Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023228, Tue, 7 Aug 2012 20:19:32 -0700

Subject
Sibling incest/Isaac, Jacob and Rebekkah
Date
Body
Since Matt's explanation of the Cinderella/incest tale I have been
bedeviled with thoughts of incest. Now I do recall that Claudia Papka
(now deceased) had a theory about Ada that made sense, and though I
don't remember exactly her thesis (only an abstract was available when
I found it). If I had to guess, I would say that she discovered that
Ada could not be Van's real sister - in the through the looking glass
world of anti-terra, one was only allowed to have intercourse with a
natural sister. So it was Lucette and not Ada who was Van's biological
sibling. Anti-terra incest, you see?
Carolyn

p.s. Mr Marcus, Rebekkah is no relation to Isaac. Jacob's servant
chooses her as a mate for Isaac because of her generosity to him and
others at the well, Beershevah, the seventh well. Not veil - well.
Jacob does however send his servant back to his, Jacob's, ancestral
homeland to choose the bride, so only in that sense is she related to
the family. I believe many arabs and non-arab muslims still do this to
this day.


On Aug 7, 2012, at 10:12 AM, Jansy wrote:

Mike Marcus to Jansy:["Nabokov may have tried to mislead the reader
into thinking about Roman mythology, instead of perceiving that the
"Roman deity" is the Virgin Mary.In this way, should Bill Fraser and
Percy de Prey be related to the Shakespeare controversies, Bill
(Shakespeare?) would be seen as a Catholic and not a Protestant, by
our author"] " 1. Bill Fraser was the actor who played a soldier in a
1960s tv show in the UK called 'The Army Game', so he'd fit in a
similar role in Ada. But he transforms into Broken-Arm Bill, who as
you intuited, means Shakespeare...(from http://www.sirbacon.org/overlap.htm)
. The "Roman deity" is the Catholic version of God. Shakespeare's
religion is indeed a vexed subject. I personally enjoyed the 1848 book
by W. J. Birch that has WS as an atheist". .
2."Certain identities fluctuate wildly in Ada, so Percy de Prey
doesn't at all times represent Vere, though here he does,
predominantly. The "daughter with pitcher" reminds me of the passage
in Genesis 24, when Rebekah, with a pitcher on her shoulder, offers
water to the parched Isaac, who is her second cousin and whom she
marries (relatives marrying; Cordula is also Van's second cousin).
Tartar as Turk? "Pitcher peri" must be the angel with the pitcher,
whoever she is, no? Vere and Sidney were enemies, and Ardis is the
Sidney arrowhead -- a "stab of Ardis"?"
3."In her January 2004 essay published in the MLR ('Nabokov's Ada and
Sidney's Arcadia, The Regeneration of a Phoenix'), Penny McCarthy
claimed that there were three reasons "why Nabokov might have seen
himself as Sidney's double"... I can't see it. If he imagined himself
as anyone's double, it would have been Hamlet".

Jansy Mello: I thought about the Virgin Mary, instead of a Roman
Catholic God, because I understood that "Our Lady" was not similarly
revered by Catholics and Protestants, serving to indicate affiliation
to one or the other faiths. However, I didn't realize that the
Anglican Church preserves the cult to the Virgin Mary much like the
Roman Catholic believers.
Bill Fraser suggested to me "Phraser", such as he was described in the
category of "story-teller" that adds new elements and "phrases" at
every re-counting of a tale.

It is fascinating how, when expressed, one perceives totally different
perspectives in one's reading of a Nabokov work. Mike Marcus
interpreted "a stab of Ardis" as an attack against Sidney's Arcady
whereas, for me, "a stab of Ardis" means the pain resulting from a
painful recollection of things past., not the prodding of an arrow
directed towards something in the outside world. The "stab," in my
perspective, leads to a mnemonic retake of an experience that mirrors
present events (this is why I mentioned the paragraph's "holographic"
quality (I'd just finished watching Arnold Schwartznegger on TV in the
old "Total Recall".)
.
While checking on "dangereux voisinage" I found another interesting
reference to Shakespeare (cor-dula and cor-delia). Demon and Daniel
Veen both have incestuous and pedophilic leanings. Actually, so does
Van. Perhaps not only Hamlet, but also King Lear had a special
significance to Nabokov? Would this lie behind his strong refusal of
Oedipal theories?
What does "prof push" mean?

"...‘She’s a budding Duse,’ replied Demon austerely, ‘and the party is
strictly a "prof push." You’ll stick to Cordula de Prey, I, to
Cordelia O’Leary.’ ..."
(Cor-dula and Cor-delia)
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online
Journal" Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription
options Visit AdaOnline View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft
Search the archive
All private editorial communications 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/








Attachment