Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010177, Sun, 1 Aug 2004 12:11:36 -0700

Subject
Re: TT-8 HP's college poem. Typographic icons (fwd)
Date
Body
------------------ Please, check also Yona Dureau´s book " Nabokov et le
Sourire du Chat" where she studies the use of suspension dots...ellipsis
and "blanks".
There is a summary of her ideas on this subject in my review of her book
published in the Spring issue of " The Nabokovian"
Jansy

----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 3:06 PM
Subject: TT-8 HP's college poem. Typographic icons


> "Blest are suspension dots ... The sun was setting
> a heavenly example to the lake...
>
> This is one of many typographic icons, i.e., punctuation marks that
> graphically resemble an object under discussion, to be found in TT and
> elswhere in VN's work. "Suspension dots" is the British term for ellipses
> marks. Hence the "..." actually illustrate the set of tiny reflected
> setting suns reflected in the lake.
>
> TT, as befits a novella about an editor/proofreader, has a lot of these
> typographic icons as I call them. For a more general sketch of this
> Nabokovian stylistic device, see my article at the URL below.
>
>
> <http://www.nabokovmuseum.org/PDF/Johnson.pdf>
>
> P.S. NB this "works" only if the British term "suspension dots" (not the
> "American ellipses") is used. See the copy of the first page of the TT
> typescript on the NYPL "N under glass" exhibit for an exchange between VN
> and his editor over "Britishisms."
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
>
>


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D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L