Brian Boyd [ to A.Stadlen's
"Incidentally, does Brian mean Haze when he writes Shade, and is there a
significance in his slip, if it is one?" ]1.Indeed, Anthony: Haze. A
Boydian slip. 2. Anthony also asks is there a significance in my slip.
Only that I have long pondered Nabokov’s use of light-and-shade names in his
three biggest English novels: Haze, Humbert Humbert, Clare (“Clare Obscure” at
one point) Quilty, Shade, Lucette.
Jansy Mello: A Boydian slip! Although I
hadn't consciously registered it, I slipped along moving
from Shade's "sublimated grouse" until I came back to
Humbert's "sublimated Riviera" (thereby revealing that, in my amatory eyes,
John Shade's poem is not really a "torquated beauty" as slips
represent one rare form of sincerity)
VN's checkerboard chiaro-scuro has an added nuance in
"Humbert" - but this needs further checking, it's only hearsay
evidence: Although "umber" indicates "shade", "bert" is related to
ancient "brecht" meaning "brightness."