Subject
NABOKV-L E. Naiman on pearl and umbra A. Brown on same
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Date
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Eric,
Pichon, the Milton of early Humbert's Eden
The passage that nears its end with young Humbert's describing a sumptuous
art book filched from beneath the old National Graphics in the generous
Hotel Library starts on the previous page with a description of Humbert¹s
childhood universe.
His generous, Godlike father, so different from the God of Milton¹s paradise
lost, has apparently left the gates open to Adam and Eve on the
Mediterranean side of Eden.
Happy, healthy young Humbert delights in a world of illustrated books.
clean sand, orange trees, friendly dogs and other items that will appear
again (and again) as Young Humbert¹s first real love affair takes place.
Note that as this passage moves from fresh outdoor beauty to the indoors.
More talk of the beneficent and loving and debonair dad. The rose garden
discussion where the American kid fills in theoretical details in the
puberty talk.
Note, the poor American kid, son of a motion picture actress he seldom saw
in real life. Neither youngsters have their true beauties on hand. Such is
life.
But one day, searching through the depths of what the library has to offer,
Humbert pulls out a plum, one of the most famed volumes of nude photography
of the day. Pichon¹s La Beaute Humaine. Not single figures doing pointless
gardening, but shots made on a slow setting, with sepia film and low light,
with sometimes entangled figures, beautiful figures, daring artists¹ models,
figures from the demimonde, cavalrymen, nobility, whose skin tones,
particularly where they fold timelessly, barely draped, or undrapped, supine
on curtains and rugs, bent and straining limps, muscular arms, stirred and
passionate eyes, smiles and tears, generous bellies with navels that glowed
as they furled timelessly. Gleaming and eloquent buttocks, nearly surreal
works of the body in which dimples and side indentations held twin
luminescent beaming folds suggesting a thousand things, from excellent
muffins to the slow fading sunrise or sunset lustre of pearl and umbra, and
the suggestion that the thirteen year old, through a tensing of muscles and
total concentration of the will could somehow enter this scene.
So, I submit that Humbert¹s education is adumbrated in eternal animal
spirits and incuriousity, to evolve to include a happy, sun-bronzed
childhood, to further develop through instructive friends and father, and
finally to the Hotel Library, where some (Not VN) might claim that the
unconscious mind, OR, if you are infinitely lucky, so lucky the seraphs in
heaven envy you and the fast approaching she, before the great fall from
innocence that was about to befall the Mirana and all Europe, then you might
have your one tangled encounter in the mimosa grove, under a haze of stars,
that aching of all muscles, the biscuity odor of the Spanish maids stolen
powder ... ³the tingle, the flame, the honey-dew, and that ... little girl
with her seaside limbs and ardent tongue haunted me forever since
And then the fall. The knight has received the unhealing wound. A grail has
appeared, and disappeared. Dead in Corfu. No way back.
Andrew Stuart Brown
On 8/30/06 9:40 AM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: pearl and umbra
> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:00:34 -0700 (PDT)
> From: naiman@berkeley.edu
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> <mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> References: <44E36424.8030001@utk.edu> <mailto:44E36424.8030001@utk.edu>
> <200608161855.k7GItUaM041467@smtp-vbr10.xs4all.nl>
> <mailto:200608161855.k7GItUaM041467@smtp-vbr10.xs4all.nl>
> It might not be as enticing as "swooners" but I wonder if the term "pearl
> and umbra" is Nabokov's coinage. From Humbert's usage, I had assumed it
> was a technical -- but richly connotative -- term with prior use. Having
> tried to find other uses, I'm not so sure. The Russian
> "zhemchuzhno-matovye" sounds more clearly poetic and descriptive. Does
> anyone know if "pearl and umbra" was used before Lolita? (Most Google
> hits refer to a 1999 collaborative music album put together by Russell
> Mills.)
> Eric Naiman
>
>
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