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Re: The Nature of Electricity: "Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine"
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I am not too familiar with the forum's history, and no doubt someone has
noted that the number of lines - 999 - inverts, as is appropriate for a
novel structured on mirroring, the notorious number of Revelations 666,
denoting the beast, who, among other things, has power over all tongues
(13:7). Many things can be deduced from this, given Nabokov's elusive
metaphysics, if the two numbers are related intentionally. 999 inverts
666, a number of apocalyptic closure as opposed to 999 which begs for an
extra digit, denied it, to achieve completion, and thus gestures towards
an open universe.etc etc
A similar device, of writing a poetic sequence amouinting to 999 sonnets
consciously intended to resonant with apocalyptic undertones by the
coincidence once the number is capsized (666), was mulled by Giuseppe
Gioachino Belli, whose exuberant incontinence of inspiration in the
manner however, while writing in the diabolic dialect of Rome under the
Popes of his time, pushed him beyond the desired number, leaving us with
some 2279 poems, a number shorn of numerical sense.
Peter Dale
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noted that the number of lines - 999 - inverts, as is appropriate for a
novel structured on mirroring, the notorious number of Revelations 666,
denoting the beast, who, among other things, has power over all tongues
(13:7). Many things can be deduced from this, given Nabokov's elusive
metaphysics, if the two numbers are related intentionally. 999 inverts
666, a number of apocalyptic closure as opposed to 999 which begs for an
extra digit, denied it, to achieve completion, and thus gestures towards
an open universe.etc etc
A similar device, of writing a poetic sequence amouinting to 999 sonnets
consciously intended to resonant with apocalyptic undertones by the
coincidence once the number is capsized (666), was mulled by Giuseppe
Gioachino Belli, whose exuberant incontinence of inspiration in the
manner however, while writing in the diabolic dialect of Rome under the
Popes of his time, pushed him beyond the desired number, leaving us with
some 2279 poems, a number shorn of numerical sense.
Peter Dale
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