NABOKV-L discussion

I would like to announce that I have uploaded to academia.edu a major part of my work-in-progress on the Jungian substrate of PALE FIRE:

  ‘THE TRI-PART MAN: Archetype, Alchemy, and Art in Nabokov’s PALE FIRE’

It is uploaded as a draft and can be commented on, which I would find very helpful.

Has it ever been noted that Prince Charles (Kinbote) and his first love, Oleg may be half brothers? (Both sons of Col. Gusev)

It seems to me that Prince Charles’ mother, Blenda, and Colonel Gusev are intimated in an affaire and were likely in cahoots with the airplane crash demise of King Alfin (sort of a Hamlet scenario). Kinbote is likely the son of Gusev.

See attached diagram

Having not read much Nabokov criticism yet, I am still mostly indebted to annotators online, and one astute contributor on genius, points out that that lemniscate "is a standard meteorological symbol for haze", connecting to the poet's desire for his daughter Hazel's soul to be eternal.

Haze generally is a phenomenon of obfuscation, a grey filter inhibiting vision and clarity, composed of dry particles such as smoke, dust, (stardust?) and sand (the latter a unit of time, a thousand years ago). 

As someone said, an interesting association belatedly realized:

1. PF: "the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero"

2. "Signs and Symbols": "I will tell you what you are doing; you are turning to the letter O instead of the zero."

I just came across a recent publication:

Living through Literature: Essays in Memory of Omry Ronen, Upsalla University, 2019.

It contains three essays on VN:

Nabokov's First English Language Novel in the Context of the Anglo-American Prose of His Contemporaries, by Irena Ronen

Kinbote's Remorse, by Nancy Pollak

The Pleasure of Translingual Punning: Homage to Nabokov in Olga Grushin's The Dream Life of Sukhanov, by Julie Hansen

Here is the link to the full-text online: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1268970/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Dear List,

While rooting around in the list archives, I happened on a 2006 post from the late, great Stan Kelly-Bootle (we miss you, Stan!) where he checked VN's math from the following passage in SM, and found it correct:

A few years ago, I remember reading an anecdote about how Nabokov was asked what he thought of Ayn Rand. He said he was hardly familiar with her, but would be glad to teach her how to write :) I was wondering if anyone happened to know the source of this anecdote so that I can cite it? I can't remember where I read it, but any leads would be appreciated. Thanks!

Dear Nabokovians,

The Nabokov secondary bibliography is now ready for use. It has been a difficult task importing the old Zembla secondary bibliography, which was up to date to 2009, into the system. This is done, and ready for use, and now we want you both to use the bibliography and to bring it up to the present.

We very much count on our users to correct and augment the bibliography, which is decidedly a work in progress, and, to remain useful, will always be so.

I have been compiling research on the Nabokov family's life in the Russian Empire. I've been consulting Brian Boyd heavily, but there are still some gaps I would like to fill -- hoping some of you can help. I'm specifically wondering about the cars. I believe there were five, but I do not know the make and model. Does anyone have access to a photo from that time period with their cars in it? Also when Boyd talks about the 50 servants from VN's childhood, do you think he includes the governess in that number? 

it just occurred to me that "John Ray" is a homophone for "genre." 

John Ray, is the sort of small-time critic (further 'belittled' by punning suffix "Jr.") that pigeonholes art into genres.