Subject
"Perdonner" (Franco-Russian pun?)
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Date
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[EDNOTE. Replies by Penny McCarthy and Jansy Mello - - with
butterflies - - to Don's question about a pun in Penny's earlier post.
- - SES]
> With all due respect to Penny McCarthy's thought-provoking items, I,
in
> my
> frivolous way, can't resist wondering whether the last word below
isn't a
> Franco-Russian pun. Don Johnson
> f) Nabokov's own ethics (good) shine through Humbert's narrative
> (self-deluded). But love and lust are not so simple to distinguish.
It is
> not
> the case that Humbert's feelings should be simply abhorred: yet
'tout
> comprendre' is *not* 'tout perdonner'.
*-----------------------------------------------------------------
No! A slip! What is the Russian? (I don't read it.) Penny
*-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Don,
I missed the Franco-Russian pun. I know no Russian, alas. Does it lie
in
the spelling of "perdonner", instead of "pardonner"?
A few mails ago I posted the image of a book-cover for Nabokov
Short-Stories
and mentioned the ingenious depiction by which the letters of VN s name
were
pinned down and cast shadows to repeat his name. My memory had played a
trick with me because after I examined the image again after mailing it
I
realized that those were "fake shadows" - and intentionally so. Many
pins
didn t even stick to the letter without failing to be literal...
A propos of butterflies, survival strategies and flutter-flittering I
thought about "Lolita" s "the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three
steps
down the palate to tap, at three on the teeth", or the lolling lull in
"Lo.Lee.Ta" as suggestive of the tongue moving like a butterfly lost
in a
"Pincher Martin" island (William Golding) .
Jansy
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butterflies - - to Don's question about a pun in Penny's earlier post.
- - SES]
> With all due respect to Penny McCarthy's thought-provoking items, I,
in
> my
> frivolous way, can't resist wondering whether the last word below
isn't a
> Franco-Russian pun. Don Johnson
> f) Nabokov's own ethics (good) shine through Humbert's narrative
> (self-deluded). But love and lust are not so simple to distinguish.
It is
> not
> the case that Humbert's feelings should be simply abhorred: yet
'tout
> comprendre' is *not* 'tout perdonner'.
*-----------------------------------------------------------------
No! A slip! What is the Russian? (I don't read it.) Penny
*-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Don,
I missed the Franco-Russian pun. I know no Russian, alas. Does it lie
in
the spelling of "perdonner", instead of "pardonner"?
A few mails ago I posted the image of a book-cover for Nabokov
Short-Stories
and mentioned the ingenious depiction by which the letters of VN s name
were
pinned down and cast shadows to repeat his name. My memory had played a
trick with me because after I examined the image again after mailing it
I
realized that those were "fake shadows" - and intentionally so. Many
pins
didn t even stick to the letter without failing to be literal...
A propos of butterflies, survival strategies and flutter-flittering I
thought about "Lolita" s "the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three
steps
down the palate to tap, at three on the teeth", or the lolling lull in
"Lo.Lee.Ta" as suggestive of the tongue moving like a butterfly lost
in a
"Pincher Martin" island (William Golding) .
Jansy
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