Happy New Year to all NAB-Lers!
A new quarter and a new year are upon us, and it's time for me to take
over from Susan Elizabeth Sweeney once again. I hope all subscribers
are having an enjoyable holiday curled up with a beloved book, insect,
artwork, or engaged in some other "idle" activity--to refer subtly to
Nabokov's friend Iulii Aikhenvald and his book of essays, Praise of
Idleness.
Speaking of idleness, I thought I'd idly mention an interesting, if
minor, find of mine. I was reading Melville's Pierre in late
July, and I came across an interesting precursor to Nabokov's famous
use of the pun on "Galley Slave":
So, while many a poor, be-inked galley-slave, toiling with
the heavy oar of a quill, to gain something wherewithall to stave off
the cravings of nature; and in his hours of morbid self-reproach,
regarding his paltry wages, at all events, as an unavoidable disgrace
to him; while this galley-slave of letters would have leaped with
delight--reckless of the feeble seams of his pantaloons--at the most
distand prospect of inheriting the broad farms of Saddle Meadows . . .
. (260, Northwestern/Newberry 1971) [the sentence continues on at some
length]
Unlike Nabokov, Melville was was referring to the writer as a
galley-slave, not his characters. It occurs during the introduction of
Pierre's own literary efforts as a means of self-support. By "galley",
he also may
have been referring more to the tray that held the movable type for a
printing press, as "galley-proof" may not have been in circulation
yet. Pierre is hinted at in the first pages of Lolita,
in the guise of "Pierre Point, Melville Sound".
And speaking of Lolita, Today is also the birthday of Dolly
Haze; yesterday was that of
Sebastian Knight--except that SK was born in Russia, so that date is
surely old style, meaning he was born in two centuries. So his "real"
birthday took place on January 11, 1900, by western calendars. It
might be fun, this year, to try to note known Nabokov galley-slaves'
birthdays as they pass, along with any idiosyncracies they possess,
much as "Pnin's Day" has been observed here in the past. In a way,
such an activity would supplement Pekka Tammi's work on Nabokov's
"Poetics of Dates".
Happy reading and writing in 2011!
Stephen Blackwell
Co-Editor