Subject
FW: Query: LOLITA's Coalmont
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EDITOR's NOTE. Once again my thanks to Mark Bennett for his detective
work. Nabokovian geography is an under-explored field. I myself once
published a deservedly obscure essay entitled "Was Lolita a Hoosier?"
More seriously, good maps of ADA or PALE FIRE might well elucidate
matters of critical importance for those works. They would,
incidentally, lend themselves to web publication with its graphics
capabilities.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: Query: Coalmont
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 13:14:04 -0800
From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>
>In what state or geographical region is Coalmont located?
>Nat Selleck
---------------------------
I presume Mr. Selleck is enquiring after the location of the "small
industrial community" where Mr. And Mrs. Richard Schiller lived before
the
fateful journey to Gray Star. It's an interesting question. HH gives a
few
hints. "Coalmont" is some eight hundred miles from New York City, and,
according to HH, it's "not 'Va.," not "Pa.," not "Tenn.," -- and not
Coalmont, anyway -- I have camouflaged everything,. . . ." However, we
also
know that at this stage of HH's story he's "not going too far for [his]
pseudonyms." So based upon this information it appears we are looking
for a
small community approximately eight hundred miles from New York for
which
"Coalmont" is a plausible pseudonym.
There is a Coalmont, Tennessee, and it is approximately eight hundred
miles
from New York; but I believe we can take HH at his word that "Coalmont"
is a
pseudonym for a town that isn't to be found in Virginia, Pennsylvania,
or
Tennessee; both Virginia and Pennsylvania are too close to New York
anyway.
That means we will have to look further south or west. Indianapolis is
approximately seven hundred and fifty miles from New York and Chicago is
almost exactly eight hundred miles from the Big Apple, so western
Indiana
seems a likely place to look. Several candidates present themselves in
that
part of the country. There is a Coalmont approximately fifty miles
southwest of Indianapolis, which would place it within the geographical
range we are looking for; but again, let's presume HH is telling the
truth
and he has concealed "Coalmont's" real name. In the same general area we
find Coal City and Coal Bluff, and moving further north we find Coal
Creek;
if HH wasn't looking too far for pseudonyms any of these small, indeed,
very
small, communities might easily be converted to "Coalmont." If HH was
making a little more effort to conceal the community's true name, we
might
consider Coloma, Colburn, or Colfax - this last little burg is a
particularly interesting candidate, located as it is between Fickle and
Thorntown. If HH was reaching yet further for concealment there is
Montclair (ouch), Monticello, the lethal-sounding Montmorenci, Fairmont
(of
course), and no less than two Mount, or Mt., Auburns. There are also
two
Charlottesvilles, but we won't get into that.
As described by HH, "Coalmont" seems to possess a certain Mid-Western
squalor that would make any of these innocent-sounding little towns
plausible candidates for Dick and Dolly's happy home. But if we turn
south
an even better candidate presents itself. In Northern Georgia we find
none
other than Coal Mountain. It is roughly fifty miles north of Atlanta,
which
makes it slightly more than eight hundred miles from New York. I hadn't
considered the Deep South as a possible locattion, but two remarks by HH
make Coal Mountain appear to be the most likely village concealed behind
"Coalmont's" mask. When HH is directed, by the chthonian bass voice
from an
open manhole, to ask for "Dick Skiller" at "the store," HH "entered the
wrong store and a wary old Negro shook his head even before I could ask
anything." This seems to me to be exactly the response an
African-American
shopkeeper, in the Deep South, in 1952, would make to an outlandishly
attired white man - obviously from WAY out of town - who wandered into
his
store. Further, when HH finally makes his dismal way to the Schiller
residence on "Hunter Road" he views the following scene: "all dump and
ditch, and wormy vegetable garden, and shack, and gray drizzle, and red
mud,
and several smoking stacks in the distance." Of course, Georgia is
famous
for its iron-rich, red soil - the celebrated "red clay." So there you
have it: "Coalmont" is really Coal Mountain, Georgia. It's within the
proper geographical range (more or less); "Coalmont" is an appropriate
lazy
pseudonym that HH might have thought up to conceal its true identity;
and it
is in the right part of the country to possess the geologic feature HH
attributes to "Coalmont." On the other hand, I'm starting to feel a bit
like the private detective HH hired to track down Quilty, who, after two
years of impotent labor, triumphantly informed HH that an
eighty-year-old
Indian named Bill Brown lived near Dolores, Colo. . . . .
Mark Bennett
work. Nabokovian geography is an under-explored field. I myself once
published a deservedly obscure essay entitled "Was Lolita a Hoosier?"
More seriously, good maps of ADA or PALE FIRE might well elucidate
matters of critical importance for those works. They would,
incidentally, lend themselves to web publication with its graphics
capabilities.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: Query: Coalmont
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 13:14:04 -0800
From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>
>In what state or geographical region is Coalmont located?
>Nat Selleck
---------------------------
I presume Mr. Selleck is enquiring after the location of the "small
industrial community" where Mr. And Mrs. Richard Schiller lived before
the
fateful journey to Gray Star. It's an interesting question. HH gives a
few
hints. "Coalmont" is some eight hundred miles from New York City, and,
according to HH, it's "not 'Va.," not "Pa.," not "Tenn.," -- and not
Coalmont, anyway -- I have camouflaged everything,. . . ." However, we
also
know that at this stage of HH's story he's "not going too far for [his]
pseudonyms." So based upon this information it appears we are looking
for a
small community approximately eight hundred miles from New York for
which
"Coalmont" is a plausible pseudonym.
There is a Coalmont, Tennessee, and it is approximately eight hundred
miles
from New York; but I believe we can take HH at his word that "Coalmont"
is a
pseudonym for a town that isn't to be found in Virginia, Pennsylvania,
or
Tennessee; both Virginia and Pennsylvania are too close to New York
anyway.
That means we will have to look further south or west. Indianapolis is
approximately seven hundred and fifty miles from New York and Chicago is
almost exactly eight hundred miles from the Big Apple, so western
Indiana
seems a likely place to look. Several candidates present themselves in
that
part of the country. There is a Coalmont approximately fifty miles
southwest of Indianapolis, which would place it within the geographical
range we are looking for; but again, let's presume HH is telling the
truth
and he has concealed "Coalmont's" real name. In the same general area we
find Coal City and Coal Bluff, and moving further north we find Coal
Creek;
if HH wasn't looking too far for pseudonyms any of these small, indeed,
very
small, communities might easily be converted to "Coalmont." If HH was
making a little more effort to conceal the community's true name, we
might
consider Coloma, Colburn, or Colfax - this last little burg is a
particularly interesting candidate, located as it is between Fickle and
Thorntown. If HH was reaching yet further for concealment there is
Montclair (ouch), Monticello, the lethal-sounding Montmorenci, Fairmont
(of
course), and no less than two Mount, or Mt., Auburns. There are also
two
Charlottesvilles, but we won't get into that.
As described by HH, "Coalmont" seems to possess a certain Mid-Western
squalor that would make any of these innocent-sounding little towns
plausible candidates for Dick and Dolly's happy home. But if we turn
south
an even better candidate presents itself. In Northern Georgia we find
none
other than Coal Mountain. It is roughly fifty miles north of Atlanta,
which
makes it slightly more than eight hundred miles from New York. I hadn't
considered the Deep South as a possible locattion, but two remarks by HH
make Coal Mountain appear to be the most likely village concealed behind
"Coalmont's" mask. When HH is directed, by the chthonian bass voice
from an
open manhole, to ask for "Dick Skiller" at "the store," HH "entered the
wrong store and a wary old Negro shook his head even before I could ask
anything." This seems to me to be exactly the response an
African-American
shopkeeper, in the Deep South, in 1952, would make to an outlandishly
attired white man - obviously from WAY out of town - who wandered into
his
store. Further, when HH finally makes his dismal way to the Schiller
residence on "Hunter Road" he views the following scene: "all dump and
ditch, and wormy vegetable garden, and shack, and gray drizzle, and red
mud,
and several smoking stacks in the distance." Of course, Georgia is
famous
for its iron-rich, red soil - the celebrated "red clay." So there you
have it: "Coalmont" is really Coal Mountain, Georgia. It's within the
proper geographical range (more or less); "Coalmont" is an appropriate
lazy
pseudonym that HH might have thought up to conceal its true identity;
and it
is in the right part of the country to possess the geologic feature HH
attributes to "Coalmont." On the other hand, I'm starting to feel a bit
like the private detective HH hired to track down Quilty, who, after two
years of impotent labor, triumphantly informed HH that an
eighty-year-old
Indian named Bill Brown lived near Dolores, Colo. . . . .
Mark Bennett