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Notes to TT-4 (fwd) Introductory remarks
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:22 AM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Notes to TT-4
No narration in first person pronoun through this chapter except "We cannot
find in the annals of European tours..." (10.09).
9.08: to a featureless station: another --less adjective. Cf: bulbless,
shadeless, faceless, nameless in Ch.3.
9.22-10.01: he grimly hoped that the promise of separate bedchambers would
be kept at subsequent stops of their Swiss tour shimmering ahead in a
painted mist.: Cf. But the future has no such reality (as the pictured past
and the perceived present possess); the future is but a figure of speech, a
specter of thought (Ch. 1). "A painted mist" is also "a figure of speech,"
indeed...
10.05: and he grunted and sighed in his sleep: In Ch. 20, Armande annoys
Hugh with her clattering snore, and in the second stage of her sleep, she
"sighs" and smacks her lips then sleeps mutely. Is she possessed by Hugh's
dead father?
10.05-08: dreaming of large unwieldy blocks of blackness, which had to be
sorted out and removed from one's path or over which one had to clamber in
agonizing attitudes of debility and despair: the Hannibal theme.
10.13-14: he fumbled for things in the bathwater of space, groping for the
transparent soap of evasive matter: "of space," "of evasive matter" must
have been added by the ghost(s) who struggles to hold objects that tend to
evade him(/them). 10: 35: its button had disappeared among the folds and
furrows *of space* [italics added]: Ditto.
10.22-25: the old duffer wrestled with the Venetian blind in order to
examine the weather, just managed to catch a glimpse of wet pavement before
the blind redescended in a rattling avalanche: "Venetian" introduces the
Othello theme. ("[T]he Venetian blind" refers to Othello himself?) The
allusions to Othello are discussed in Don's excellent article on TT
(Garland Companion, p.728) Hugh's clumsy, "blind" father struggles to
catch a glimpse of the weather or the fate which awaits him, only in vain.
For the avalanche theme, also see Don's analysis (Garland, pp. 727-728).
---------------------------------------------
DBJ NOtes. Some very nice juxtapositions..
1. The parallel Armande/HP's father doesn't ring true for me. What would it
mean?
2. Those "blocks of blackness" etc. Hint of the "falling" or "spatial"
theme. Is there something concrete that leads you to the very neat
"Hannibal theme"?
3. Yes, indeed. Why specifically "Venetian" when "blind" alond would do
just as well? Perhaps it is intended to suggest Othello, but why should
Person Sr. be the source? Mr. R would seem more likely, no?
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:22 AM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Notes to TT-4
No narration in first person pronoun through this chapter except "We cannot
find in the annals of European tours..." (10.09).
9.08: to a featureless station: another --less adjective. Cf: bulbless,
shadeless, faceless, nameless in Ch.3.
9.22-10.01: he grimly hoped that the promise of separate bedchambers would
be kept at subsequent stops of their Swiss tour shimmering ahead in a
painted mist.: Cf. But the future has no such reality (as the pictured past
and the perceived present possess); the future is but a figure of speech, a
specter of thought (Ch. 1). "A painted mist" is also "a figure of speech,"
indeed...
10.05: and he grunted and sighed in his sleep: In Ch. 20, Armande annoys
Hugh with her clattering snore, and in the second stage of her sleep, she
"sighs" and smacks her lips then sleeps mutely. Is she possessed by Hugh's
dead father?
10.05-08: dreaming of large unwieldy blocks of blackness, which had to be
sorted out and removed from one's path or over which one had to clamber in
agonizing attitudes of debility and despair: the Hannibal theme.
10.13-14: he fumbled for things in the bathwater of space, groping for the
transparent soap of evasive matter: "of space," "of evasive matter" must
have been added by the ghost(s) who struggles to hold objects that tend to
evade him(/them). 10: 35: its button had disappeared among the folds and
furrows *of space* [italics added]: Ditto.
10.22-25: the old duffer wrestled with the Venetian blind in order to
examine the weather, just managed to catch a glimpse of wet pavement before
the blind redescended in a rattling avalanche: "Venetian" introduces the
Othello theme. ("[T]he Venetian blind" refers to Othello himself?) The
allusions to Othello are discussed in Don's excellent article on TT
(Garland Companion, p.728) Hugh's clumsy, "blind" father struggles to
catch a glimpse of the weather or the fate which awaits him, only in vain.
For the avalanche theme, also see Don's analysis (Garland, pp. 727-728).
---------------------------------------------
DBJ NOtes. Some very nice juxtapositions..
1. The parallel Armande/HP's father doesn't ring true for me. What would it
mean?
2. Those "blocks of blackness" etc. Hint of the "falling" or "spatial"
theme. Is there something concrete that leads you to the very neat
"Hannibal theme"?
3. Yes, indeed. Why specifically "Venetian" when "blind" alond would do
just as well? Perhaps it is intended to suggest Othello, but why should
Person Sr. be the source? Mr. R would seem more likely, no?
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L