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Fw: QUERY: Grillo & Obieto
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From: Ludger Tolksdorf <uzsazk@nikocity.de
The orignal query and my response follow below.
----- Original Message -----
I have just a few hasty impressions (including nothing whatsoever on
Obieto) to offer:
However attractive the idea might seem, the meaning of German "ober- or
unterart" has nothing to do with art (German: "Kunst"), but with species
(and subspecies). I would therefore suggest that "Grillo" could, because of
the German involved in the art/species-pun, refer to the German word
"Grille"
which means:
1) cricket [compare Italian: "grillo"?]
2) [dated:] silly notion/idea.
Could such a silly notion be intended here ("caprice or purpose")?
And another notion: could "the anonymous picture" refer to the object
"unremembered now, eighty years later" much earlier in the novel (ADA I- 4
, 2nd paragraph)?
"He satisfied himself that those flowers were artificial and thought it
puzzling that such imitations always pander so exclusively to the eye
instead of also copying the damp fat feel of live petal and leaf. When he
called next day for the object (unremembered now, eighty years later) that
he wanted repaired or duplicated, it was not ready or had not been
obtained. In passing, he touched a half-opened rose and was cheated of the
sterile texture his fingertips had expected when cool life kissed them with
pouting lips. [...] On another occasion (for a certain part of the thing -
a frame, perhaps - took an infinite time to heal or else the entire article
proved to be unobtainable after all) [...]."
Yours, Ludger Tolksdorf
EDITOR's REPLY. My thanks to Ludger Tolksdorf. He is right about the German
"ober-, unter-art". VN remarks it in his "Vivian Darkbloom Notes." The
Grillo as "cricket" may lead to something. Referring the frottage back to
the scene in which school Van rubs the flower petal is also appealing
although I'm not sure what VN might be signalling here.
-------------------------------------------------
At 11:43 16.10.00 -0700, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> > ADA's menage-a-trois scene is written in the style of several
Renassance
> >painters -- most of whom are identified by the author. But WHO are Grillo
> >and Obieto? And that "ferreting artist"? And where does that shop
suddenly
> >appear from? ANy ideas? Anagrams?
> >More generally, has anyone found possible prototypes for the scene in
II-8?
> >
> >"That about summed it up (for the magical gewgaw liquefied all at once,
and'
> >Lucette, snatching up her nightdress, escaped to her room). It was only
the
> >sort of shop where the jeweler's fingertips have a tender way of
enhancing
> >the preciousness of a trinket by something akin to a rubbing of hindwings
on
> >the part of a settled lycaenid or to the frottage of a conjurer's thumb
> >dissolving a coin; but just in such a shop the anonymous picture
attributed
> >to Grillo or Obieto, caprice or purpose, ober- or unterart, is found by
the
> >ferreting artist."
> >(ADA II-8)
>
>
The orignal query and my response follow below.
----- Original Message -----
I have just a few hasty impressions (including nothing whatsoever on
Obieto) to offer:
However attractive the idea might seem, the meaning of German "ober- or
unterart" has nothing to do with art (German: "Kunst"), but with species
(and subspecies). I would therefore suggest that "Grillo" could, because of
the German involved in the art/species-pun, refer to the German word
"Grille"
which means:
1) cricket [compare Italian: "grillo"?]
2) [dated:] silly notion/idea.
Could such a silly notion be intended here ("caprice or purpose")?
And another notion: could "the anonymous picture" refer to the object
"unremembered now, eighty years later" much earlier in the novel (ADA I- 4
, 2nd paragraph)?
"He satisfied himself that those flowers were artificial and thought it
puzzling that such imitations always pander so exclusively to the eye
instead of also copying the damp fat feel of live petal and leaf. When he
called next day for the object (unremembered now, eighty years later) that
he wanted repaired or duplicated, it was not ready or had not been
obtained. In passing, he touched a half-opened rose and was cheated of the
sterile texture his fingertips had expected when cool life kissed them with
pouting lips. [...] On another occasion (for a certain part of the thing -
a frame, perhaps - took an infinite time to heal or else the entire article
proved to be unobtainable after all) [...]."
Yours, Ludger Tolksdorf
EDITOR's REPLY. My thanks to Ludger Tolksdorf. He is right about the German
"ober-, unter-art". VN remarks it in his "Vivian Darkbloom Notes." The
Grillo as "cricket" may lead to something. Referring the frottage back to
the scene in which school Van rubs the flower petal is also appealing
although I'm not sure what VN might be signalling here.
-------------------------------------------------
At 11:43 16.10.00 -0700, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> > ADA's menage-a-trois scene is written in the style of several
Renassance
> >painters -- most of whom are identified by the author. But WHO are Grillo
> >and Obieto? And that "ferreting artist"? And where does that shop
suddenly
> >appear from? ANy ideas? Anagrams?
> >More generally, has anyone found possible prototypes for the scene in
II-8?
> >
> >"That about summed it up (for the magical gewgaw liquefied all at once,
and'
> >Lucette, snatching up her nightdress, escaped to her room). It was only
the
> >sort of shop where the jeweler's fingertips have a tender way of
enhancing
> >the preciousness of a trinket by something akin to a rubbing of hindwings
on
> >the part of a settled lycaenid or to the frottage of a conjurer's thumb
> >dissolving a coin; but just in such a shop the anonymous picture
attributed
> >to Grillo or Obieto, caprice or purpose, ober- or unterart, is found by
the
> >ferreting artist."
> >(ADA II-8)
>
>