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Fw: TT-2 (fwd) Chur/apron/Kafka Comment from Dmitri Nabokov
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----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 2:34 PM
Subject: FW: TT-2 (fwd) Chur/apron/Kafka
From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 12:07 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: TT-2 (fwd) Chur/apron/Kafka
------------------ I've been away and am coming in late to the remarkably stimulating discussion of TT. A few thoughts on the discussion of chapter 2.
1. Chur - I don't have a Russian dictionary with me, but this is, I believe, a word used apotropaically -- to ward off evil spirits (or
ghosts?) The dead Armande has just been warded off in the text (who en face did not resemble Armande one bit). The irony here is that Hugh's trip is somewhat Chorb-like, aimed at a recapture of the past. Note the play with Chamar in Majestic in Chur.
EDCOMMENT. Very astute. There is, BTW, a town called Chur in Switzerland DNCOMMENT: AN IMPORTANT TOWN
2. The color trick. To add to (Don's? I couldn't tell who wrote it) extended and brilliant comment on the inter-linguistic play, it is worth noting that the "apron" is preserved in the Ada passage later posted to this discussion -- Trofim's last name.
EDCMMENT. I suspect that not I but Jeff Edmunds is the author of the extended comment you have in mind.
3. On the humor of the director's death: "the law required that records be destroyed when a director, even a former director, did what Kronig had done". This is so much like Kafka, that I suspect VN has slipped into parodic mode here and is invoking Kafka's ghost (why?). There aren't many other sentences in VN's oeuvre that sound so much like Kafka's.
EDCOMMENT. I hadn't noticed before but YES, it is very Kafkaesque.
Eric
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 2:34 PM
Subject: FW: TT-2 (fwd) Chur/apron/Kafka
From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 12:07 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: TT-2 (fwd) Chur/apron/Kafka
------------------ I've been away and am coming in late to the remarkably stimulating discussion of TT. A few thoughts on the discussion of chapter 2.
1. Chur - I don't have a Russian dictionary with me, but this is, I believe, a word used apotropaically -- to ward off evil spirits (or
ghosts?) The dead Armande has just been warded off in the text (who en face did not resemble Armande one bit). The irony here is that Hugh's trip is somewhat Chorb-like, aimed at a recapture of the past. Note the play with Chamar in Majestic in Chur.
EDCOMMENT. Very astute. There is, BTW, a town called Chur in Switzerland DNCOMMENT: AN IMPORTANT TOWN
2. The color trick. To add to (Don's? I couldn't tell who wrote it) extended and brilliant comment on the inter-linguistic play, it is worth noting that the "apron" is preserved in the Ada passage later posted to this discussion -- Trofim's last name.
EDCMMENT. I suspect that not I but Jeff Edmunds is the author of the extended comment you have in mind.
3. On the humor of the director's death: "the law required that records be destroyed when a director, even a former director, did what Kronig had done". This is so much like Kafka, that I suspect VN has slipped into parodic mode here and is invoking Kafka's ghost (why?). There aren't many other sentences in VN's oeuvre that sound so much like Kafka's.
EDCOMMENT. I hadn't noticed before but YES, it is very Kafkaesque.
Eric
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L