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Re: Shade's little scissors as a synthesis of sun and star
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I've always considered these lines as reflecting something of the
sense of Stevens' smeared with the gold of the opulent son, in the
following way. Everything in our world is engendered through the sun's
radiant energy. And I think the earth itself is thought to be
congealed outpourings of solar matter. (really need to check this!)
Thus the little scissors are rather trivially a synthesis of the sun,
as everything else on earth is. It's dazzling because it's shiny but
more because of the long improbable chain of events that link scissor
and star. Star might just be a redundancy to fill out the line, i.e.,
the sun is a star, although admittedly, this reads very awkwardly.
More likely star stands for human consciousness and imagination as in
the star, meaning greatest achievement, of solar synthesis. This gives
that the little scissor are a dazzling synthesis of solar energy and
man's imagination, which reads well, semantically, I think; but which
I'll admit is difficult to come-to.
Synthetically yours,
–GSL
On Aug 26, 2010, at 6:45 AM, Alexey Sklyarenko wrote:
> Matt Roth: In Canto Two, Shade describes his "little scissors" (183)
> as a "synthesis of sun and star." I have never understood this
> image. I've looked at my own nail scissors in an attempt to see what
> Shade was seeing, alas to no avail. Help!
>
> It seems that Matt's query of several years ago was never answered.
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sense of Stevens' smeared with the gold of the opulent son, in the
following way. Everything in our world is engendered through the sun's
radiant energy. And I think the earth itself is thought to be
congealed outpourings of solar matter. (really need to check this!)
Thus the little scissors are rather trivially a synthesis of the sun,
as everything else on earth is. It's dazzling because it's shiny but
more because of the long improbable chain of events that link scissor
and star. Star might just be a redundancy to fill out the line, i.e.,
the sun is a star, although admittedly, this reads very awkwardly.
More likely star stands for human consciousness and imagination as in
the star, meaning greatest achievement, of solar synthesis. This gives
that the little scissor are a dazzling synthesis of solar energy and
man's imagination, which reads well, semantically, I think; but which
I'll admit is difficult to come-to.
Synthetically yours,
–GSL
On Aug 26, 2010, at 6:45 AM, Alexey Sklyarenko wrote:
> Matt Roth: In Canto Two, Shade describes his "little scissors" (183)
> as a "synthesis of sun and star." I have never understood this
> image. I've looked at my own nail scissors in an attempt to see what
> Shade was seeing, alas to no avail. Help!
>
> It seems that Matt's query of several years ago was never answered.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/