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Fwd: RE: barns, burns, brooks
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Dear Jansy and all:
While the brook motif is obvious, its extent is not, especially now you have
linked it to Malbrough and Malbrook.
I suspect the main reason is the centrality of Rimbaud's "Mémoire":
certainly, that is evoked again, for the nth time, in the last sentence of
the novel ("a pretty plaything stranded among the forget-me-nots of a
brook," an echo among other things of the "Jouet" or plaything that begins
the last section of Rimbaud's poem). In my forthcoming instalment of the ADA
annotations, I suggest that I.23, where the most important brook scene takes
place and the brook-brink motif begins, is particularly saturated with plays
on memory: echoes of Rimbaud's "Mémoire"; forget-me-nots; Lucette enticed to
memorize a poem; Ada's suggestion that she memorize of all things Browning's
"Memorabilia," which ends, as VN well remembers, with the line "Well, I
forget the rest." As I put it in the Afternote, " 'Nabokov seems to be
exploring the other side of memory, even for "the genius of total recall"
(545): memory as remorse, as a hell of regret, as well as a paradise to
revisit."
The book-brook (and brookshelf) link may also be tied to Aqua's conviction
that running water somehow conveys a stream of human words, and with the
wider theme of water-messages.
Brian Boyd
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald B. Johnson [mailto:chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 8:14 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: ADA: barns, burns, brooks
Bold and bald... that´s as good a pretext as any to ask a question to the
List about VN´s barns and burns in the "brooks" of Ardis.
I counted 20 brooks ( not counting the "burns" which, as I learned from
B.Boyd´s notes also mean "brook"), plus seven Malbrough and Malbrook.
We have typical "book or brook"; "bank of the brook"; "brink of the brook"
( three times); brooks linked to myosotis and its synonim, "forget-me-nots";
brook shelves (!) or crystal shelves of the brook . There are also: " from
Barn to Burnberry brook" ( only here we find two brooks in his book)
There is the adored river ( hydrophobic/dorophonic), but I have the
impression that brooks are more important still. Any idea on a hidden
meaning ( besides places for picnic, fights, lost cuff-links & condoms, or
getting cuffed?)
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 2:36 PM
Subject: Fwd: Martin Amis. BOLD to BALD in one move.
>
> Nabokov/Boyd-inspired passage from Martin Amis's 1995 novel THE
INFORMATION:
>
> "Daddy? Are you bold?"
> "I sometimes like to think so, yes, Marco."
> "Will you always be bold? <...> Have you always been bold? How did you
> get bold?"
> Richard closed his eyes. He dropped his pen on to the desktop and
> said,
"You
> mean bald. Go elsewhere Marco."
>
> Best,
> Sergey
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
While the brook motif is obvious, its extent is not, especially now you have
linked it to Malbrough and Malbrook.
I suspect the main reason is the centrality of Rimbaud's "Mémoire":
certainly, that is evoked again, for the nth time, in the last sentence of
the novel ("a pretty plaything stranded among the forget-me-nots of a
brook," an echo among other things of the "Jouet" or plaything that begins
the last section of Rimbaud's poem). In my forthcoming instalment of the ADA
annotations, I suggest that I.23, where the most important brook scene takes
place and the brook-brink motif begins, is particularly saturated with plays
on memory: echoes of Rimbaud's "Mémoire"; forget-me-nots; Lucette enticed to
memorize a poem; Ada's suggestion that she memorize of all things Browning's
"Memorabilia," which ends, as VN well remembers, with the line "Well, I
forget the rest." As I put it in the Afternote, " 'Nabokov seems to be
exploring the other side of memory, even for "the genius of total recall"
(545): memory as remorse, as a hell of regret, as well as a paradise to
revisit."
The book-brook (and brookshelf) link may also be tied to Aqua's conviction
that running water somehow conveys a stream of human words, and with the
wider theme of water-messages.
Brian Boyd
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald B. Johnson [mailto:chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 8:14 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: ADA: barns, burns, brooks
Bold and bald... that´s as good a pretext as any to ask a question to the
List about VN´s barns and burns in the "brooks" of Ardis.
I counted 20 brooks ( not counting the "burns" which, as I learned from
B.Boyd´s notes also mean "brook"), plus seven Malbrough and Malbrook.
We have typical "book or brook"; "bank of the brook"; "brink of the brook"
( three times); brooks linked to myosotis and its synonim, "forget-me-nots";
brook shelves (!) or crystal shelves of the brook . There are also: " from
Barn to Burnberry brook" ( only here we find two brooks in his book)
There is the adored river ( hydrophobic/dorophonic), but I have the
impression that brooks are more important still. Any idea on a hidden
meaning ( besides places for picnic, fights, lost cuff-links & condoms, or
getting cuffed?)
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 2:36 PM
Subject: Fwd: Martin Amis. BOLD to BALD in one move.
>
> Nabokov/Boyd-inspired passage from Martin Amis's 1995 novel THE
INFORMATION:
>
> "Daddy? Are you bold?"
> "I sometimes like to think so, yes, Marco."
> "Will you always be bold? <...> Have you always been bold? How did you
> get bold?"
> Richard closed his eyes. He dropped his pen on to the desktop and
> said,
"You
> mean bald. Go elsewhere Marco."
>
> Best,
> Sergey
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----