Subject
Re: Responses from Mary re: cat and muscat
From
Date
Body
Mary Efremov "muscat grape refers to the smelly seed of the gingko, shed in November"
Matt Roth: ..."as I read the poem, Shade is describing the color-the particular golden hue-to which ginkgo leaves turn in fall, and this color is akin to the color of ripe muscat grapes. Here's a bunch: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/cluster-ripe-muscat-grapes-11739032.jpg. If one just removes the phrase "when shed" the line becomes more intelligible."
Carolyn Kunin: I am unable to find any confirmation of your claim. Reference, please? Muscat grapes refer to the muscatel variety, and only that so far as I am able to discover on my own....btw, although edible and even medicinal the fruit of the g. biloba can be poisonous if over-indulged in ...
Jansy Mello: Exploring the oriental origins of the word "gingko" one of the hypotheses, presented online, relates the term to "silver apricot." No varicolored muscat grapes in that!
I don't think that Mary Efremov was referring to the color or taste of the gingko seed, but to its smell. I know from experience that muscat grapes usually offer a sweet (not golden) delicate fragrance to the palate, but I have no idea about the aroma from the gingko "apricots.."
I enjoyed her suggestion, as I've already stated in another post, because it helps us not to consider Nabokov's sentence only in terms of shape, color or sound. He must be synesthetically and senesthetically apprehended at times. In SO he describes the rich smell of the dark earth and humid mushrooms, considering the particular way Russian nostrils inflate and react.. Even if Mary's association proves to be incorrect, somehow (?), her inclusion of the sense of smell as being instrumental to understand VN's sensual images continue valid and important.
However, Nabokov may leave out taste and olfactory matters altogether, as in ADA: "Space is related to our senses of sight, touch, and muscular effort; Time is vaguely connected with hearing (still, a deaf man would perceive the 'passage' of time incomparably better than a blind limbless man would the idea of 'passage'). 'Space is a swarming in the eyes, and Time a singing in the ears,' says John Shade, a modem poet, as quoted by an invented philosopher ('Martin Gardiner') in The Ambidextrous Universe, page 165. Perhaps some fragrances are closer to the spirit? (sometimes not! In Wingstroke there is a dog stench emmanating from the brown furs of an angel's wings*).
.........................
* - Kern "was overwhelmed by an animal smell [ ] he rejected with revulsion the smelly brown wings"...
btw: there's something in Kern's hallucinations that reminded me of Darren Aronofsky's 2010 movie "Black Swan."
.
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Matt Roth: ..."as I read the poem, Shade is describing the color-the particular golden hue-to which ginkgo leaves turn in fall, and this color is akin to the color of ripe muscat grapes. Here's a bunch: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/cluster-ripe-muscat-grapes-11739032.jpg. If one just removes the phrase "when shed" the line becomes more intelligible."
Carolyn Kunin: I am unable to find any confirmation of your claim. Reference, please? Muscat grapes refer to the muscatel variety, and only that so far as I am able to discover on my own....btw, although edible and even medicinal the fruit of the g. biloba can be poisonous if over-indulged in ...
Jansy Mello: Exploring the oriental origins of the word "gingko" one of the hypotheses, presented online, relates the term to "silver apricot." No varicolored muscat grapes in that!
I don't think that Mary Efremov was referring to the color or taste of the gingko seed, but to its smell. I know from experience that muscat grapes usually offer a sweet (not golden) delicate fragrance to the palate, but I have no idea about the aroma from the gingko "apricots.."
I enjoyed her suggestion, as I've already stated in another post, because it helps us not to consider Nabokov's sentence only in terms of shape, color or sound. He must be synesthetically and senesthetically apprehended at times. In SO he describes the rich smell of the dark earth and humid mushrooms, considering the particular way Russian nostrils inflate and react.. Even if Mary's association proves to be incorrect, somehow (?), her inclusion of the sense of smell as being instrumental to understand VN's sensual images continue valid and important.
However, Nabokov may leave out taste and olfactory matters altogether, as in ADA: "Space is related to our senses of sight, touch, and muscular effort; Time is vaguely connected with hearing (still, a deaf man would perceive the 'passage' of time incomparably better than a blind limbless man would the idea of 'passage'). 'Space is a swarming in the eyes, and Time a singing in the ears,' says John Shade, a modem poet, as quoted by an invented philosopher ('Martin Gardiner') in The Ambidextrous Universe, page 165. Perhaps some fragrances are closer to the spirit? (sometimes not! In Wingstroke there is a dog stench emmanating from the brown furs of an angel's wings*).
.........................
* - Kern "was overwhelmed by an animal smell [ ] he rejected with revulsion the smelly brown wings"...
btw: there's something in Kern's hallucinations that reminded me of Darren Aronofsky's 2010 movie "Black Swan."
.
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/