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Fw:C. Kunin query for Mr Friedman
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query for Mr Friedman
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2002 9:11 AM
Subject: query for Mr Friedman
> But in my opinion, what immediately follows Sybil's speech removes
> all doubt:
>
> And still
> Old Pan would call from every painted hill,
> And still the demons of _our_ pity spoke:
> No lips would share the lipstick of her smoke...
>
> (Emphasis mine.)
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
I didn't think of it before, but Hazel doesn't smoke, does she? Or wear lipstick. I wonder if Shade is thinking of someone else here (you know I don't trust him).
If I may change the emphasis, why do you think he speaks of demons of our pity? Since we know that Nabokov associates pity with art, the diabolical association seems strange.
Old Pan may be calling, but if I remember my mythology, the virgin huntress doesn't hear his call. Old Pan is more likely calling old Shade. But it also sounds like a reference to a painting. I have looked cursorily through John Boardman's book Pan, the Survival of an Image and not found anything showing Pan on a hill - but there's a poem, isn't there? 20th century English or American, my memory is imprecise.
Does this ring any bells?
Carolyn Kunin
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2002 9:11 AM
Subject: query for Mr Friedman
> But in my opinion, what immediately follows Sybil's speech removes
> all doubt:
>
> And still
> Old Pan would call from every painted hill,
> And still the demons of _our_ pity spoke:
> No lips would share the lipstick of her smoke...
>
> (Emphasis mine.)
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
I didn't think of it before, but Hazel doesn't smoke, does she? Or wear lipstick. I wonder if Shade is thinking of someone else here (you know I don't trust him).
If I may change the emphasis, why do you think he speaks of demons of our pity? Since we know that Nabokov associates pity with art, the diabolical association seems strange.
Old Pan may be calling, but if I remember my mythology, the virgin huntress doesn't hear his call. Old Pan is more likely calling old Shade. But it also sounds like a reference to a painting. I have looked cursorily through John Boardman's book Pan, the Survival of an Image and not found anything showing Pan on a hill - but there's a poem, isn't there? 20th century English or American, my memory is imprecise.
Does this ring any bells?
Carolyn Kunin