Jim Twiggs: ..."I
agree with almost everything Sam Gwynn says in his post ...about Dickey,
Shade, and the word "rustic." But I do wonder whether VN's Harvard experience
(and Dupee's life at Columbia) might seem qualitatively different from a life
spent in small-town schools like Cornell." // "In connection with the subject of
VN and the occult, Robert M. Adams [on PF] in."AfterJoyce: Studies in Fiction
after Ulysses (Oxford, 1977)," writes that "the theme [of intertwining
narratives] strikes a curious resonance upon a set of historical circumstances
which, though Nabokov denies having known of them, are too curious not to be
recorded" [...]"the ungainly devotion and wretched grief of the Shade family are
a center of human feeling amid the obsessions, reflections, and self-absorbed
word-games of Pale Fire." Afterjoyce]
Gary
Lipon: There was an article published last October on CNN's
website, about an after death experience of a mother of two in suburban
Boston. It has some relevance as background to Shade's own after death
experience, or Mrs. Z's: "It was very peaceful and light and beautiful.
And I remember like, when you see someone you haven't seen in a while, you want
to hug them, and I remember trying to reach out to my ex-husband, and he would
not take my hand. And then they floated away." ..."there were pictures of my son
and my daughter and my granddaughter, and every second, their pictures flashed
in my mind, and then I came back."
JM: Rusticity is closer
to a state of mind than to any geographical location, no?
Perhaps "states of mind" (Shade's "upper states") are also the
main factors which contribute to the experience
of supernatural events during spiritualistic séances
or in after death experiences.
In the example brought up by Gary Lipon who is
to distinguish this lady's visions from mnemonic visitations
or the drowning person's "life in a flash" sceneries? I cannot but agree
with Robert M. Adams that Shade's explicit "mystical
experiences" constitute an "ungainly devotion," one which, as I see it,
hides Nabokov's own mature avowals which are only
slightly hinted at throughout the novel.
While researching about rabbits, cunicular
krolik's death cum larvae* and alpine doctors in "Ada," I found
something curious which I'd like to bring up in relation to halluciations and
mystic symbols. Following Vivian Darkbloom's notes (to
page 13, on Dr.Lapiner) we learn that:
"for some obscure but not unattractive reason, most of the physicians
in the book turn out to bear names connected with rabbits. The French ‘lapin’
in Lapiner is matched by the Russian ‘Krolik’, the name of Ada’s beloved lepidopterist (p.13, et passim) and
the Russian ‘zayats’ (hare) sounds like ‘Seitz’ (the German gynecologist
on page 181); there is a Latin ‘cuniculus’ in ‘Nikulin’ (‘grandson
of the great rodentiologist Kunikulinov’, p.341), and a Greek ‘lagos’ in
‘Lagosse’ (the doctor who attends Van in his old age). Note also Coniglietto,
the Italian cancer-of-the-blood specialist,
p.298."
In ADA I (ch 3) we read that
"He [Van] invariably wrote in French
calling her petite maman ...He called her usually mummy, or mama,
accenting the last syllable in English, the first, in Russian; somebody had said
that triplets and heraldic dracunculi often occurred in trilingual
families; but there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever now (except,
perhaps, in hateful long-dead Marina’s hell-dwelling mind) that Van was her,
her, Aqua’s, beloved son."
Dracunculi indicates "draculs" and heraldic dragons, which
are associated to Demon Veen. However, it also carries a slight (very slight, I
know!) indication of the word for rabbits and (Dr)
Lapin ( i.e, "cunculi" and "cuniculus"), in connection to Aqua's
miscarriages and to her first reference to
"triplets" in "trilingual families." This led
me to the assumption that there may be a trilingual circular punning
involved, somehow related to rabbits and fertility
rites.
Wikipedia
referred me to the theme of the "three hares"
which is found "in sacred sites from the Middle and Far
East to the churches of south west England...The symbol features three hares
chasing each other in a circle. Each of the ears is shared by two animals so
that only three ears are shown. It has a number of mystical associations and is
often associated with fertility and the lunar cycle...The earliest occurrences
appear to be in cave temples in China, which have been dated to the Sui dynasty
(6th to 7th centuries). The Three Hares also feature in 'roof bosses' (carved
wooden fixtures) in the ceilings in almost 30 medieval churches in Devon,
England (particularly Dartmoor), as well as churches in France and Germany, in
13th century Mongol metal work, and on a copper coin, found in Iran, dated to
1281..."
I cannot say that I
strongly believe that this association makes any sense but,
perhaps, it may come in useful to someone else.
...............................
* "derives from Latin cuniculus,
rabbit (itself taken from Greek kyniklos), which is also the source of
the old English name for the animal, coney or cony. The Latin word could also
mean a burrow, an underground passage, or a military mine. Variations on it
appear in systematic scientific names — an American owl, to take one example, is
formally known as Speotyto cunicularia because it lives in burrows." ( a
google word-source).