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Re: Responses from Carolyn Kunin on birthday and muscat
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Jerry Friedman:"Kinbote tells us several times that Shade was born on July 5, 1898. He also tells us that he told Sybil that day was also his birthday (n. 181) and that as King Charles he met Disa during his birthday celebration on July 5, 1947 (n. 275), not that I believe him about either. Finally, he says that when Gradus saw a mention of July 1, 1979, in the New York Times, he thought he'd be 64 four days later, which puts his birthday on July 5 (n. 949). That also means his birth year as 1915, the same as Kinbote's. "
Jansy Mello: Was Gradus born on the same year as Kinbote's ? I know there's a trap with the dates, something to do with time intervals and regular counting and not only Kinbote (and a very young Nabokov) are confused by that. I'm completely boggled and. I hope Jerry can clarify it for me! He pointed out the dates of JS's birth and death ( probably according to the second line of Kinbote's foreword):: "John Francis Shade (born July 5, 1898, died July 21, 1959)" So, Shade was 60 in July 1.and Gradus, in 1959, was 43 (he'd be 44 four days later) We learned that the time difference bt. CK and Shade was of 16 years, then in July 1 Kinbote would be... (60-16) 44. Where am I misguided? Because Gradus, in July 1, was still aged 43. Sorry, people, but I do feel very inapt at those simple calculations and ashamed to be still inquiring about that, that is, if we have sufficient information to be certain of Gradus's birthdate.*.
There's another point. We must be sure of the time when Charles Kinbote was penning his notes. Logically, it could only have taken place after JS's death and then, CK's references would have departed from that "turn of birthdates". And yet, why are there mistakes related to dating that were left and which he didn't correct, anteceding but anticipating what he'll be writing in the future? Are we (readers) being instructed that, when the matter is literature, we must inhabit a different time lines that may jump back and forth, independently from the concrete and stable information that is to be found in the book? (i.e, Kinbote's slip is a part of the novel) I survived HS, inspite of my difficulties in Math and my ignorance about lepidoptery (to name but a few incapacities)... only to be swampped in my old age by VN's literary feats???.**.
Gradus envisions an occurrence that will take place in July 1,1979, that is, twenty years later. As we can surmise from CK's notes, if Gradus would be 64 four days later in relation to that, ie, after July 1 (so, only after his birthday, in July 5) then, at the time of his reading the news, he'd already be 44. Kinbote states that the age difference between him and John Shade is of 16 years. Shade was turning 61 that day, not 60 (44 +.16 ). .
quoting: line 949:"Thus, some time in the morning of July 21, the last day of his life, John Shade began his last batch of cards (seventy-seven to eighty). Two silent time zones had now merged to form the standard time of one man's fate [ ] He [Gradus] began with the day's copy of The New York Times....The Helman brothers said they had assisted in the negotiations for the placement of a sizable note: $11,000,000, Decker Glass Manufacturing Company, Inc., note due July 1, 1979," and Gradus, grown young again, reread this twice, with the background gray thought, perhaps, that he would be sixty-four four days after that (no comment).
Kinbote tries to synchronize events (Gradus's departure from Zembla and the day JS started to write his poem) However, he seems not to realize that events are, indeed, somehow synchronous, but following another point of reference (Gradus's departure takes place on the day of Shade's birthday - and CK's and his own - although CK doesn't mention that at that point, strange.
Gradus's assassination assignment, though, does coincide with the first lines of the poem.:
CK's notes to Lines 1-4 "I do not doubt that our poet would have understood his annotator's temptation to synchronize a certain fateful fact, the departure from Zembla of the would-be regicide Gradus, with that date. Actually, Gradus left Onhava on the Copenhagen plane on July 5." Confirmed by: line 171: "many hands clapping Gradus on his round back, and the dark exultation of the man as he received those rather treacherous congratulations. We place this fatidic moment at 0:05, July 2, 1959 - which happens to be also the date upon which an innocent poet penned the first lines of his last poem. But CK is aware of that! "On July 5th, at noontime, in the other hemisphere, on the rain-swept tarmac of the Onhava airfield, Gradus, holding a French passport, walked towards a Russian commercial plane bound for Copenhagen, and this event synchronized with Shade's starting in the early morning (Atlantic seaboard time) to compose, or to set down after composing in bed, the opening lines of Canto Two" So, there are time zones to consider, too. As we find it,on his note to line 949, ":Thus, some time in the morning of July 21, the last day of his life, John Shade began his last batch of cards (seventy-seven to eighty). Two silent time zones had now merged to form the standard time of one man's fate" Would these time zones alter anything about other synchronizations (probably, yes!)?
We also learn that CK's mother died on the same day as JS (according to CK). His age, at that time, confirms his birthdate as 1915,:unless the day he is writing were sometime after July 5: "in 1932 when our Prince, aged seventeen, had begun dividing his time between the University and his regiment. It was the nicest period in his life. He never could decide what he enjoyed more: the study of poetry - especially English poetry - or attending parades, or dancing in masquerades with boy-girls and girl-boys... His mother died suddenly on July 21, 1936."
I can only hope that a few other List-members will share in my confusion and enjoy a "return" to PF's lines.
You may have noted, already, that I'm all for re-re-re-reading Nabokov and being reminded of his marvellous lines, if not his carefully designed plots...
btw: the google entry on "Nabokov Taxonomy" (related to my former postings) also includes (of course!) Stephen Blackwell.but no Salisbury (yet!)
My links seldom open but those interested in the article can type in any part of a sentence from it and use a search machine.
"The Poetics of Science in, and around, Nabokov's 'The Gift'"
https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/unistudy.nsf/.../Blackwell%20Article.pdf?a.. de SH BLACKWELL - 2003 - Citado por 2 - Artigos relacionados
It has been explored, as well, as a demonstration of Nabokov's artistic vision ...Stephen H. Blackwell, Zina's Paradox: The Figured Reader in Nabokov's ......passage, Fyodor summarizes the underlying principle of his father's taxonomic theory,...
........................................
* - The confusion lies in how we calculate this 16-year difference. Kinbote himself writes (and the editors let it pass) about this kind of problem in his note to line 167:" The poet began Canto Two (on his fourteenth card) on July 5, his sixtieth birthday (see note to line 181, "today"). My slip - change to sixty-first."
** - I must take comfort with the observation attributed to Harold Bloom and Proust while keeping Nabokov in my mind "One measures oncoming old age by its deepening of Proust, and its deepening by Proust. How to read a novel? Lovingly, if it shows itself capable of accomodating one's love; and jealously, because it can become the image of one's limitations in time and space, and yet can give the Proustian blessing of more life." (although Bloom must have meant our own mortality as being those limitations in time and space. not the ones I'm struggling with now...)
.
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Jansy Mello: Was Gradus born on the same year as Kinbote's ? I know there's a trap with the dates, something to do with time intervals and regular counting and not only Kinbote (and a very young Nabokov) are confused by that. I'm completely boggled and. I hope Jerry can clarify it for me! He pointed out the dates of JS's birth and death ( probably according to the second line of Kinbote's foreword):: "John Francis Shade (born July 5, 1898, died July 21, 1959)" So, Shade was 60 in July 1.and Gradus, in 1959, was 43 (he'd be 44 four days later) We learned that the time difference bt. CK and Shade was of 16 years, then in July 1 Kinbote would be... (60-16) 44. Where am I misguided? Because Gradus, in July 1, was still aged 43. Sorry, people, but I do feel very inapt at those simple calculations and ashamed to be still inquiring about that, that is, if we have sufficient information to be certain of Gradus's birthdate.*.
There's another point. We must be sure of the time when Charles Kinbote was penning his notes. Logically, it could only have taken place after JS's death and then, CK's references would have departed from that "turn of birthdates". And yet, why are there mistakes related to dating that were left and which he didn't correct, anteceding but anticipating what he'll be writing in the future? Are we (readers) being instructed that, when the matter is literature, we must inhabit a different time lines that may jump back and forth, independently from the concrete and stable information that is to be found in the book? (i.e, Kinbote's slip is a part of the novel) I survived HS, inspite of my difficulties in Math and my ignorance about lepidoptery (to name but a few incapacities)... only to be swampped in my old age by VN's literary feats???.**.
Gradus envisions an occurrence that will take place in July 1,1979, that is, twenty years later. As we can surmise from CK's notes, if Gradus would be 64 four days later in relation to that, ie, after July 1 (so, only after his birthday, in July 5) then, at the time of his reading the news, he'd already be 44. Kinbote states that the age difference between him and John Shade is of 16 years. Shade was turning 61 that day, not 60 (44 +.16 ). .
quoting: line 949:"Thus, some time in the morning of July 21, the last day of his life, John Shade began his last batch of cards (seventy-seven to eighty). Two silent time zones had now merged to form the standard time of one man's fate [ ] He [Gradus] began with the day's copy of The New York Times....The Helman brothers said they had assisted in the negotiations for the placement of a sizable note: $11,000,000, Decker Glass Manufacturing Company, Inc., note due July 1, 1979," and Gradus, grown young again, reread this twice, with the background gray thought, perhaps, that he would be sixty-four four days after that (no comment).
Kinbote tries to synchronize events (Gradus's departure from Zembla and the day JS started to write his poem) However, he seems not to realize that events are, indeed, somehow synchronous, but following another point of reference (Gradus's departure takes place on the day of Shade's birthday - and CK's and his own - although CK doesn't mention that at that point, strange.
Gradus's assassination assignment, though, does coincide with the first lines of the poem.:
CK's notes to Lines 1-4 "I do not doubt that our poet would have understood his annotator's temptation to synchronize a certain fateful fact, the departure from Zembla of the would-be regicide Gradus, with that date. Actually, Gradus left Onhava on the Copenhagen plane on July 5." Confirmed by: line 171: "many hands clapping Gradus on his round back, and the dark exultation of the man as he received those rather treacherous congratulations. We place this fatidic moment at 0:05, July 2, 1959 - which happens to be also the date upon which an innocent poet penned the first lines of his last poem. But CK is aware of that! "On July 5th, at noontime, in the other hemisphere, on the rain-swept tarmac of the Onhava airfield, Gradus, holding a French passport, walked towards a Russian commercial plane bound for Copenhagen, and this event synchronized with Shade's starting in the early morning (Atlantic seaboard time) to compose, or to set down after composing in bed, the opening lines of Canto Two" So, there are time zones to consider, too. As we find it,on his note to line 949, ":Thus, some time in the morning of July 21, the last day of his life, John Shade began his last batch of cards (seventy-seven to eighty). Two silent time zones had now merged to form the standard time of one man's fate" Would these time zones alter anything about other synchronizations (probably, yes!)?
We also learn that CK's mother died on the same day as JS (according to CK). His age, at that time, confirms his birthdate as 1915,:unless the day he is writing were sometime after July 5: "in 1932 when our Prince, aged seventeen, had begun dividing his time between the University and his regiment. It was the nicest period in his life. He never could decide what he enjoyed more: the study of poetry - especially English poetry - or attending parades, or dancing in masquerades with boy-girls and girl-boys... His mother died suddenly on July 21, 1936."
I can only hope that a few other List-members will share in my confusion and enjoy a "return" to PF's lines.
You may have noted, already, that I'm all for re-re-re-reading Nabokov and being reminded of his marvellous lines, if not his carefully designed plots...
btw: the google entry on "Nabokov Taxonomy" (related to my former postings) also includes (of course!) Stephen Blackwell.but no Salisbury (yet!)
My links seldom open but those interested in the article can type in any part of a sentence from it and use a search machine.
"The Poetics of Science in, and around, Nabokov's 'The Gift'"
https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/unistudy.nsf/.../Blackwell%20Article.pdf?a.. de SH BLACKWELL - 2003 - Citado por 2 - Artigos relacionados
It has been explored, as well, as a demonstration of Nabokov's artistic vision ...Stephen H. Blackwell, Zina's Paradox: The Figured Reader in Nabokov's ......passage, Fyodor summarizes the underlying principle of his father's taxonomic theory,...
........................................
* - The confusion lies in how we calculate this 16-year difference. Kinbote himself writes (and the editors let it pass) about this kind of problem in his note to line 167:" The poet began Canto Two (on his fourteenth card) on July 5, his sixtieth birthday (see note to line 181, "today"). My slip - change to sixty-first."
** - I must take comfort with the observation attributed to Harold Bloom and Proust while keeping Nabokov in my mind "One measures oncoming old age by its deepening of Proust, and its deepening by Proust. How to read a novel? Lovingly, if it shows itself capable of accomodating one's love; and jealously, because it can become the image of one's limitations in time and space, and yet can give the Proustian blessing of more life." (although Bloom must have meant our own mortality as being those limitations in time and space. not the ones I'm struggling with now...)
.
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/