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Re: Two Johns Ray
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You ask, How do you know VN had naturalist John Ray in mind? Answer: he
talked about Ray when I met him. Although primarily a botanist Ray
(1627-1795) wrote this celebrated quote translated from the Latin: "You ask
what is the use of butterflies? I reply to adorn the world and delight the
eyes of men; to brighten the countryside like so many golden jewels. To
contemplate their exquisite beauty and variety is to experience the truest
pleasure. To gaze inquiringly at such elegance of colour and form designed
by the ingenuity of nature and painted by her artist's pencil is to
acknowledge and adore the imprint of the art of God."
Ray essentially laid down the scheme of plant and animal classification,
an interest of VN, that Linnaeus improved upon with binomial nomenclature.
Perhaps not so Incidentally, Ray & VN both attended to Trinity College,
Cambridge.
A must book for Nabokovians with a butterfly bent --- the celebrated Ray
quote above is from it --- is Michael Salmon's *The Aurelian Legacy,
British Butterflies and Their Collectors. * A sumptuous work on coated
stock with many color & b&w illustrations, it was published in the U. S. by
the University of Cal. Press, Berkeley in arrangement with Harley Books in
the UK. Originally it must have cost at least $35, but was then obviously
remaindered and is available on www.bookfinder.com for a bargain $11.
I am no student of *Ada*, but possibly some of the 90 collectors
described in *The Aurelian Legacy *figure in VN's novel. Certainly some of
them are VN quirky. My favorite is William Buckler (1814-1884) whose
nine-volume opus, *Larvae of the British Butterflies and Moths* was
published after his death by, yes, the Ray Society! Then and now,* Larvae*
is considered to have the finest set of such illustrations ever made.
Buckler was orginally a portrait painter, but the rise of photography
undermined his career, and he got his revenge by always posing with a
sullen expression whenever his picture was taken.
BTW, *The Aurelian Legac*y opens with an extract from *Speak, Memory*,
1954, --- the sole time VN is cited --- followed by an extract from from
Virginia Woolf's *Jacob's Room*.
Do get *The Aurelian Legacy*. *Great rea*d. Cheers.
On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@att.net> wrote:
> Dear RHB,
>
> If you don't mind my asking, how do you know? There are many references to
> arctic exploration in VN's work, as well. Why do you think he uses the name
> of someone he admires to make fun of? It seems a sort of reversal of a
> quirk of my father's - he used to name our pets after other physicians that
> he didn't like. Of course he loved them in spite of the spiteful names!
>
> Carolyn
>
>
> On Aug 22, 2014, at 10:59 AM, Robert Boyle wrote:
>
> Naturalist John Ray was the Ray who interested VN. RHB
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@att.net>
> wrote:
>
>> *De:* Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *Em nome de *Jansy
>> Mello
>> *Enviada em:* segunda-feira, 11 de agosto de 2014 22:28
>> *Para:* [log in to unmask]
>> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A3%3Dind1408%26L%3DNABOKV-L%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D1977046%26B%3D------%253D_NextPart_000_07ED_01CFB5B5.48966E80%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3Dutf-8%26pending%3D>
>> *Assunto:* [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Parhelia
>>
>> *Carolyn Kunin*: “ The parhelion reminds me of two related optical
>> phenomena, the "Brocken Spectre" and "solar glory," which reinforce - to
>> myself, that is - the possibility that VN was referencing Js. Hogg's *Confessions
>> of a Justified Sinner...”*
>>
>> *Jansy Mello*: What an amazing – and pertinent- link between Js. Hogg’s
>> novel and “Pale Fire”, not to mention the Wikipedia photograph of a
>> brocken spectre halloed by glory and a link to a “fourth wall”.
>> Do you think there’s another reference to be found in “Lolita” ( HH’s
>> “confessions” that were edited and prefaced by John Ray Jr)?
>>
>> Dear Jansy,
>> Today I do have something to add to your question about John Ray Jr, as
>> he is designated in the Preface to *Lolita*. I am considering the
>> purchase of a 1674 book by one John Ray, entitled "A Collection of English
>> VVords Not Commonly Used", not thinking there was any relation to VN or
>> Lolita. However, in checking out John Ray (1627-1705) I discovered that he
>> was a naturalist and that his name was sometimes spelled Wray, which did
>> ring a hazy bell, since I have always felt that Lolita's "wreal" surname
>> was Hayes. Not sure if this has ever been discussed (the archives reveal
>> that it has), and it has even been reported that "according to *John*
>> *Ray*, Jr., 'Haze' only rhymes with the heroine's real surname" - a very
>> rich rhyme, indeed.
>>
>> But in pursuing the question of any possible relationship between 17th
>> century John [w]Ray and John Ray Jr., I have found two candidates for
>> references possibly intended by VN.
>>
>> 1) John Ray or Wray: (NB the initials form "Jr") An eminent naturalist
>> and far ahead of his time especially in the field of fossils. One of his
>> books was published byJohn Hayes, and the other combines a study of words
>> with a catalogue of birds (shades of *Pale Fire*) and fishes along with
>> minerals and metals in England.
>>
>> Interestingly, he was the first to propose that the intricacies of the
>> eye were evidence of a supreme designer. He preceded Linnaeus in
>> understanding the importance of developing a system of taxonomy and
>> proposed the use of Latin to do so.
>>
>> 2) the Scottish Arctic explorer John Rae, M.D., who earned the
>> displeasure of the English public and John Franklin's widow when it was
>> revealed that in his attempts to find out what had happened to the Franklin
>> expedition, he heard of possible cannibalism from the Inuit. Although
>> thoroughly reviled at the time, he was eventually vindicated when 140 years
>> later physical evidence was discovered that more than suggested that some
>> of the party had indeed resorted to cannibalism.
>>
>> He (and not Franklin) is also now recognized as the actual discoverer
>> of the North West passage.
>>
>> Both JRs it seems to me would appeal to VN - so why use the name for
>> someone clearly contemptible in VN's eyes? That I can't begin to answer.
>>
>> Carolyn
>>
>>
>>
>> Google Search
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> the archive
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
>> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
>> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
>> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
>> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
>> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options
>> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L> AdaOnline
>> <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations
>> <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search the archive
>> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN Bibliography
>> Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>>
>> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options
> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L> AdaOnline
> <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations
> <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search the archive
> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN Bibliography
> Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options
> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L> AdaOnline
> <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations
> <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search the archive
> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN Bibliography
> Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L
talked about Ray when I met him. Although primarily a botanist Ray
(1627-1795) wrote this celebrated quote translated from the Latin: "You ask
what is the use of butterflies? I reply to adorn the world and delight the
eyes of men; to brighten the countryside like so many golden jewels. To
contemplate their exquisite beauty and variety is to experience the truest
pleasure. To gaze inquiringly at such elegance of colour and form designed
by the ingenuity of nature and painted by her artist's pencil is to
acknowledge and adore the imprint of the art of God."
Ray essentially laid down the scheme of plant and animal classification,
an interest of VN, that Linnaeus improved upon with binomial nomenclature.
Perhaps not so Incidentally, Ray & VN both attended to Trinity College,
Cambridge.
A must book for Nabokovians with a butterfly bent --- the celebrated Ray
quote above is from it --- is Michael Salmon's *The Aurelian Legacy,
British Butterflies and Their Collectors. * A sumptuous work on coated
stock with many color & b&w illustrations, it was published in the U. S. by
the University of Cal. Press, Berkeley in arrangement with Harley Books in
the UK. Originally it must have cost at least $35, but was then obviously
remaindered and is available on www.bookfinder.com for a bargain $11.
I am no student of *Ada*, but possibly some of the 90 collectors
described in *The Aurelian Legacy *figure in VN's novel. Certainly some of
them are VN quirky. My favorite is William Buckler (1814-1884) whose
nine-volume opus, *Larvae of the British Butterflies and Moths* was
published after his death by, yes, the Ray Society! Then and now,* Larvae*
is considered to have the finest set of such illustrations ever made.
Buckler was orginally a portrait painter, but the rise of photography
undermined his career, and he got his revenge by always posing with a
sullen expression whenever his picture was taken.
BTW, *The Aurelian Legac*y opens with an extract from *Speak, Memory*,
1954, --- the sole time VN is cited --- followed by an extract from from
Virginia Woolf's *Jacob's Room*.
Do get *The Aurelian Legacy*. *Great rea*d. Cheers.
On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@att.net> wrote:
> Dear RHB,
>
> If you don't mind my asking, how do you know? There are many references to
> arctic exploration in VN's work, as well. Why do you think he uses the name
> of someone he admires to make fun of? It seems a sort of reversal of a
> quirk of my father's - he used to name our pets after other physicians that
> he didn't like. Of course he loved them in spite of the spiteful names!
>
> Carolyn
>
>
> On Aug 22, 2014, at 10:59 AM, Robert Boyle wrote:
>
> Naturalist John Ray was the Ray who interested VN. RHB
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@att.net>
> wrote:
>
>> *De:* Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *Em nome de *Jansy
>> Mello
>> *Enviada em:* segunda-feira, 11 de agosto de 2014 22:28
>> *Para:* [log in to unmask]
>> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A3%3Dind1408%26L%3DNABOKV-L%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D1977046%26B%3D------%253D_NextPart_000_07ED_01CFB5B5.48966E80%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3Dutf-8%26pending%3D>
>> *Assunto:* [NABOKV-L] RES: [NABOKV-L] Parhelia
>>
>> *Carolyn Kunin*: “ The parhelion reminds me of two related optical
>> phenomena, the "Brocken Spectre" and "solar glory," which reinforce - to
>> myself, that is - the possibility that VN was referencing Js. Hogg's *Confessions
>> of a Justified Sinner...”*
>>
>> *Jansy Mello*: What an amazing – and pertinent- link between Js. Hogg’s
>> novel and “Pale Fire”, not to mention the Wikipedia photograph of a
>> brocken spectre halloed by glory and a link to a “fourth wall”.
>> Do you think there’s another reference to be found in “Lolita” ( HH’s
>> “confessions” that were edited and prefaced by John Ray Jr)?
>>
>> Dear Jansy,
>> Today I do have something to add to your question about John Ray Jr, as
>> he is designated in the Preface to *Lolita*. I am considering the
>> purchase of a 1674 book by one John Ray, entitled "A Collection of English
>> VVords Not Commonly Used", not thinking there was any relation to VN or
>> Lolita. However, in checking out John Ray (1627-1705) I discovered that he
>> was a naturalist and that his name was sometimes spelled Wray, which did
>> ring a hazy bell, since I have always felt that Lolita's "wreal" surname
>> was Hayes. Not sure if this has ever been discussed (the archives reveal
>> that it has), and it has even been reported that "according to *John*
>> *Ray*, Jr., 'Haze' only rhymes with the heroine's real surname" - a very
>> rich rhyme, indeed.
>>
>> But in pursuing the question of any possible relationship between 17th
>> century John [w]Ray and John Ray Jr., I have found two candidates for
>> references possibly intended by VN.
>>
>> 1) John Ray or Wray: (NB the initials form "Jr") An eminent naturalist
>> and far ahead of his time especially in the field of fossils. One of his
>> books was published byJohn Hayes, and the other combines a study of words
>> with a catalogue of birds (shades of *Pale Fire*) and fishes along with
>> minerals and metals in England.
>>
>> Interestingly, he was the first to propose that the intricacies of the
>> eye were evidence of a supreme designer. He preceded Linnaeus in
>> understanding the importance of developing a system of taxonomy and
>> proposed the use of Latin to do so.
>>
>> 2) the Scottish Arctic explorer John Rae, M.D., who earned the
>> displeasure of the English public and John Franklin's widow when it was
>> revealed that in his attempts to find out what had happened to the Franklin
>> expedition, he heard of possible cannibalism from the Inuit. Although
>> thoroughly reviled at the time, he was eventually vindicated when 140 years
>> later physical evidence was discovered that more than suggested that some
>> of the party had indeed resorted to cannibalism.
>>
>> He (and not Franklin) is also now recognized as the actual discoverer
>> of the North West passage.
>>
>> Both JRs it seems to me would appeal to VN - so why use the name for
>> someone clearly contemptible in VN's eyes? That I can't begin to answer.
>>
>> Carolyn
>>
>>
>>
>> Google Search
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> the archive
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
>> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
>> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
>> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
>> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
>> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options
>> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L> AdaOnline
>> <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations
>> <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search the archive
>> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN Bibliography
>> Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>>
>> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options
> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L> AdaOnline
> <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations
> <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search the archive
> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN Bibliography
> Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options
> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L> AdaOnline
> <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations
> <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search the archive
> <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN Bibliography
> Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L