Subject
[NABOKOV-L] Hugh MacDiarmid's "Lallans" and Nabokov's " my
Lalage"?
Lalage"?
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Date
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Dear List,
After D.Zimmer's clarification I went on to Speak, Memory and Strong Opinions after a quote ( in which Nabokov describes his feel of foreign words as "colored marbles rolled in his tongue"), to set side by side to Borges ( "La ceguera" in Siete noches, OC,III, p.280): "Verses in a foreign language have a prestige that cannot be easily obtained in our own because in them we can hear and see more clearly each and every word."
I didn't find what I was looking for, but one of the sentences I had underlined revealed a reference that is probably connected to VN's use of MacDiarmid's "Lallans" or Swift's baby-talk.
It has to do with the soft-sounding "L" in "Lolita", so I assume. Nabokov named his book "my Lalage"*, in 1972, to an anonymous interviewer:
"Some fifteen years ago, when the Soviets were hypocritically denouncing Pasternak's novel...the badgered and bewildered author was promoted by the American press to the rank of an iconic figure...when his Zhivago vied with my Lalage for the top rungs of the best-sellers ladder..."(SO,Vintage,Ch.22,p.205)
In Ada there are the delusions experienced by Marina, a clepsidrophone, Dorothy's lappings which echo various toilets in Lolita ,dripping Vane sisters, aso aso. Perhaps VN's description of one of his aunt Praskovia's dying words (SM,Vintage,p.68) prompted the insistent brook sound and images:
"Aunt Pasha's last words were: "That's interesting. Now I understand. Everything is water, vsyo-voda'." Rather neat. Babies practice their language by "echolalia" and "lalage" whereas VN's aunt departed murmuring vsyo-voda' **
.......................................................................................................................................................................
* - from the Greek: rumor of murmuring waters. In English is is there a derivation in the word "lullaby"?.
** -Departing from the theory of an existing, unconscious, "Lalangue" ("thelanguage"), Lacan allowed us to deduce that the "element" that can be translated from one language into another is not present in any of them, whereas that which remains untranslatable belongs to them all.
Wiki adds: "Lacan argued that there is a side to language which is itself a form of jouissance" and, of course, this is clearly what VN is after: the thrill and shiver of signification with no definite meaning.Cf. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XX: Encore, On Feminine Sexuality, The Limits of Love and Knowledge 1972-1973. Trans. Bruce Fink. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. pp. 44, 84, 101, 106, 132, 138-39, 141-42, 143
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After D.Zimmer's clarification I went on to Speak, Memory and Strong Opinions after a quote ( in which Nabokov describes his feel of foreign words as "colored marbles rolled in his tongue"), to set side by side to Borges ( "La ceguera" in Siete noches, OC,III, p.280): "Verses in a foreign language have a prestige that cannot be easily obtained in our own because in them we can hear and see more clearly each and every word."
I didn't find what I was looking for, but one of the sentences I had underlined revealed a reference that is probably connected to VN's use of MacDiarmid's "Lallans" or Swift's baby-talk.
It has to do with the soft-sounding "L" in "Lolita", so I assume. Nabokov named his book "my Lalage"*, in 1972, to an anonymous interviewer:
"Some fifteen years ago, when the Soviets were hypocritically denouncing Pasternak's novel...the badgered and bewildered author was promoted by the American press to the rank of an iconic figure...when his Zhivago vied with my Lalage for the top rungs of the best-sellers ladder..."(SO,Vintage,Ch.22,p.205)
In Ada there are the delusions experienced by Marina, a clepsidrophone, Dorothy's lappings which echo various toilets in Lolita ,dripping Vane sisters, aso aso. Perhaps VN's description of one of his aunt Praskovia's dying words (SM,Vintage,p.68) prompted the insistent brook sound and images:
"Aunt Pasha's last words were: "That's interesting. Now I understand. Everything is water, vsyo-voda'." Rather neat. Babies practice their language by "echolalia" and "lalage" whereas VN's aunt departed murmuring vsyo-voda' **
.......................................................................................................................................................................
* - from the Greek: rumor of murmuring waters. In English is is there a derivation in the word "lullaby"?.
** -Departing from the theory of an existing, unconscious, "Lalangue" ("thelanguage"), Lacan allowed us to deduce that the "element" that can be translated from one language into another is not present in any of them, whereas that which remains untranslatable belongs to them all.
Wiki adds: "Lacan argued that there is a side to language which is itself a form of jouissance" and, of course, this is clearly what VN is after: the thrill and shiver of signification with no definite meaning.Cf. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XX: Encore, On Feminine Sexuality, The Limits of Love and Knowledge 1972-1973. Trans. Bruce Fink. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. pp. 44, 84, 101, 106, 132, 138-39, 141-42, 143
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/