Gary Lipon:
The portion
of Shade's poem from lines 567 to 588, what I term the Elysian life passage: "Time means succession, and succession,
change:/Hence timelessness is bound to disarrange/Schedules of
sentiment..." seem to me to be a pastiche ...of
Hazel's tragedy along with other sad tales...I'm interested in The earrings of
the other's jewel case and its relation to the phrase empty emerald
case.
JM: Why a pastiche of Hazel's tragedy, along with other
sad tales? Why Hazel, in particular, when, from what I gathered, Shade has been
describing a confrontation of rival persons or conflicting historical or
biologicl happenings?
Emerald is another complicated word to connect with this ""jewel
case," should we consider Kinbote's interest in Gerald Emerald or Nabokov's
sensuous recitation of his "Esmeralda" poem, plus the reference to an
eternal cicada song before we smash this "mash up"?
NB: Today Brasília is celebrating its 5oth Anniversary
and now, for the first time, I stopped to think about the word
"anniversary" as indicative that our planet has orbitted (has turned
or versed around) fifty times the sun's fiery orb, after having departed
from this special point in space, one which demands a year
(anni) before each round is completed.
Time and space: "anni"
versus "uni" verses? Nabokov's approaching
birthday (anniversary) celebrations are bound to "schedules of sentiment"
(related to biographical registers). Shouldn't we allow timelessness to
disarrange this schedule and, rather, commemorate Nabokov's
exorbitant "multiversaries"?