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Re: THOUGHTS, Shade's shave with nihilistic cream
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Gary Lipon (to Gwynn):"As you say, and so we agree, the last two lines are oblique. But so is silent liner. You say toe, I say cheek, someone else says rubber duckie. Is this not ambiguity? ...The question then becomes how does Shade's shave comment upon the history or future of the cosmos?"
JM: Writing under the mask of "someone else" I'd like to remind you that I didn't say it was a "rubber duckie" that which was floating in the water. I used a round-about way, concering Shade's "pleasure cruise," to allude to it: "...floating in the bath-tub like a toy-duck (hopefully his slaves were not carrying a razor then)." Various bodily parts were mentioned (face, hands and, perhaps, toes)...
Another chance find, while checking on Kazuo Ishiguro "Remnants of the Day," and his employ of the words, in Japanese, "mono no aware," (the pathos of things) to deal with the grief caused by the realization of the transience of human experiences and natural beauty.*
The feeling described by such words helped me to understand certain poems by Goethe which, until now, seemed to be rather childish and silly ( a boy that plucks a rose, a violet that is trodden by a shepherdess, aso) and, also, something about Nabokov - even the relation bt. shaving/harvesting and the history of the cosmos.
I particularly refer you to Nabokov's favorite Russian poem "he gave to his character" in The Gift. (a boy and a girl standing on a bridge, watching the swallows and bursting into tears when they decide to remember, always, one particular swallow. Cf."Strong Opinions", Vintage, page 14). If there is real pathos in Shade's poem, it must be connected to a similar, occidental, "sensitivity to ephemera." and, in VN's case, a bitter opposition to it (such as the worth he attributed to the labeling of butterflies), albeit equally "suspended". Hazel's plight, the trail an airplane leaves in the sky, the emerald case, the phantom swing... the "ahh-ness of things."
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* wiki: Mono no aware, literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things," or "a sensitivity of ephemera," is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of mujo or the transience of things and a bittersweet sadness at their passing. The term was coined in the eighteenth century by the Edo period Japanese cultural scholar Motoori Norinaga, and was originally a concept used in his literary criticism of The Tale of Genji, and later applied to other seminal Japanese works including the Man'yoshu, becoming central to his philosophy of literature, and eventually to Japanese cultural tradition.
The word is derived from the Japanese word mono, which means "things" and aware, which was a Heian period expression of measured surprise (similar to "ah" or "oh"), translating roughly as "pathos," "poignancy," "deep feeling," or "sensitivity." Thus, mono no aware has frequently been translated as "the 'ahh-ness' of things." In his criticism of The Tale of Genji, Motoori noted that mono no aware is the crucial emotion that moves readers. Its scope was not limited to Japanese literature, and became associated with Japanese cultural tradition Notable manga artists who use mono no aware-style storytelling include Hitoshi Ashinano, Kozue Amano, and Kaoru Mori. The quintessentially "Japanese" director Yasujiro Ozu was well known for creating a sense of mono no aware, frequently climaxing with a character saying a very understated "ii tenki desu ne" (It is fine weather, isn't it?), after both a familial and societal paradigm shift, such as daughter being married off, against the backdrop of a swiftly changing Japan. Norwegian Wood by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is an example of this feeling as well.Some Western scholars have compared it to Virgil's term lacrimae rerum
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JM: Writing under the mask of "someone else" I'd like to remind you that I didn't say it was a "rubber duckie" that which was floating in the water. I used a round-about way, concering Shade's "pleasure cruise," to allude to it: "...floating in the bath-tub like a toy-duck (hopefully his slaves were not carrying a razor then)." Various bodily parts were mentioned (face, hands and, perhaps, toes)...
Another chance find, while checking on Kazuo Ishiguro "Remnants of the Day," and his employ of the words, in Japanese, "mono no aware," (the pathos of things) to deal with the grief caused by the realization of the transience of human experiences and natural beauty.*
The feeling described by such words helped me to understand certain poems by Goethe which, until now, seemed to be rather childish and silly ( a boy that plucks a rose, a violet that is trodden by a shepherdess, aso) and, also, something about Nabokov - even the relation bt. shaving/harvesting and the history of the cosmos.
I particularly refer you to Nabokov's favorite Russian poem "he gave to his character" in The Gift. (a boy and a girl standing on a bridge, watching the swallows and bursting into tears when they decide to remember, always, one particular swallow. Cf."Strong Opinions", Vintage, page 14). If there is real pathos in Shade's poem, it must be connected to a similar, occidental, "sensitivity to ephemera." and, in VN's case, a bitter opposition to it (such as the worth he attributed to the labeling of butterflies), albeit equally "suspended". Hazel's plight, the trail an airplane leaves in the sky, the emerald case, the phantom swing... the "ahh-ness of things."
........................................................................................................................................................
* wiki: Mono no aware, literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things," or "a sensitivity of ephemera," is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of mujo or the transience of things and a bittersweet sadness at their passing. The term was coined in the eighteenth century by the Edo period Japanese cultural scholar Motoori Norinaga, and was originally a concept used in his literary criticism of The Tale of Genji, and later applied to other seminal Japanese works including the Man'yoshu, becoming central to his philosophy of literature, and eventually to Japanese cultural tradition.
The word is derived from the Japanese word mono, which means "things" and aware, which was a Heian period expression of measured surprise (similar to "ah" or "oh"), translating roughly as "pathos," "poignancy," "deep feeling," or "sensitivity." Thus, mono no aware has frequently been translated as "the 'ahh-ness' of things." In his criticism of The Tale of Genji, Motoori noted that mono no aware is the crucial emotion that moves readers. Its scope was not limited to Japanese literature, and became associated with Japanese cultural tradition Notable manga artists who use mono no aware-style storytelling include Hitoshi Ashinano, Kozue Amano, and Kaoru Mori. The quintessentially "Japanese" director Yasujiro Ozu was well known for creating a sense of mono no aware, frequently climaxing with a character saying a very understated "ii tenki desu ne" (It is fine weather, isn't it?), after both a familial and societal paradigm shift, such as daughter being married off, against the backdrop of a swiftly changing Japan. Norwegian Wood by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is an example of this feeling as well.Some Western scholars have compared it to Virgil's term lacrimae rerum
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/