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TT-9 Thoughts on Armande (fwd)
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 3:51 PM +0100
From: Duncan White <duncanwhite24@hotmail.com>
Dear Don and list,
Some rough and ready thoughts on Chapter Nine, and especially on the
delightless Armande Chamar.
Best,
Duncan White
SSEES
p27 'I believe Byron uses 'chamar,' meaning 'peacock fan' in a very in
avery noble Oriental milieu. Charmingly sophisticated, yet marvelously
naive.'
I know this has already benefited from some fine detective work by
Byronists. However, it is also interesting, I feel, that Armande is
described as 'CHARMingly sophisticated' in the next line. The 'very noble
mileu' is an immediate echo from the previous paragraph - this is the very
formula Armande has used to describe her mother ('her mother was born in
Russia, in a very noble mileu').
Skipping on to chapter 12 (p42), this 'noble mileu' is revealed. Madame
Chamar (nee Potapov - a seemingly comical name) 'was the daughter of a
wealthy cattle dealer who had emigrated with his family to England from
Ryazan via Kharbin and Ceylon soon after the Bolshevist Revolution.' After
studying the various nude photos of a young Armande in the front room, Hugh
dismisses this frank nudity as a fashion of breeding - much to our
narrator's disapproval:
'But our Person vaguely imagined that this was a case of modern immodesty
currrent in Madame Chamar's set. What "set" good Lord? The lady's mother
had been a country veterinary's daughter, same as Hugh's mother (by the
only coincidence woth noting in this sad affair).
Hugh is also disturbed by her loudly flushing the toilet - which made me
remember the old world discretness of Maximovich/Taximovich when in
Humbert's flat in Lolita.
Back to that noble Oriental mileu and that 'Charm' - the anagrammatic
association, highlighted in the next line fails to obscure the far more
appropriate, phonetic association for Armande: 'sham'.
ALSO, on the chapter's conclusion, Hugh calls Armande :'Slender, athletic,
lethal.' By juxtaposing the latter two, it is highlighted that the word
'lethal' can be made out of 'athletic'. In the following chapters, this
adds to the sinisterness of Armande's physicality; her trekking, skiing and
other pursuits... Could this athletic/lethal clue have a bearing on R.'s
seeming struggle to save Hugh from the influence of a certain other ghosts?
After all, it is HP's pursuit of the spectral Armande that results in his
death, despite the best efforts of his 'umbral' companion.
_________________________________________________________________
Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 3:51 PM +0100
From: Duncan White <duncanwhite24@hotmail.com>
Dear Don and list,
Some rough and ready thoughts on Chapter Nine, and especially on the
delightless Armande Chamar.
Best,
Duncan White
SSEES
p27 'I believe Byron uses 'chamar,' meaning 'peacock fan' in a very in
avery noble Oriental milieu. Charmingly sophisticated, yet marvelously
naive.'
I know this has already benefited from some fine detective work by
Byronists. However, it is also interesting, I feel, that Armande is
described as 'CHARMingly sophisticated' in the next line. The 'very noble
mileu' is an immediate echo from the previous paragraph - this is the very
formula Armande has used to describe her mother ('her mother was born in
Russia, in a very noble mileu').
Skipping on to chapter 12 (p42), this 'noble mileu' is revealed. Madame
Chamar (nee Potapov - a seemingly comical name) 'was the daughter of a
wealthy cattle dealer who had emigrated with his family to England from
Ryazan via Kharbin and Ceylon soon after the Bolshevist Revolution.' After
studying the various nude photos of a young Armande in the front room, Hugh
dismisses this frank nudity as a fashion of breeding - much to our
narrator's disapproval:
'But our Person vaguely imagined that this was a case of modern immodesty
currrent in Madame Chamar's set. What "set" good Lord? The lady's mother
had been a country veterinary's daughter, same as Hugh's mother (by the
only coincidence woth noting in this sad affair).
Hugh is also disturbed by her loudly flushing the toilet - which made me
remember the old world discretness of Maximovich/Taximovich when in
Humbert's flat in Lolita.
Back to that noble Oriental mileu and that 'Charm' - the anagrammatic
association, highlighted in the next line fails to obscure the far more
appropriate, phonetic association for Armande: 'sham'.
ALSO, on the chapter's conclusion, Hugh calls Armande :'Slender, athletic,
lethal.' By juxtaposing the latter two, it is highlighted that the word
'lethal' can be made out of 'athletic'. In the following chapters, this
adds to the sinisterness of Armande's physicality; her trekking, skiing and
other pursuits... Could this athletic/lethal clue have a bearing on R.'s
seeming struggle to save Hugh from the influence of a certain other ghosts?
After all, it is HP's pursuit of the spectral Armande that results in his
death, despite the best efforts of his 'umbral' companion.
_________________________________________________________________
Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L