NABOKV-L post 0010776, Sat, 11 Dec 2004 11:40:22 -0800

----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 10:22:31 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>

Dear List,

In the same way that a lady´s slipper inspired the name of an orchid that
resembles a butterfly that dreams she is Cinderella ( or vice-versa?),
equivocations by similarity or proximity abound in Nabokov. Peter Washburn
was able to distinguish the old "Translatlantic" among two different magazines
and I also think that the disquieting hypothesis about Mr. R/Adam von Librikov/
as VN was born by a similar same process.

Baron R could be Adam von Librikov ( that mysterious Mister R. who on ch 8: "
had a long German name, in two installments, with a nobiliary particle between
castle and crag (...) who wrote with " a shapeliness, am ostensible dash, that
caused some of the less demanding reviewers in his adopted country to call him
a master stylist")
and point to an alliterated V. Nabokov. But, at the begining of Ch 18, there is
a description of Armande´s and Hugh´s short trip to Europe.
Hugh travelled " at his firm´s request, to look up Mr R. and another American
writer, also residing in Switzerland".
Who is this second American writer, then?

For the building up of allusions, we first find "Aragonite" on page 19, then
"malachite" on page 55 ( where the author refers to a fairy tale with princess
and dragon ) to "Drakonite" on page 56.


The author in TT describes Hugh Person as "acrophobic" ( page 24). How then is
he able to try so many different "ascentions" to follow his beloved Armande?
page 54: " Hugh might have managed that simple climb (...) negotiated with
outspread arms, in an attitude of entreaty". I don´t think any true acrophobic
would manage such "a simple climb" even with outspread arms.

A cable-way is a "téléphérique" ( I´m sure VN was aware of that! )
Tele= across a distance; "pheric/"fero"= transportation.
Quite suggestive if placed close to "telepathic"...or any kind of "communication
at a distance".
Jansy

----- Forwarded message from a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp -----
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 09:27:28 +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
Dear Don,
I did not see the mail below either on N-L or Zembla. Just in case, I am
resending it.

----- Original Message -----
From: Akiko Nakata
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum ; chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: TT-25 Transatlantic magazine


Dear Peter Washburn and All,

I am grateful to Peter Washburn for correcting my error. Yes, the gentleman
talks about an article he read in a recently issued Transatlantic and we do
not know the detail of the magazine HP left eight years ago. I thought there
were two magazines, but took "Hugh's Transatlantic" as the old one HP left
there. We translated "H's T" as "T under Hugh's hand" and did not forget
"borrowing it for a moment" either (Japanese readers, you do not have to
worry!). But that seems to have slipped from me somewhere. I am sorry.

The article sounds like about HP himself, but it also includes something
confusing. We have not heard that HP was good at what "he taught the
cellmates." He may have been, but at least he was not a pastry cook "by
trade" (perhaps it alludes to Pere Igor/Goriot).

Best wishes,
Akiko


Editor,
96 17-18. It seems that there are two magazines here. The Swiss gentleman is
reading the magazine that Hugh left 8 years ago. We don't know what its title
is. Hugh picks up the Transatlantic ( which the Swiss gentleman had presumably
just read, and upon which he had his elbow) which is described as among "fairly
recent periodicals" and it is that magazine which has an article referring to
"a man who murdered his spouse eight years ago." A kind of parallel
magazines: one old, which Hugh had left behind; the other recent, containing
an article about Hugh from the time of the first magazine. I think it is
deliberate that we might confuse the two. It makes me think of the phenomenon
where memory can conflate two separate incidents and turn them into a "false"
single incident.
Peter Washburn

----- End forwarded message -----