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Re: Green Door
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James/Sam: Optionally skip to para 2! I can¹t resist adding that in my radio
& TV career, Green Rooms are where performers enjoy pre- and post-show
Hospitality, before (soft-drinks) and after (the hard-stuff) sober studio
sessions. I can¹t speak of Wiki¹s usage as temporary rooms for off-stage
actors, but the historical connection is clear. My Green Room definition is
certainly the common understanding in the BBC (predominately beige décor),
with the added delight that you get to booze with more famous performers,
hospitalized [sic] from other shows. There was an infamous BBC mini-scandal
last year, when Maggie Thatcher¹s daughter, Carol, assumed that her off-beat
remarks made in a Green Room were guaranteed private. This notion of
Hospitality does seem to be the most current, widespread Brit association
with Green Room. I bring it up to remind Wikipedophiles that even lengthy,
erudite entries may omit pertinent information.
I would agree with you both on the potential irrelevance of door-colour
(room-colour even more so!) in the giddy Pale Fire allusion-chase, if it
were not for the Nabokovian fact that VN both encourages (Shade) and
ridicules (Kinbote) our search for hidden meanings! Open meanings are even
more beguilingly cunning since they must be hiding something. Incidentally,
I can imagine VN¹s reaction to Pale Fire being tagged ³postmodern,² but do
we have any specific comments, beyond his general indifference to LitCrit
categories (other than ³good² and ³bad²)?
Real doors are usually coloured one way or another, bright or drab, but
every 20th/21st novelist I browse seems determined to tell me the particular
paint applied to every surface encountered, whether or not it advances the
plot or character-insights.
VN¹s (and Flaubert¹s) attention to detail does seem to avoid this spurious
over-enumeration, although it¹s difficult to pin down statistically. My
early admiration for William Boyd (a declared Nabokovian) has declined a few
whiskers after reading his 2006 Costa Prize winner, Restless. I suppose we
must accept the facial, clothing and furniture descriptions, but the
relentless itemizing of every meal and drink consumed becomes tedious.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 04/03/2010 01:09, "James Twiggs" <jtwigzz@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> I agree with Sam Schuman that this is a curious thread (to which he has added
> the use of the term ³green room² in theatrical parlance). Curious or not, it¹s
> perhaps worth noting that the most significant mention of the color green in
> Pale Fire is surely in the following passage (commentary to line 172), in
> which Kinbote is setting forth some of Shade¹s opinions:
>
> Of students' papers: "I am generally very benevolent [said Shade]. But there
> are certain trifles I do not forgive." Kinbote: "For instance?" "Not having
> read the required book. Having read it like an idiot. Looking in it for
> symbols; example: 'The author uses the striking image green leaves because
> green is the symbol of happiness and frustration.'
>
> We should bear this in mind before making too much of the green doors in the
> book. If the color green has a special meaning in the novel, it is surely its
> association with Gerald Emerald. But of the green doors, was it VN or SF who
> said that sometimes green is just a color and a door is just a door?
>
> The cultural history of The Green Door, as set forth in the Wikipedia article
> and supplemented by various members of the List, is nonetheless fascinating.
> And the YouTube video that Steve Diedrich put us on to is very much worth a
> look and a listen.
>
> Jim Twiggs
>
> From: Samuel Schuman <sschuman@UNCA.EDU>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Sent: Wed, March 3, 2010 2:08:58 PM
> Subject: [NABOKV-L] Green Door
>
> This is one of the more "curious" threads in the life of the list. Perhaps it
> is worth adding that the "green door" in Pale Fire seems to lead to that area
> of the theater building known as the "green room," a place where actors wait
> for their cues.
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& TV career, Green Rooms are where performers enjoy pre- and post-show
Hospitality, before (soft-drinks) and after (the hard-stuff) sober studio
sessions. I can¹t speak of Wiki¹s usage as temporary rooms for off-stage
actors, but the historical connection is clear. My Green Room definition is
certainly the common understanding in the BBC (predominately beige décor),
with the added delight that you get to booze with more famous performers,
hospitalized [sic] from other shows. There was an infamous BBC mini-scandal
last year, when Maggie Thatcher¹s daughter, Carol, assumed that her off-beat
remarks made in a Green Room were guaranteed private. This notion of
Hospitality does seem to be the most current, widespread Brit association
with Green Room. I bring it up to remind Wikipedophiles that even lengthy,
erudite entries may omit pertinent information.
I would agree with you both on the potential irrelevance of door-colour
(room-colour even more so!) in the giddy Pale Fire allusion-chase, if it
were not for the Nabokovian fact that VN both encourages (Shade) and
ridicules (Kinbote) our search for hidden meanings! Open meanings are even
more beguilingly cunning since they must be hiding something. Incidentally,
I can imagine VN¹s reaction to Pale Fire being tagged ³postmodern,² but do
we have any specific comments, beyond his general indifference to LitCrit
categories (other than ³good² and ³bad²)?
Real doors are usually coloured one way or another, bright or drab, but
every 20th/21st novelist I browse seems determined to tell me the particular
paint applied to every surface encountered, whether or not it advances the
plot or character-insights.
VN¹s (and Flaubert¹s) attention to detail does seem to avoid this spurious
over-enumeration, although it¹s difficult to pin down statistically. My
early admiration for William Boyd (a declared Nabokovian) has declined a few
whiskers after reading his 2006 Costa Prize winner, Restless. I suppose we
must accept the facial, clothing and furniture descriptions, but the
relentless itemizing of every meal and drink consumed becomes tedious.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 04/03/2010 01:09, "James Twiggs" <jtwigzz@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> I agree with Sam Schuman that this is a curious thread (to which he has added
> the use of the term ³green room² in theatrical parlance). Curious or not, it¹s
> perhaps worth noting that the most significant mention of the color green in
> Pale Fire is surely in the following passage (commentary to line 172), in
> which Kinbote is setting forth some of Shade¹s opinions:
>
> Of students' papers: "I am generally very benevolent [said Shade]. But there
> are certain trifles I do not forgive." Kinbote: "For instance?" "Not having
> read the required book. Having read it like an idiot. Looking in it for
> symbols; example: 'The author uses the striking image green leaves because
> green is the symbol of happiness and frustration.'
>
> We should bear this in mind before making too much of the green doors in the
> book. If the color green has a special meaning in the novel, it is surely its
> association with Gerald Emerald. But of the green doors, was it VN or SF who
> said that sometimes green is just a color and a door is just a door?
>
> The cultural history of The Green Door, as set forth in the Wikipedia article
> and supplemented by various members of the List, is nonetheless fascinating.
> And the YouTube video that Steve Diedrich put us on to is very much worth a
> look and a listen.
>
> Jim Twiggs
>
> From: Samuel Schuman <sschuman@UNCA.EDU>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Sent: Wed, March 3, 2010 2:08:58 PM
> Subject: [NABOKV-L] Green Door
>
> This is one of the more "curious" threads in the life of the list. Perhaps it
> is worth adding that the "green door" in Pale Fire seems to lead to that area
> of the theater building known as the "green room," a place where actors wait
> for their cues.
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
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/