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----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 12:00 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3580
>
> pynchon-l-digest Wednesday, October 1 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3580
>
> > NPPF: Commentary Line 149, p. 140-2, recap
> tintarron
> Re: failure of college kids and blue-collar workers
> NPPF commentary line 149, p. 143-
> VLVL (6) Working for the Man
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:14:04 -0700
> From: Mary Krimmel <mary@krimmel.net>
> Subject: RE: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
> At 07:05 PM 9/29/03 -0400, you wrote:
> >Mary:
> > > No. The straightness, the weaving, the repetition, the
irregularity
> > > are what show that such a track is not a lemniscate-like pattern.
>
>
> >Maybe it's just me, but a bicylist riding in a figure-8, in the context
of
> >the poem, doesn't make any sense. But the pattern left by the two tires,
> >while ridden in a relatively straight line, certainly resembles a chain
of
> >linked, if poorly drawn, figure-8's. Are you saying that, mathematically,
> >these "figure-8's" don't qualify as lemniscates?
>
> No, I didn't intend to say that mathematically the bicycle track, doesn't
> qualify. It doesn't.
>
> I intended to say that "the pattern left by the two tires, while ridden in
> a relatively straight line" doesn't qualify as looking like figure-8's or
> lemniscates. To you and maybe to the "I" of the poem, to Shade and to
> Nabokov, they do look like lemniscates. Different aspects of a pattern may
> appeal to different people.
>
>
> > > >The less "deft" the rider, the more
> > > >pronounced the pattern.
> > >
> > > And presumably the rider was deft, so the pattern less
pronounced.
>
>
> >Might "nonchalantly deft Bicycle tires" allude to the "miracle" of a
complex
> >pattern created by the tires without conscious effort on the part of the
> >rider? My "less deft" was meant to suggest Shade as the "rider", but
given
> >the alternative definition I quoted, it works even better for Kinbote.
> >
> > > >OED deft -- 1. Gentle, meek, humble; = daft 1. Obs. rare.
>
> Oh. It hadn't occurred to me to consider Shade or Kinbote as the rider.
>
> This list gives me many ideas beyond some insight into Pynchon! Thank you.
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
>
>
>
> >Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 16:50:10 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
> COnsider, again, the lemniscate as a ribbon....the two edges never
actually
> cross but appear to do so.......Consider the relationship twixt Shade and
> Kinbote as sun and moon, or any other "opposing pair".........now picture
> them a bicycle riders leaving tracks, not directly on top of each other,
> but, like the edges of the ribbon, following the same "bounded path".....
>
>
> love,
> cfa
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mary Krimmel" <mary@krimmel.net>
> To: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Cc: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 4:14 PM
> Subject: RE: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
>
> > At 07:05 PM 9/29/03 -0400, you wrote:
> > >Mary:
> > > > No. The straightness, the weaving, the repetition, the
> irregularity
> > > > are what show that such a track is not a lemniscate-like pattern.
> >
> >
> > >Maybe it's just me, but a bicylist riding in a figure-8, in the context
> of
> > >the poem, doesn't make any sense. But the pattern left by the two
tires,
> > >while ridden in a relatively straight line, certainly resembles a chain
> of
> > >linked, if poorly drawn, figure-8's. Are you saying that,
mathematically,
> > >these "figure-8's" don't qualify as lemniscates?
> >
> > No, I didn't intend to say that mathematically the bicycle track,
doesn't
> > qualify. It doesn't.
> >
> > I intended to say that "the pattern left by the two tires, while ridden
in
> > a relatively straight line" doesn't qualify as looking like figure-8's
or
> > lemniscates. To you and maybe to the "I" of the poem, to Shade and to
> > Nabokov, they do look like lemniscates. Different aspects of a pattern
may
> > appeal to different people.
> >
> >
> > > > >The less "deft" the rider, the more
> > > > >pronounced the pattern.
> > > >
> > > > And presumably the rider was deft, so the pattern less
> pronounced.
> >
> >
> > >Might "nonchalantly deft Bicycle tires" allude to the "miracle" of a
> complex
> > >pattern created by the tires without conscious effort on the part of
the
> > >rider? My "less deft" was meant to suggest Shade as the "rider", but
> given
> > >the alternative definition I quoted, it works even better for Kinbote.
> > >
> > > > >OED deft -- 1. Gentle, meek, humble; = daft 1. Obs. rare.
> >
> > Oh. It hadn't occurred to me to consider Shade or Kinbote as the rider.
> >
> > This list gives me many ideas beyond some insight into Pynchon! Thank
you.
> >
> > Mary Krimmel
> >
> > Mary Krimmel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >Scott Badger
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 17:19:58 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: RE: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
> Mary:
> > No, I didn't intend to say that mathematically the bicycle track,
doesn't
> > qualify. It doesn't.
> >
> > I intended to say that "the pattern left by the two tires, while
> > ridden in
> > a relatively straight line" doesn't qualify as looking like figure-8's
or
> > lemniscates. To you and maybe to the "I" of the poem, to Shade and to
> > Nabokov, they do look like lemniscates. Different aspects of a
> > pattern may
> > appeal to different people.
>
> Maybe if you squinted a little....
>
> > Oh. It hadn't occurred to me to consider Shade or Kinbote as the rider.
>
> Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting Kinbote as the rider of the bicycle,
> but as a quite "deftless" (w)ri(t)er.
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2003 07:39:55 +1000
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:29:07 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary Line 149, p. 140-2, recap
>
> On p. 140-142 Kinbote tells the story of Charles's sojourn with Griff, his
> wife, and their daughter androgynously named Garh. The story draws upon
> Ovid, and, more broadly, the tale type "saints wander on earth" (Stith
> Thompson), which Kinbote/Botkin perhaps and certainly Nabokov emphasizes
> by making references to a "tedious old tale" (p. 140) and "fairy-tale"
> (140), "ancient songs" (p. 141), "transformation" (p. 141), etc. K/B
> concludes this episode by having Charles reject Garh's rustic offer of
> sex. He prefers instead to pat "the innocent dog" (p. 142)--although what
> the dog is "innocent" of is unclear. While Charles chuckles over Garh's
> "discomfiture," there are symbols reminiscent of Hazel Shade, such as the
> "black butterfly ... dancing down a pebbly rake" (p. 142), and "a patch of
> matted elfinwood" (i.e., Erlkonig) (p. 142), which suggest Kinbote's
> emotional coldness--as well perhaps as his 'unnaturalness', if Hazel is a
> kind of Psyche/Persephone figure with all that implies. Perhaps we can
> also tease out the suggestion that in ridiculing the androgynous Garh,
> Kinbote is displaying ignorance of his own identity, for, if Garh invokes
> Hazel, and if Kinbote believes, as he says, "Hazel Shade resembled me in
> certain respects" (p. 193), then Kinbote's burlesque of Garh--her smells,
> her mechanical lust, even her neediness and "discomfiture" at
> rejection--constitutes a self-caricature.
>
> (Note on "pebbly rake": The OED online defines rake(2) as 1. A way, path;
> esp. a rough path over a hill, a narrow path up a cleft or ravine.
>
> 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2144 Ryde me doun {th}is ilk rake, bi {ygh}on rokke
> syde. a1400-50 Alexander 5070 Lene to {th}e left hand, For {th}e rake on
> {th}e ri{ygh}t hand {th}at may na man passe. ?c1600 Hodgson MS. in
> Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., Two brode waies or rakes commonly used occupied
> and worne with cattal brought out of Scotland. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss.,
> Rake,..A strip of ground..lying in the side of a hill, and sunk below the
> level of the neighbouring parts. 1872 JENKINSON Guide Eng. Lakes 303 A
> method of ascent..is by the Lord's Rake, a narrow cleft a short distance
> from the ridge.
>
>
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:37:20 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: tintarron
>
> AFter Nabokov, "tintarron" served as inspiration for the name of a
> butterfly, one of a number of butterflies intentionally given 'Nabokovian
> names.'
>
> "Madeleinea tintarrona BLINT & JOHNSON 1994 [Lycenidae]: a polyommatine
> butterfly currently known only from the type locality in Peru (La Oroya)
> where it was collected in 1900. The males are cloisonne blue, with a black
> margin wide at the apex and narrow at tornus. The females unknown. The
> forewing length is 8 mm. Named for Tintarron, the precious deep blue glass
> made in the mountains of Zembla, here referring to the dorsal ground color
> of this species. OD: Zsolt Blint / Kurt Johnson: Synopsis of the High
> Andean and Austral Polyommatine Genus Madeleinea BLINT 1993 (Lepidoptera,
> Lycaenidae), Reports of the Museum of Natural History, University of
> Wisconsin (Stevens Point), 43, 1995, p. 1213."
>
> See "Excerpts from A GUIDE TO NABOKOV'S BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS"
> http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dzbutt7.htm.
>
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------
>>
> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 01:28:05 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: NPPF commentary line 149, p. 143-
>
> P. 143 takes Charles further up in his ascent. Most of p. 143 recounts an
> episode wherein he apprehends a doubleganger (The apparition of a living
> person; a double, a wraith). This section suggests a continuation of
> Nabokov/Shade's "mirrorplay and mirage shimmer" (p. 135).
>
> "In its limpid tintarron he saw his scarlet reflection ... " Tintarron
> would appear to signify a shade of blue. (Note that tintarron does not
> appear in the OED or the Century Illustrated; "tintamar" means "a confused
> noise; an uproar." Is tintarron a word or is Kinbote confused? Or is
> Nabokov calling attention to this passage with his neologism?) In his
> essay "A Hall of Mirrors," Benjamin D. Marten suggests that in the
> description of Charles looking into the "limid tintarron" Nabokov is
> prescribing a way to read Pale Fire.
>
> "In its limpid tintarron he saw his scarlet reflection but, oddly enough,
> owing to what seemed to be at first blush an optical illusion, this
> reflection was not at his feet but much further; moreover, it was
> accompanied by the ripple-warped reflection of a ledge that jutted high
> above his present position. He now advanced to the very lip of the water
> and was met there by a genuine reflection, much larger and clearer than
> the one that had deceived him. (143) This long description of Kinbote
> (who is also the King in his story) admiring this false reflection is
> Nabokovs advice for how to view this piece of literature. Observe it from
> afar, from which it is twisted and changed, through the eyes of Kinbote,
> and than after the commentary is through look at what truly is there, and
> what really took place without it being warped by the deranged
> commentator."
>
> Having spied what he assumes to be the apparition of another Charles in
> the water (although this will be explained on p. 144), Charles experiences
> "a shiver of alfear (uncontrollable fear caused by elves)" (143) and
> proceeds apace, where he comes upon "a heap of stones erected as a memento
> of an ascent [which] had donned a cap of red wool in his [Charles'] honor"
> (144). Kinbote pedantically tells us this is a "steinmann," which
> climbers' dictionaries translate as "cairn."
>
> The personification of "steinmann" (cairn) "donning a cap" creates an
> interesting tension with the depersonification of Garh ("mere mechanism").
> Rocks have humanity, and agency, women do not.
>
> The underlying spiritual affinition of Garh with the dead Hazel (marked by
> the appearance of the black butterfly) is mirrored in the affinition of
> Charles with the crowned "stone man." The suggestion of morbidity is
> further strengthened lingistically. In English, "cairn" primarily means "a
> pyramid of rough stones, raised for a memorial or mark of some kind: a.
> as a memorial of some event, or a sepulchral monument over the grave of
> some person of distinction." The sepulchral connotation of the image is
> stabilized in a linguistic link with earlier commentary on line 143 (p.
> 137), where Shade is remembered to have described the clockwork toy as a
> kind of memento mori. Kinbote evokes this description here in his
> justification for the steinmann as a "MEMENTO of an ascent" [emphasis
> mine]. Thus, Kinbote unwittingly raises his own memorial to which,
> clearly, the red cap adds a touch of derision.
>
> Perhaps Nabokov's fascination with mirrorplay within the interpretive act
> ("texture not text") is reflected here, too. The god Hermes, from which
> derives "hermeneutic" (OED: "Belonging to or concerned with
> interpretation; esp. as distinguished from exegesis or practical
> exposition") received his name from herma, the Greek word for a cairn of
> stones. The 'herm' was a pillar of stones, a marker for the dead. Hermes
> translated souls to the underworld and mediated between humans and the
> gods, between the living and the dead. (And, like the steinmann Charles,
> yet another "counterfeit king," Hermes wore a cap, which rendered him
> invisible.) The steinmann/cairn therefore bears a range of meanings:
> Kinbote's deadness, his invisibility, Kinbote's "translation" of the dead
> poet's message, and the strategy of creative hermeneutics Nabokov's
> mirrorplay invites.
>
> The Liminality of Hermes and the Meaning of Hermeneutics
> http://www.mac.edu/faculty/richardpalmer/liminality.html
>
> - ---also
> Hermes http://www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/Hermes.htm
>
> Ancient Greek Culture http://www.noteaccess.com/APPROACHES/AGW/Hermes.htm
>
> Hermes and the Creation of Space http://www.jungatlanta.com/hermes.html
>
> The red-capped cairn also alludes back to the text Kinbote is enacting by
> assiduously avoiding, and once more telescopes Shade and Kinbote. The
> steinmann Charles recapitulates Shade's "my age of stone" (line 155)--just
> as Charles' "shiver of alfear" (p. 143) recalls the first part of that
> line, "an icy shiver down . . .." (line 155) Shade and Kinbote seem to be
> texturally and viscerally spliced--and perhaps the implication is that the
> deranged mysoginist, the fake or failed king, is redeemed by such
> recondite similarities with the authentic poet as may appear in the eye of
> a playful reader.
>
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 12:00 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3580
>
> pynchon-l-digest Wednesday, October 1 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3580
>
> > NPPF: Commentary Line 149, p. 140-2, recap
> tintarron
> Re: failure of college kids and blue-collar workers
> NPPF commentary line 149, p. 143-
> VLVL (6) Working for the Man
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:14:04 -0700
> From: Mary Krimmel <mary@krimmel.net>
> Subject: RE: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
> At 07:05 PM 9/29/03 -0400, you wrote:
> >Mary:
> > > No. The straightness, the weaving, the repetition, the
irregularity
> > > are what show that such a track is not a lemniscate-like pattern.
>
>
> >Maybe it's just me, but a bicylist riding in a figure-8, in the context
of
> >the poem, doesn't make any sense. But the pattern left by the two tires,
> >while ridden in a relatively straight line, certainly resembles a chain
of
> >linked, if poorly drawn, figure-8's. Are you saying that, mathematically,
> >these "figure-8's" don't qualify as lemniscates?
>
> No, I didn't intend to say that mathematically the bicycle track, doesn't
> qualify. It doesn't.
>
> I intended to say that "the pattern left by the two tires, while ridden in
> a relatively straight line" doesn't qualify as looking like figure-8's or
> lemniscates. To you and maybe to the "I" of the poem, to Shade and to
> Nabokov, they do look like lemniscates. Different aspects of a pattern may
> appeal to different people.
>
>
> > > >The less "deft" the rider, the more
> > > >pronounced the pattern.
> > >
> > > And presumably the rider was deft, so the pattern less
pronounced.
>
>
> >Might "nonchalantly deft Bicycle tires" allude to the "miracle" of a
complex
> >pattern created by the tires without conscious effort on the part of the
> >rider? My "less deft" was meant to suggest Shade as the "rider", but
given
> >the alternative definition I quoted, it works even better for Kinbote.
> >
> > > >OED deft -- 1. Gentle, meek, humble; = daft 1. Obs. rare.
>
> Oh. It hadn't occurred to me to consider Shade or Kinbote as the rider.
>
> This list gives me many ideas beyond some insight into Pynchon! Thank you.
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
>
>
>
> >Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 16:50:10 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
> COnsider, again, the lemniscate as a ribbon....the two edges never
actually
> cross but appear to do so.......Consider the relationship twixt Shade and
> Kinbote as sun and moon, or any other "opposing pair".........now picture
> them a bicycle riders leaving tracks, not directly on top of each other,
> but, like the edges of the ribbon, following the same "bounded path".....
>
>
> love,
> cfa
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mary Krimmel" <mary@krimmel.net>
> To: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Cc: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 4:14 PM
> Subject: RE: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
>
> > At 07:05 PM 9/29/03 -0400, you wrote:
> > >Mary:
> > > > No. The straightness, the weaving, the repetition, the
> irregularity
> > > > are what show that such a track is not a lemniscate-like pattern.
> >
> >
> > >Maybe it's just me, but a bicylist riding in a figure-8, in the context
> of
> > >the poem, doesn't make any sense. But the pattern left by the two
tires,
> > >while ridden in a relatively straight line, certainly resembles a chain
> of
> > >linked, if poorly drawn, figure-8's. Are you saying that,
mathematically,
> > >these "figure-8's" don't qualify as lemniscates?
> >
> > No, I didn't intend to say that mathematically the bicycle track,
doesn't
> > qualify. It doesn't.
> >
> > I intended to say that "the pattern left by the two tires, while ridden
in
> > a relatively straight line" doesn't qualify as looking like figure-8's
or
> > lemniscates. To you and maybe to the "I" of the poem, to Shade and to
> > Nabokov, they do look like lemniscates. Different aspects of a pattern
may
> > appeal to different people.
> >
> >
> > > > >The less "deft" the rider, the more
> > > > >pronounced the pattern.
> > > >
> > > > And presumably the rider was deft, so the pattern less
> pronounced.
> >
> >
> > >Might "nonchalantly deft Bicycle tires" allude to the "miracle" of a
> complex
> > >pattern created by the tires without conscious effort on the part of
the
> > >rider? My "less deft" was meant to suggest Shade as the "rider", but
> given
> > >the alternative definition I quoted, it works even better for Kinbote.
> > >
> > > > >OED deft -- 1. Gentle, meek, humble; = daft 1. Obs. rare.
> >
> > Oh. It hadn't occurred to me to consider Shade or Kinbote as the rider.
> >
> > This list gives me many ideas beyond some insight into Pynchon! Thank
you.
> >
> > Mary Krimmel
> >
> > Mary Krimmel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >Scott Badger
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 17:19:58 -0400
> From: "Scott Badger" <lupine@ncia.net>
> Subject: RE: Re: lemniscate and bicycling
>
> Mary:
> > No, I didn't intend to say that mathematically the bicycle track,
doesn't
> > qualify. It doesn't.
> >
> > I intended to say that "the pattern left by the two tires, while
> > ridden in
> > a relatively straight line" doesn't qualify as looking like figure-8's
or
> > lemniscates. To you and maybe to the "I" of the poem, to Shade and to
> > Nabokov, they do look like lemniscates. Different aspects of a
> > pattern may
> > appeal to different people.
>
> Maybe if you squinted a little....
>
> > Oh. It hadn't occurred to me to consider Shade or Kinbote as the rider.
>
> Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting Kinbote as the rider of the bicycle,
> but as a quite "deftless" (w)ri(t)er.
>
> Scott Badger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2003 07:39:55 +1000
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:29:07 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary Line 149, p. 140-2, recap
>
> On p. 140-142 Kinbote tells the story of Charles's sojourn with Griff, his
> wife, and their daughter androgynously named Garh. The story draws upon
> Ovid, and, more broadly, the tale type "saints wander on earth" (Stith
> Thompson), which Kinbote/Botkin perhaps and certainly Nabokov emphasizes
> by making references to a "tedious old tale" (p. 140) and "fairy-tale"
> (140), "ancient songs" (p. 141), "transformation" (p. 141), etc. K/B
> concludes this episode by having Charles reject Garh's rustic offer of
> sex. He prefers instead to pat "the innocent dog" (p. 142)--although what
> the dog is "innocent" of is unclear. While Charles chuckles over Garh's
> "discomfiture," there are symbols reminiscent of Hazel Shade, such as the
> "black butterfly ... dancing down a pebbly rake" (p. 142), and "a patch of
> matted elfinwood" (i.e., Erlkonig) (p. 142), which suggest Kinbote's
> emotional coldness--as well perhaps as his 'unnaturalness', if Hazel is a
> kind of Psyche/Persephone figure with all that implies. Perhaps we can
> also tease out the suggestion that in ridiculing the androgynous Garh,
> Kinbote is displaying ignorance of his own identity, for, if Garh invokes
> Hazel, and if Kinbote believes, as he says, "Hazel Shade resembled me in
> certain respects" (p. 193), then Kinbote's burlesque of Garh--her smells,
> her mechanical lust, even her neediness and "discomfiture" at
> rejection--constitutes a self-caricature.
>
> (Note on "pebbly rake": The OED online defines rake(2) as 1. A way, path;
> esp. a rough path over a hill, a narrow path up a cleft or ravine.
>
> 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2144 Ryde me doun {th}is ilk rake, bi {ygh}on rokke
> syde. a1400-50 Alexander 5070 Lene to {th}e left hand, For {th}e rake on
> {th}e ri{ygh}t hand {th}at may na man passe. ?c1600 Hodgson MS. in
> Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., Two brode waies or rakes commonly used occupied
> and worne with cattal brought out of Scotland. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss.,
> Rake,..A strip of ground..lying in the side of a hill, and sunk below the
> level of the neighbouring parts. 1872 JENKINSON Guide Eng. Lakes 303 A
> method of ascent..is by the Lord's Rake, a narrow cleft a short distance
> from the ridge.
>
>
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:37:20 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: tintarron
>
> AFter Nabokov, "tintarron" served as inspiration for the name of a
> butterfly, one of a number of butterflies intentionally given 'Nabokovian
> names.'
>
> "Madeleinea tintarrona BLINT & JOHNSON 1994 [Lycenidae]: a polyommatine
> butterfly currently known only from the type locality in Peru (La Oroya)
> where it was collected in 1900. The males are cloisonne blue, with a black
> margin wide at the apex and narrow at tornus. The females unknown. The
> forewing length is 8 mm. Named for Tintarron, the precious deep blue glass
> made in the mountains of Zembla, here referring to the dorsal ground color
> of this species. OD: Zsolt Blint / Kurt Johnson: Synopsis of the High
> Andean and Austral Polyommatine Genus Madeleinea BLINT 1993 (Lepidoptera,
> Lycaenidae), Reports of the Museum of Natural History, University of
> Wisconsin (Stevens Point), 43, 1995, p. 1213."
>
> See "Excerpts from A GUIDE TO NABOKOV'S BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS"
> http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dzbutt7.htm.
>
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------
>>
> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 01:28:05 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: NPPF commentary line 149, p. 143-
>
> P. 143 takes Charles further up in his ascent. Most of p. 143 recounts an
> episode wherein he apprehends a doubleganger (The apparition of a living
> person; a double, a wraith). This section suggests a continuation of
> Nabokov/Shade's "mirrorplay and mirage shimmer" (p. 135).
>
> "In its limpid tintarron he saw his scarlet reflection ... " Tintarron
> would appear to signify a shade of blue. (Note that tintarron does not
> appear in the OED or the Century Illustrated; "tintamar" means "a confused
> noise; an uproar." Is tintarron a word or is Kinbote confused? Or is
> Nabokov calling attention to this passage with his neologism?) In his
> essay "A Hall of Mirrors," Benjamin D. Marten suggests that in the
> description of Charles looking into the "limid tintarron" Nabokov is
> prescribing a way to read Pale Fire.
>
> "In its limpid tintarron he saw his scarlet reflection but, oddly enough,
> owing to what seemed to be at first blush an optical illusion, this
> reflection was not at his feet but much further; moreover, it was
> accompanied by the ripple-warped reflection of a ledge that jutted high
> above his present position. He now advanced to the very lip of the water
> and was met there by a genuine reflection, much larger and clearer than
> the one that had deceived him. (143) This long description of Kinbote
> (who is also the King in his story) admiring this false reflection is
> Nabokovs advice for how to view this piece of literature. Observe it from
> afar, from which it is twisted and changed, through the eyes of Kinbote,
> and than after the commentary is through look at what truly is there, and
> what really took place without it being warped by the deranged
> commentator."
>
> Having spied what he assumes to be the apparition of another Charles in
> the water (although this will be explained on p. 144), Charles experiences
> "a shiver of alfear (uncontrollable fear caused by elves)" (143) and
> proceeds apace, where he comes upon "a heap of stones erected as a memento
> of an ascent [which] had donned a cap of red wool in his [Charles'] honor"
> (144). Kinbote pedantically tells us this is a "steinmann," which
> climbers' dictionaries translate as "cairn."
>
> The personification of "steinmann" (cairn) "donning a cap" creates an
> interesting tension with the depersonification of Garh ("mere mechanism").
> Rocks have humanity, and agency, women do not.
>
> The underlying spiritual affinition of Garh with the dead Hazel (marked by
> the appearance of the black butterfly) is mirrored in the affinition of
> Charles with the crowned "stone man." The suggestion of morbidity is
> further strengthened lingistically. In English, "cairn" primarily means "a
> pyramid of rough stones, raised for a memorial or mark of some kind: a.
> as a memorial of some event, or a sepulchral monument over the grave of
> some person of distinction." The sepulchral connotation of the image is
> stabilized in a linguistic link with earlier commentary on line 143 (p.
> 137), where Shade is remembered to have described the clockwork toy as a
> kind of memento mori. Kinbote evokes this description here in his
> justification for the steinmann as a "MEMENTO of an ascent" [emphasis
> mine]. Thus, Kinbote unwittingly raises his own memorial to which,
> clearly, the red cap adds a touch of derision.
>
> Perhaps Nabokov's fascination with mirrorplay within the interpretive act
> ("texture not text") is reflected here, too. The god Hermes, from which
> derives "hermeneutic" (OED: "Belonging to or concerned with
> interpretation; esp. as distinguished from exegesis or practical
> exposition") received his name from herma, the Greek word for a cairn of
> stones. The 'herm' was a pillar of stones, a marker for the dead. Hermes
> translated souls to the underworld and mediated between humans and the
> gods, between the living and the dead. (And, like the steinmann Charles,
> yet another "counterfeit king," Hermes wore a cap, which rendered him
> invisible.) The steinmann/cairn therefore bears a range of meanings:
> Kinbote's deadness, his invisibility, Kinbote's "translation" of the dead
> poet's message, and the strategy of creative hermeneutics Nabokov's
> mirrorplay invites.
>
> The Liminality of Hermes and the Meaning of Hermeneutics
> http://www.mac.edu/faculty/richardpalmer/liminality.html
>
> - ---also
> Hermes http://www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/Hermes.htm
>
> Ancient Greek Culture http://www.noteaccess.com/APPROACHES/AGW/Hermes.htm
>
> Hermes and the Creation of Space http://www.jungatlanta.com/hermes.html
>
> The red-capped cairn also alludes back to the text Kinbote is enacting by
> assiduously avoiding, and once more telescopes Shade and Kinbote. The
> steinmann Charles recapitulates Shade's "my age of stone" (line 155)--just
> as Charles' "shiver of alfear" (p. 143) recalls the first part of that
> line, "an icy shiver down . . .." (line 155) Shade and Kinbote seem to be
> texturally and viscerally spliced--and perhaps the implication is that the
> deranged mysoginist, the fake or failed king, is redeemed by such
> recondite similarities with the authentic poet as may appear in the eye of
> a playful reader.
>
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------