Subject
THOUGHTS: John Addington Symonds & PF
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A little discovery, I think, unless it's been noted elsewhere:
1. PF: (End of note 171): "When the fallen tyrant is tied, naked and
howling, to a plank in the public square and killed piecemeal by the people
who cut slices out, and eat them, and distribute his living body among
themselves (as I read when young in a story about an Italian despot, which
made of me a vegetarian for life)."
2. From a footnote in "Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots," by
John Addington Symonds (1898): "Dattiri was bound naked to a plank and
killed piecemeal by the people, who bit his flesh, cut slices out, and sold
and ate it--distributing his living body as a sort of infernal sacrament
among themselves."
I wonder why VN was reading Symonds? A. Bouzza (I think) wrote the following
re: Lolita and Havelock Ellis, back in 2006:
Wikipedia informs: "According to Ellis in My Life, his friends were much
amused at his being considered an expert on sex considering the fact that he
suffered from impotence until the age of 60, when he discovered that was
able to become aroused by the sight of a woman urinating. His Sexual
Inversion, the first English medical text book on homosexuality, co-authored
with John Addington Symonds, described the sexual relations of homosexual
men, something that Ellis did not consider to be a disease, immoral, or a
crime; a bookseller was prosecuted in 1897 for stocking it. Other
psychologically important concepts developed by Ellis include autoerotism
and narcissism, both of which were later taken on by Sigmund Freud."
http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0610&L=nabokv-l&F=P&P=21792
We know that VN read Ellis, but we now know that he also read Symonds's book
on Italy, and therefore likely read his book with Ellis, as well. I'm going
to look there next.
Also interesting that this is the second time (first in the Foreword) that
Kinbote contrasts his vegetarianism to cannibalism. Somehow I missed this
passage until now.
Matt Roth
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1. PF: (End of note 171): "When the fallen tyrant is tied, naked and
howling, to a plank in the public square and killed piecemeal by the people
who cut slices out, and eat them, and distribute his living body among
themselves (as I read when young in a story about an Italian despot, which
made of me a vegetarian for life)."
2. From a footnote in "Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots," by
John Addington Symonds (1898): "Dattiri was bound naked to a plank and
killed piecemeal by the people, who bit his flesh, cut slices out, and sold
and ate it--distributing his living body as a sort of infernal sacrament
among themselves."
I wonder why VN was reading Symonds? A. Bouzza (I think) wrote the following
re: Lolita and Havelock Ellis, back in 2006:
Wikipedia informs: "According to Ellis in My Life, his friends were much
amused at his being considered an expert on sex considering the fact that he
suffered from impotence until the age of 60, when he discovered that was
able to become aroused by the sight of a woman urinating. His Sexual
Inversion, the first English medical text book on homosexuality, co-authored
with John Addington Symonds, described the sexual relations of homosexual
men, something that Ellis did not consider to be a disease, immoral, or a
crime; a bookseller was prosecuted in 1897 for stocking it. Other
psychologically important concepts developed by Ellis include autoerotism
and narcissism, both of which were later taken on by Sigmund Freud."
http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0610&L=nabokv-l&F=P&P=21792
We know that VN read Ellis, but we now know that he also read Symonds's book
on Italy, and therefore likely read his book with Ellis, as well. I'm going
to look there next.
Also interesting that this is the second time (first in the Foreword) that
Kinbote contrasts his vegetarianism to cannibalism. Somehow I missed this
passage until now.
Matt Roth
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/