Not Oscar Wilde's on dead Americans, nor Peter Pan's tinkle-bell. So I went through an entire section of a "Bloomsbury Reference" ( "Thematic Dictionary of Quotations") searching for quotes on "death" and "disappearance", to no avail.
Vladimir Nabokov appeared eight times:
1. "Like so many ageing college people, Pnin had long ceased to notice the existence of students on the campus"
[(1899-1977) Russian-born US novelist. "Pnin", Ch.3]
2. "Spring and summer did happen in Cambridge almost every year" [RLSK, Ch.5]
3. "Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know." [ "Pnin, Ch.6]
4."Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one" [ "Pale Fire", Commentary ]
5. "Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man" [ Radio Times,Oct.1962]
6. "Lolita, light of my life, dire of my loins. My sin, my Soul." [ "Lolita"]
7. "A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past." [ "Strong Opinions, Ch.20]
8. "Poor Knight! he really had two periods, the first - a dull man writing broken English, the second - a broken man writing dull English" [ RLSK, Ch.1]
Each entry came under a special title: Academics, Cambridge, Education, Life and Death, Literature, Lust, Writers and Writing. I would have selected a completely different set of entries and probably so would everyone at the List. Quite a surprising compilation. Then I decided to try a "google search ". As soon as I found: "Old magicians never die, they just disappear" I thought I had hit the gold pot.
Wrong again if I judge from the context where it was cited. I'll bring up a selection of quotes on the theme - just for the fun of it, starting with OLD MAGICIANS never die, they just disappear. Also, OLD KINGS never die, they just get throne away (oops!).Then came: "old accountants never die, they just lose their balance.", "old actors never die, they just drop a part."; "old alcoholics never die, they just lose their spirit."; "old lawyers never die, they just lose their appeal. "old musicians never die, they just decompose" and, my favourite: " old chinese cooks never die, they just wok away."
In short: does anyone remember some Mother Goose kind of sentence that could have served as a motif for Shade's ?
Jansy
Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB
Contact the Editors
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Visit Zembla
View Nabokv-L Policies
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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