Subject
Akiko Nakata's Introductory notes to TT-7
From
Date
Body
------------------ 20.07: "to behave like a ghost": together with "the
spectral fits" (20.19), connects HP's sleepwalking with ghosts.
20.12-13: he traveled back to his dark nest avoiding chairs and things
rather by ear than otherwise: a bat metaphor. A bat and a cat ("with the
school cat for companion," 20.18) suggest a witch image? On the other hand,
an innocent boy in pj's puzzled on the roof looks similar to the one
surrounded by vegetables from a picture book in Ch. 26.
20.23: Jack Moore (no relation): suggests the narrator is probably Mr. R. or
Julia Moore. This is the second Jack (the first one was in " the world that
Jack built," Ch. 3). We will see the third Jack (Jack Blake) and his French
version Jacque in Ch. 14.
21.01: Snyder Hall: Is there any relation between Harold Hall and Snyder
Hall? They sound like brothers.
21.05-09: a little three legged affair . . . was executing a furious war
dance all by itself, as he had seen a similar article do at a seance when
asked if the visiting spirit (Napoleon) missed the springtime sunsets of St.
Helena: the seance reminds us of THE VANE SISTERS in which the ghosts try to
send a message to the protagonist. As I wrote before, "a three legged
affair"
(why is it called "affair" "article" "object" "wood"-- as if the narrator
avoided the word "table" ?) is one of the 3 theme, and Napoleon suggests the
Hannibal (Alps crossing) theme. The story of the Boston Strangler who is
mentioned in the previous chapter was adapted to a film by Richard
Fleischer: THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968) starring Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda.
I have never seen the film but I would like to know about it. Because I hear
there is a sceance scene and the information from a psychic helps the
detective to find the strangler. Has anyone watched it?
21.12-14: Books, an ashtray, an alarm clock, a box of cough drops, had all
been shaken off: prefigures HP's strangling Armande in a nightmare. Cf. "her
night table collapsed with the lamp, a tumbler, a book" (Ch. 20).
P.S.
I forgot to write about another link to THE VANE SISTERS when I mentioned a
seance in the story:
Oscar Wilde came in and in rapid garbled French, with the usual anglicisms,
obscurely accused Cynthia's dead parents of what appeared in my jottings as
"plagiatisme." A brisk spirit contributed the unsolicited information that
he, John Moore, and his brother Bill had been coal miners in Colorado and
had perished in an avalanche at "Crested Beauty" in January 1883.
In Ch. 25, we see M. Wilde and hear that Jacques has been buried under snow
in Chute, Colorado.
--------------------------------
EDCOMMENT. The "little three-legged table" that dreaming Hugh strangles
obviously suggests the planchette used with the ouija board in some
seances. Akiko's connection to "The Vane Sisters" is invaluable. Mary
Bellino, among others, has traced some of the "Vane Sisters"' seance
material to publications of the Cambridge (UK) Society for Psychical
Research (SPR). It seems not unlikely that some may also occur in TT. The
Society was very active at Cambridge during VN's time there. Some branches
of VN's family had an active interest in such things and their names figure
in Russian reports to the SPR.
As for the film of "The Boston Strangler", I have located a copy here and
will watch it this evening----ad majoram gloriam Nabokov Studies.
spectral fits" (20.19), connects HP's sleepwalking with ghosts.
20.12-13: he traveled back to his dark nest avoiding chairs and things
rather by ear than otherwise: a bat metaphor. A bat and a cat ("with the
school cat for companion," 20.18) suggest a witch image? On the other hand,
an innocent boy in pj's puzzled on the roof looks similar to the one
surrounded by vegetables from a picture book in Ch. 26.
20.23: Jack Moore (no relation): suggests the narrator is probably Mr. R. or
Julia Moore. This is the second Jack (the first one was in " the world that
Jack built," Ch. 3). We will see the third Jack (Jack Blake) and his French
version Jacque in Ch. 14.
21.01: Snyder Hall: Is there any relation between Harold Hall and Snyder
Hall? They sound like brothers.
21.05-09: a little three legged affair . . . was executing a furious war
dance all by itself, as he had seen a similar article do at a seance when
asked if the visiting spirit (Napoleon) missed the springtime sunsets of St.
Helena: the seance reminds us of THE VANE SISTERS in which the ghosts try to
send a message to the protagonist. As I wrote before, "a three legged
affair"
(why is it called "affair" "article" "object" "wood"-- as if the narrator
avoided the word "table" ?) is one of the 3 theme, and Napoleon suggests the
Hannibal (Alps crossing) theme. The story of the Boston Strangler who is
mentioned in the previous chapter was adapted to a film by Richard
Fleischer: THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968) starring Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda.
I have never seen the film but I would like to know about it. Because I hear
there is a sceance scene and the information from a psychic helps the
detective to find the strangler. Has anyone watched it?
21.12-14: Books, an ashtray, an alarm clock, a box of cough drops, had all
been shaken off: prefigures HP's strangling Armande in a nightmare. Cf. "her
night table collapsed with the lamp, a tumbler, a book" (Ch. 20).
P.S.
I forgot to write about another link to THE VANE SISTERS when I mentioned a
seance in the story:
Oscar Wilde came in and in rapid garbled French, with the usual anglicisms,
obscurely accused Cynthia's dead parents of what appeared in my jottings as
"plagiatisme." A brisk spirit contributed the unsolicited information that
he, John Moore, and his brother Bill had been coal miners in Colorado and
had perished in an avalanche at "Crested Beauty" in January 1883.
In Ch. 25, we see M. Wilde and hear that Jacques has been buried under snow
in Chute, Colorado.
--------------------------------
EDCOMMENT. The "little three-legged table" that dreaming Hugh strangles
obviously suggests the planchette used with the ouija board in some
seances. Akiko's connection to "The Vane Sisters" is invaluable. Mary
Bellino, among others, has traced some of the "Vane Sisters"' seance
material to publications of the Cambridge (UK) Society for Psychical
Research (SPR). It seems not unlikely that some may also occur in TT. The
Society was very active at Cambridge during VN's time there. Some branches
of VN's family had an active interest in such things and their names figure
in Russian reports to the SPR.
As for the film of "The Boston Strangler", I have located a copy here and
will watch it this evening----ad majoram gloriam Nabokov Studies.