Subject
sealyham cedar in Ada
From
Date
Body
That frolic under the sealyham cedar proved to be a mistake. (1.34)
As Brian Boyd points out in his Annotations, "the sealyham cedar" blends Sealyham terrier with weeping cedar. But one is also reminded of Lebanese cedars and the Pool of Siloam near Jerusalem.
"Go," he [Jesus] told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means "Sent"). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:7)
Jesus cured the man who was blind from his birth. At least three characters in Ada are blind. Two of them were born blind and the third, Kim Beauharnais, is blinded by Van for spying on him and Ada. "The Lebanese blue of the sky", Ada's "mournful magdalene hair" and Kim Beauharnais are mentioned in the scene under the great weeping cedar:
The three of them formed a pretty Arcadian combination as they dropped on the turf under the great weeping cedar, whose aberrant limbs extended an oriental canopy (propped up here and there by crutches made of its own flesh like this book) above two black and one golden-red head as they had above you and me on dark warm nights when we were reckless, happy children.
Van, sprawling supine, sick with memories, put his hands behind his nape and slit his eyes at the Lebanese blue of the sky between the fascicles of the foliage. Lucette fondly admired his long lashes while pitying his tender skin for the inflamed blotches and prickles between neck and jaw where shaving caused the most trouble. Ada, her keepsake profile inclined, her mournful magdalene hair hanging down (in sympathy with the weeping shadows) along her pale arm, sat examining abstractly the yellow throat of a waxy-white helleborine she had picked.
...I do not remember what Les Enfants Maudits did or said in Monparnasse's novelette - they lived in Bryant's chateau, I think, and it began with bats flying one by one out of a turret's ?il-de-b?uf into the sunset, but these children (whom the novelettist did not really know - a delicious point) might also have been filmed rather entertainingly had snoopy Kim, the kitchen photo-fiend, possessed the necessary apparatus. (1.32)
Sore (the name of the ribald night watchman at Ardis) is Eros in reverse. Eros is the blind god of love.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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As Brian Boyd points out in his Annotations, "the sealyham cedar" blends Sealyham terrier with weeping cedar. But one is also reminded of Lebanese cedars and the Pool of Siloam near Jerusalem.
"Go," he [Jesus] told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means "Sent"). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:7)
Jesus cured the man who was blind from his birth. At least three characters in Ada are blind. Two of them were born blind and the third, Kim Beauharnais, is blinded by Van for spying on him and Ada. "The Lebanese blue of the sky", Ada's "mournful magdalene hair" and Kim Beauharnais are mentioned in the scene under the great weeping cedar:
The three of them formed a pretty Arcadian combination as they dropped on the turf under the great weeping cedar, whose aberrant limbs extended an oriental canopy (propped up here and there by crutches made of its own flesh like this book) above two black and one golden-red head as they had above you and me on dark warm nights when we were reckless, happy children.
Van, sprawling supine, sick with memories, put his hands behind his nape and slit his eyes at the Lebanese blue of the sky between the fascicles of the foliage. Lucette fondly admired his long lashes while pitying his tender skin for the inflamed blotches and prickles between neck and jaw where shaving caused the most trouble. Ada, her keepsake profile inclined, her mournful magdalene hair hanging down (in sympathy with the weeping shadows) along her pale arm, sat examining abstractly the yellow throat of a waxy-white helleborine she had picked.
...I do not remember what Les Enfants Maudits did or said in Monparnasse's novelette - they lived in Bryant's chateau, I think, and it began with bats flying one by one out of a turret's ?il-de-b?uf into the sunset, but these children (whom the novelettist did not really know - a delicious point) might also have been filmed rather entertainingly had snoopy Kim, the kitchen photo-fiend, possessed the necessary apparatus. (1.32)
Sore (the name of the ribald night watchman at Ardis) is Eros in reverse. Eros is the blind god of love.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/