I think the parentheses and period in line 691, which troubled Barrie in the first place, in fact make precisely the point he mentions here: Shade cannot see the horseshoes, only hear them, but he parenthetically imagines how one of them might look, in a thought that takes him from this scene for the length of the line.

Brian Boyd

From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] on behalf of Barrie Akin [ba@TAXBAR.COM]
Sent: Sunday, 17 March 2013 1:43 p.m.
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] EDNote: Drunk Horseshoe

Dear all

Many thanks for your help.

I had completely overlooked one of the horseshoes as a solution because Shade can only hear them - see Kinbote's note to the line - so it seems incongruous to have a visual image describing something Shade can't see. But perhaps the different noise "clunk" suggests how that particular horseshoe has landed - sparking the visual image for Shade, so that I was being rather unimaginative in my reading.

The alternative of Sybil's shadow did occur to me, but the part that hits the tree would look as straight as the tree, so I discounted it.

But thanks to all!

Barrie Akin


On 16 Mar 2013, at 23:49, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:

> There were several other replies that tendered the same insights already included in these; I posted (I hope) all that added a unique nuance or perspective on the line. Many thanks to all who submitted their interpretations.
>
> ~SB
>
> 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/
>
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.

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.