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Re: RLSK, LATH and a double monster
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Jansy Mello: "... after the recently posted quote from LATH [ Spying had been my clystère de Tchékhov even before I married Iris Black whose later passion for working on an interminable detective tale had been sparked by this or that hint I must have dropped, like a passing bird's lustrous feather" ] I had to stop at "clystère" (and why Tchékhov's, I wonder), set down in French, carrying a similar meaning as it has in Portuguese. The "genital" imagery of a wound in a tree's cortex ["...The tree, a blue-flowering ash, whose cortical wound I caught the two "diplomats," Tornikovski and Kalikakov, using for their correspondence, still stands, hardly scarred, on its hilltop above San Bernardino.] into which love/spy messages are inserted, felt dislocated from the more obvious "vagina" by its association to anal penetration (clystère=enema)"
Alexey Sklyarenko: "..Klistiry (clysters) and kal (faeces) are mentioned by Chekhov in a letter of October 22, 1896, to Suvorin:/????? ? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ????? ?????, ? ?? ??????? ??? ????????? ????????. ????.Yesterday faeces obstructed the bowels of one rich peasant and we gave him giant clysters. He came to life...."
Jansy Mello: Unhappily, I cannot see why Nabokov mentioned the "clystère de Tchékhov." if the intended meaning is only "remove faecal obstructions." (or metaphorically, clear away anything that smells bad and clutters a passage. The added "Tchékhov" in that case is unnecessary.
However... while I was investigating about the spelling of the Russian writer's name in the internet (in Brasil it may come out as Tchékhov, not so in English. In the past, a Nabler has already explained it to me but I remember him, not his explanation...) I came across a wiki-find that clinches the matter.
Nabokov designated the "desobstructive action" of a "clystère" (but... why in French?) and thereby added various innuendoes to refer to ... "Chekhov's gun"!!! Fantastic.*
The funny thing is that I had already read about this "dramatic principle." in VN (in his Lectures on Literature, I suppose).
Perhaps we might consider not only spies but also counter-spies (the red herrings...)
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Chekhov's gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chekhov's gun is a dramatic principle which requires that every element in a narrative be necessary and irreplaceable, and that everything else be removed...
Stated by Anton Chekhov, "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."Under this principle, a seemingly unimportant object ("Chekhov's gun") that is shown or mentioned in the narrative will serve as a plot device or have some other significance later (i.e. foreshadowing). Variations on the statement include:"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Chekhov, letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev (pseudonym of A. S. Gruzinsky), 1 November 1889.
"If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." From Gurlyand's Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov, in Teatr i iskusstvo 1904, No. 28, 11 July, p. 521.
See also:Red herring, drawing attention to a certain element in order to mislead
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Alexey Sklyarenko: "..Klistiry (clysters) and kal (faeces) are mentioned by Chekhov in a letter of October 22, 1896, to Suvorin:/????? ? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ????? ?????, ? ?? ??????? ??? ????????? ????????. ????.Yesterday faeces obstructed the bowels of one rich peasant and we gave him giant clysters. He came to life...."
Jansy Mello: Unhappily, I cannot see why Nabokov mentioned the "clystère de Tchékhov." if the intended meaning is only "remove faecal obstructions." (or metaphorically, clear away anything that smells bad and clutters a passage. The added "Tchékhov" in that case is unnecessary.
However... while I was investigating about the spelling of the Russian writer's name in the internet (in Brasil it may come out as Tchékhov, not so in English. In the past, a Nabler has already explained it to me but I remember him, not his explanation...) I came across a wiki-find that clinches the matter.
Nabokov designated the "desobstructive action" of a "clystère" (but... why in French?) and thereby added various innuendoes to refer to ... "Chekhov's gun"!!! Fantastic.*
The funny thing is that I had already read about this "dramatic principle." in VN (in his Lectures on Literature, I suppose).
Perhaps we might consider not only spies but also counter-spies (the red herrings...)
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Chekhov's gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chekhov's gun is a dramatic principle which requires that every element in a narrative be necessary and irreplaceable, and that everything else be removed...
Stated by Anton Chekhov, "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."Under this principle, a seemingly unimportant object ("Chekhov's gun") that is shown or mentioned in the narrative will serve as a plot device or have some other significance later (i.e. foreshadowing). Variations on the statement include:"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Chekhov, letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev (pseudonym of A. S. Gruzinsky), 1 November 1889.
"If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." From Gurlyand's Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov, in Teatr i iskusstvo 1904, No. 28, 11 July, p. 521.
See also:Red herring, drawing attention to a certain element in order to mislead
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/