Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010224, Sat, 7 Aug 2004 20:19:29 -0700

Subject
TT-10 Introductory Notes (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, August 06, 2004 2:38 PM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu
Subject: TT-10 Introductory Notes




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29.20: his black-bearded secretary: A pirate image. Tamworth is called "a
brigand" on the following page. Cf. "a black patch masked the
grim captain's left eye" (Ch. 26).

30.05: Hullo, Person!: As has been mentioned, an important clue to identify
the narrator who addresses HP
at the beginning of
the novel.

30.06-14: The illusory quality of the entire event was enhanced by the
appearance and
speech of the two characters. That monumental man with his clayey makeup and
false grin, and Mr. Tamworth of the brigand's beard, seemed to be acting out
a stiffly written scene for the benefit of an invisible audience from which
Person, a dummy, kept turning away as if moved with his chair by Sherlock's
concealed landlady: A theatrical motif. Cf. "Armande decreed they
regularly make love around teatime, in the living room, as upon an imaginary
stage" (Ch. 17).

30.13-14: as if moved with his chair by Sherlock's
concealed landlady: As Brian Boyd mentions in the LoA edition notes, it
quotes "The Empty House." A reason why from a SH story could be found in
Conan Doyle's enthusiasm in Spiritualism.

30.16-20: the reality of Armande, whose image was stamped on the eye of his
mind and
shone through the show at various levels, sometimes upside down, sometimes
on the teasing marge of his field of vision, but always there, always, true
and thrilling: A
double exposure image. Unusually HP sees his world translucently. Armande
appears like spiritual ectoplasm. Double exposure is commonly used for
producing fake photos.

30.20-23: The commonplaces he and she had exchanged blazed with authenticity
when
placed for display against the forced guffaws in the bogus bar: Cf. "Coming
to lunch it had not occurred to him [Ganin] that these people, the ghosts of
his dream-life in exile, would talk about his real life--about Mary" (*Mary*
Ch. 7).

30.24: you certainly look remarkably fit: Cf. "the cardboard box with 'Fit'
on its
wrapper" (Ch. 2). "Fit" is a key word to the novel.

31.06-08: "I had not been feeling any too healthy, you know, during the
winter. My
liver, you know, was holding something against me"; 31.06: "Same stuff,
son": A
couple of clues--"you know" and "son"--to identify who addresses HP in the
end.

31.09-10: He took a long sip of whiskey, and, rinsing his mouth with it in a
manner
Person had never yet witnessed: Mr. R. shares one of his mannerisms with Dan
Veen of *Ada* and the tyrant of "Tyrants Destroyed": "as he rinsed his
dentures orally with a mouthful of coffee prior to swallowing it and the
flavorous flotsam" (*ADA* I.20);"He had a strange and unpleasant way of
rinsing his mouth with his milk before he swallowed it" (*The Stories of
VN*, p. 444).

31.11: Then, *a deux*: The other "a deux" is said by Armande: "I'll leave my
skis
here, and change into walking shoes
and return to Witt with you *a deux*" (Ch. 15).

32.18: This part our translucing is pretty boring: Probably Mr. R. is not
willing
to report the story of his being cuckolded.

32.30: Formosa, an island: is famous for its beautiful butterflies. Why
Cavaliere, Cal.? Simply because Pines was being a "cavalier" to Julia and
her mother?

33.01-03: our Person . . . had happened to nibble: A mouse metaphor. A list
of non-existent animals so far: an elephant, a dog (Ch. 2), a bat, and a
mouse.



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RANDOM EDThought. The "Cavaliere" is part of the "avalanche"/falling theme.