Subject
Re: tt-1 (fwd) TT as serpent swallow tail & "person'
From
Date
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, July 09, 2004 9:09 PM -0500
From: John A Rea <j.rea2@insightbb.com>
D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> EDNOTE. My "sent-mail" box shows this was sent on the 6th but apparently
> Mark BENNETT EITHER DID NOT SEE IT OR DID NOT GET IT. dID OTHERS GET IT?
> ----------------------
>
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Date: Friday, July 09, 2004 8:09 AM -0700
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: tt-1
>
> From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>
>
> I'm probably miles off base here, but isn't the construction of TT
> circular? At the conclusion of the book, Hugh dies and "pass[es] from one
> state of being to another" and the concluding sentence, "Easy, you know,
> does it, son" is actually the first sentence, or one of the first
> sentences, of the book.
FROM John Rea
I thought I had roughly said this, when I noted that the beginning
sentence could be read straight into the end one, reminding me of
Finnegans Wake: a book that nothing is probably more circular than.
On a different topic, the "folk etymology" of "persona" as "per"
+"sonare" is quite fine as such, leading us (and Nabokov? -- and
some Romans?) and some current readers to adduce this meaning
as long as we recognize that this is essentially word play'
not etymology. The Latin was borrowed (filched?) from Etruscan,
wherein surely the parts do not have that meaning. If memory serves
me, the Etruscans are alleged to have borrowed the word from Greek,
but I'd need to look that up.
John
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Friday, July 09, 2004 9:09 PM -0500
From: John A Rea <j.rea2@insightbb.com>
D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> EDNOTE. My "sent-mail" box shows this was sent on the 6th but apparently
> Mark BENNETT EITHER DID NOT SEE IT OR DID NOT GET IT. dID OTHERS GET IT?
> ----------------------
>
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Date: Friday, July 09, 2004 8:09 AM -0700
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: tt-1
>
> From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>
>
> I'm probably miles off base here, but isn't the construction of TT
> circular? At the conclusion of the book, Hugh dies and "pass[es] from one
> state of being to another" and the concluding sentence, "Easy, you know,
> does it, son" is actually the first sentence, or one of the first
> sentences, of the book.
FROM John Rea
I thought I had roughly said this, when I noted that the beginning
sentence could be read straight into the end one, reminding me of
Finnegans Wake: a book that nothing is probably more circular than.
On a different topic, the "folk etymology" of "persona" as "per"
+"sonare" is quite fine as such, leading us (and Nabokov? -- and
some Romans?) and some current readers to adduce this meaning
as long as we recognize that this is essentially word play'
not etymology. The Latin was borrowed (filched?) from Etruscan,
wherein surely the parts do not have that meaning. If memory serves
me, the Etruscans are alleged to have borrowed the word from Greek,
but I'd need to look that up.
John
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L