Subject:
[NABOKOV-L] Phanes and Vanessa: Phenocopying - Shade and Kinbote????
From:
Jansy <jansy@aetern.us>
Date:
Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:50:38 -0300
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
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Returning to Matt Roth's quote and information about "Kinbote's note to 270: It is so like the heart of a scholar in search of a fond name to pile a butterfly genus upon an Orphic divinity on top of the inevitable allusion to Vanhomrigh, Esther! [...] According to some sources, the three primary Orphic divinities are Phanes, Uranus, and Cronus. In the Pale Fire cosmology, these are related to the Vanessa, Kinbote (Uranist), and Father Time (more on him in a different post).
Any other ideas?
 
JM: I was led from orphic "Phanes" to "phaneros" and, unexpectedly to "phanein". Initially, my attention was centered on the meaning of "light-giver" and "manifestation" associated to Phanes. Then to the hidden "evanescence" ( sudden manifestation like a flare in an "epiphany"). Finally, researching on an independent issue ("phenocopy") I found its links to "phanein" meaning to "making manifest." (perhaps inspiring other coinages, such as phenotype and phenomenon). One of the wiki-entries denied any connection between Phanes/Phanessa and the butterfly's name, Vanessa. Another one, related to phenotype, led me along a completely differenet lane. 
 
According to a wiki-source, the Greek "phainein" inspired Richard Goldschmidt to coin the word "phenocopy". "Phenotype" was created earlier by Wilhelm L. Johannsen, while "phenomenon" was referred to Kant *. The amazing thing is that the first example of a "phenocopy" * described the Vanessa butterfly. I learned that it can mimic other unrelated butterflies, when living under similar environmental conditions and changed its appearance when it lived in another site. 
 
In my opinion, this is a fascinating link to Pale Fire's Vanessa and Kinbote's very informed commentary ( it almost makes me believe he and Shade are the same person!).  
 
Another point that caused me to reconsider Shade's lines and Kinbote's commentary about them, derives from Shade's insistence about seeing Sybil in the guise of a "dark Vanessa", whereas Kinbote elaborated about its flaming red/orange color and how this "individual" butterfly danced as a flame, it flared and vanished, only to reappear before it was dissolved by the growing "shade." 
 
Not only Kinbote's commentary about "orphic divinity" (as observed by Matt Roth) suggests that CK was more knowledgeable about butterflies than it was to be expected of him, but also the item about "phenocopy" (something Nabokov wouldn't have ignored since he was an expert on butterlies and mimetism) is striking, because also Shade might not have known about that. 
 
This might be an instance in which Nabokov is speaking through Kinbote and Shade. It occurs to me that chess-pieces may be black and white, but also black and red (or orange?). Shade's "dark Vanessa" (Sybil) might stand for the black chess-pieces, Kinbote's would be the red ones. The divine chess-player could be Nabokov himself, in the guise of Shade?   
 
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* (Wiki) A phenocopy is an individual whose phenotype (generally referring to a single trait), under a particular environmental condition, is identical to the one of another individual whose phenotype is determined by the genotype. In other words the phenocopy environmental condition mimics the phenotype produced by a gene. The term was coined by Richard Goldschmidt in 1935[1]. He used it to refer to forms, produced by some experimental procedure, whose appearance duplicates or copies the phenotype of some mutant or combination of mutants. A phenocopy is not a type of mutation, it is an environmentally induced, non-hereditary phenotypic modification that resembles a similar phenotype produced by a gene mutation (genocopy).
An example of a phenocopy are the Vanessa genus of butterflies who can change phenotype based on the local temperature. If introduced to Lapland they mimic butterflies localised to this area and if localised to Syria they mimic buterflies of this area. These phenotypes aren't inherited and are solely due to environment.
 


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