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Re: On symmetry and Kinbote
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Dear Jerry,
I'm not sure what sort of symmetry of form you're looking for. Kinbote's
contributions (I take it you mean more than just the variant lines marked
"K's contribution") include lots of obvious mirror symmetry at the
fine-grained level: Odon and Nodo, "redip, spider," the Goldsworths'
reversed sexes, etc. On the other hand he decides to reveal that something
in the poem--"between Goldsworth and Wordsmith"--is not as symmetrical as
Shade allowed it to look.
Interesting! you persist in confusing contributions by Kinbote (Odon and
Nodo) and those of Shade (Hazel's spider/redips). But you have a point:
"between Goldsworth and Wordsmith, " (Shade) and Campbell/Beauchamp
(Kinbote) are very similar games. Also if you look through the index
listings under Shade you'll discover that Shade ("he") becomes more and more
frequently confused with Kinbote towards the end of the entry.
Is there, for instance, a code in the variation in the Index between "K.'s"
(with a period) in roman type and "K's" and
"S's" in italics? I doubt it, but I just noticed it, so I had to bring it
up
I haven't been able to discern the code you suggest, but suspect there is
some import to the italics/roman usage. By the way the references to "K" and
"S" seem to me to be another clue to the relation between the two characters
- - in both senses of the word. "K" and "S" share a third common character,
"C." In Cyrillic the sound /s/ is represented by "C" and in Latin the sound
/k/ is represented by "C". Isn't that interesting?
Carolyn
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I'm not sure what sort of symmetry of form you're looking for. Kinbote's
contributions (I take it you mean more than just the variant lines marked
"K's contribution") include lots of obvious mirror symmetry at the
fine-grained level: Odon and Nodo, "redip, spider," the Goldsworths'
reversed sexes, etc. On the other hand he decides to reveal that something
in the poem--"between Goldsworth and Wordsmith"--is not as symmetrical as
Shade allowed it to look.
Interesting! you persist in confusing contributions by Kinbote (Odon and
Nodo) and those of Shade (Hazel's spider/redips). But you have a point:
"between Goldsworth and Wordsmith, " (Shade) and Campbell/Beauchamp
(Kinbote) are very similar games. Also if you look through the index
listings under Shade you'll discover that Shade ("he") becomes more and more
frequently confused with Kinbote towards the end of the entry.
Is there, for instance, a code in the variation in the Index between "K.'s"
(with a period) in roman type and "K's" and
"S's" in italics? I doubt it, but I just noticed it, so I had to bring it
up
I haven't been able to discern the code you suggest, but suspect there is
some import to the italics/roman usage. By the way the references to "K" and
"S" seem to me to be another clue to the relation between the two characters
- - in both senses of the word. "K" and "S" share a third common character,
"C." In Cyrillic the sound /s/ is represented by "C" and in Latin the sound
/k/ is represented by "C". Isn't that interesting?
Carolyn
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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