Subject
Re: RES: [NABOKV-L] Two substantive entries in the Index of Pale
Fire - Query
Fire - Query
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Vera Nabokov's mother was Slava Borisovna Feigin, a distant relative of
mine -- a meaningless coincidence, but I thought I'd mention it. The
near-anagram (feigned; Feigin) must surely have occurred to Nabokov, if not
to Kinbote, Shade and company. "D. Feigin" is, of course, Darya
Konstantinovna Feigin, prima ballerina assoluta of the Grey Star Ballet
(not in index) and the best Clara ever. Eat your hearts out, little
piranhas.
On Sat, Jul 2, 2016 at 9:50 AM, Bob Fagen <bobf45@gmail.com> wrote:
> Blame Kinbote, or something, a roundlet perhaps, for editing Shade's
> assonant "feigned remoteness" to "feigned reflection". There they are
> again, aloof and mute, playing a game of words. And again. Worlds. Many
> worlds. Help me, Hugh [Everett].
>
> On Fri, Jul 1, 2016 at 4:38 PM, Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@outlook.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Jansy Mello: Thank you for the reply.* It's always fun to retake familiar
>> lines and find them strange again. Indeed, why substitute a window's "the
>> false azure" for the suggested "feigned remoteness"? Or why aresn't CK's
>> commentaries to these lines included under "Windows" in his Index?**
>>
>>
>>
>> I was the shadow of the
>> waxwing slain
>>
>> By *the false azure*
>> in the windowpane (1-2)
>>
>>
>>
>> (1-2; 5-6)
>>
>>
>>
>> I was the shadow of the
>> waxwing slain
>>
>> By *feigned remoteness*
>> in the windowpane. (131-32)
>>
>>
>>
>> And, as concerns John Shade now:
>>
>> And from the inside,
>> too, I’d duplicate
>>
>> Myself, my lamp, an
>> apple on a plate: (5-6)
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks to your prompting I remembered that the poem's opening lines start
>> describing an adventure that has taken place in the outside, perhaps in a
>> summery garden - but that the poet soon moves to "the inside" of a house
>> where he'll again ("too") "duplicate" himself, thanks to the opacity
>> engendered by a winter night! (later on, the wintery reflections of both
>> landscapes, inside and outside, will be harmoniously blended).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ........................................................................................................................................
>>
>>
>>
>> **Bob Fagen*: slain waxwing's feigned reflection in *window*pane?
>> *reply to JM's:**Has anyone already worked over why "windows" were
>> mentioned in PF's Index and not, for example, mirror or glass? And to what
>> kind of "window" they refer?*
>>
>>
>>
>> **Charles Kinbote does make a comment related to the change from "false
>> azure" to "feigned remoteness" in his note to lines 131-32: "The
>> exquisite melody of the two lines opening the poem is picked up here. The
>> repetition of that long-drawn note is saved from monotony by the subtle
>> variation in line 132 where the assonance between its second word and the
>> rhyme gives the ear a kind of languorous pleasure as would the echo of some
>> half-remembered sorrowful song whose strain is more meaningful than its
>> words. Today, when the "feigned remoteness" has indeed performed its
>> dreadful duty, and the poem we have is the only "shadow" that remains, we
>> cannot help reading into these lines something more than mirrorplay and
>> mirage shimmer. We feel doom, in the image of Gradus, eating away the miles
>> and miles of "feigned remoteness" between him and poor Shade. *He, too,
>> is to meet, in his urgent and blind flight, a reflection that will shatter
>> him*." Is Gradus also being compared to the slain waxwing now shattered
>> by a reflection?
>> Is it the Author's face, no longer to be searched "in a glass, darkly"
>> (CK, fwd: "None can say how long John Shade planned his poem to be, but
>> it is not improbable that what he left represents only a small fraction of
>> the composition he saw in a glass, darkly.")
>>
>>
>> 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
>> <dana.dragunoiu@gmail.com,nabokv-l@utk.edu,shvabrin@humnet.ucla.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.
>>
>
>
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,dana.dragunoiu@gmail.com,shvabrin@humnet.ucla.edu
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Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
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The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
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mine -- a meaningless coincidence, but I thought I'd mention it. The
near-anagram (feigned; Feigin) must surely have occurred to Nabokov, if not
to Kinbote, Shade and company. "D. Feigin" is, of course, Darya
Konstantinovna Feigin, prima ballerina assoluta of the Grey Star Ballet
(not in index) and the best Clara ever. Eat your hearts out, little
piranhas.
On Sat, Jul 2, 2016 at 9:50 AM, Bob Fagen <bobf45@gmail.com> wrote:
> Blame Kinbote, or something, a roundlet perhaps, for editing Shade's
> assonant "feigned remoteness" to "feigned reflection". There they are
> again, aloof and mute, playing a game of words. And again. Worlds. Many
> worlds. Help me, Hugh [Everett].
>
> On Fri, Jul 1, 2016 at 4:38 PM, Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@outlook.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Jansy Mello: Thank you for the reply.* It's always fun to retake familiar
>> lines and find them strange again. Indeed, why substitute a window's "the
>> false azure" for the suggested "feigned remoteness"? Or why aresn't CK's
>> commentaries to these lines included under "Windows" in his Index?**
>>
>>
>>
>> I was the shadow of the
>> waxwing slain
>>
>> By *the false azure*
>> in the windowpane (1-2)
>>
>>
>>
>> (1-2; 5-6)
>>
>>
>>
>> I was the shadow of the
>> waxwing slain
>>
>> By *feigned remoteness*
>> in the windowpane. (131-32)
>>
>>
>>
>> And, as concerns John Shade now:
>>
>> And from the inside,
>> too, I’d duplicate
>>
>> Myself, my lamp, an
>> apple on a plate: (5-6)
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks to your prompting I remembered that the poem's opening lines start
>> describing an adventure that has taken place in the outside, perhaps in a
>> summery garden - but that the poet soon moves to "the inside" of a house
>> where he'll again ("too") "duplicate" himself, thanks to the opacity
>> engendered by a winter night! (later on, the wintery reflections of both
>> landscapes, inside and outside, will be harmoniously blended).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ........................................................................................................................................
>>
>>
>>
>> **Bob Fagen*: slain waxwing's feigned reflection in *window*pane?
>> *reply to JM's:**Has anyone already worked over why "windows" were
>> mentioned in PF's Index and not, for example, mirror or glass? And to what
>> kind of "window" they refer?*
>>
>>
>>
>> **Charles Kinbote does make a comment related to the change from "false
>> azure" to "feigned remoteness" in his note to lines 131-32: "The
>> exquisite melody of the two lines opening the poem is picked up here. The
>> repetition of that long-drawn note is saved from monotony by the subtle
>> variation in line 132 where the assonance between its second word and the
>> rhyme gives the ear a kind of languorous pleasure as would the echo of some
>> half-remembered sorrowful song whose strain is more meaningful than its
>> words. Today, when the "feigned remoteness" has indeed performed its
>> dreadful duty, and the poem we have is the only "shadow" that remains, we
>> cannot help reading into these lines something more than mirrorplay and
>> mirage shimmer. We feel doom, in the image of Gradus, eating away the miles
>> and miles of "feigned remoteness" between him and poor Shade. *He, too,
>> is to meet, in his urgent and blind flight, a reflection that will shatter
>> him*." Is Gradus also being compared to the slain waxwing now shattered
>> by a reflection?
>> Is it the Author's face, no longer to be searched "in a glass, darkly"
>> (CK, fwd: "None can say how long John Shade planned his poem to be, but
>> it is not improbable that what he left represents only a small fraction of
>> the composition he saw in a glass, darkly.")
>>
>>
>> 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
>> <dana.dragunoiu@gmail.com,nabokv-l@utk.edu,shvabrin@humnet.ucla.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,dana.dragunoiu@gmail.com,shvabrin@humnet.ucla.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