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Re: Nabokov shares with Chekhov a fanatical eye for detail ...
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JM: are you trying to find out at what age I became a cunning linguist?
I¹m not sure where to start. To take French as an example (although all
languages have similar quirks), words like ³con² and ³baiser² have evolved
both naughty and less-naughty (even nice) meanings. The native French
speaker can call someone ³un pet¹t con² (dumb person) or say ³quel¹
connerie!² (what stupidity!) with neither speaker nor native hearer
necessarily thinking consciously of vaginas. Nevertheless, there can be a
wry smile when, e.g., Brassens sings ³Le Roi des Cons² (He can never be
dethroned!) Likewise, ³baiser² can mean ³kiss² or ³copulate² depending on
context. Those learning French are more aware of and likely to snigger at
these overlapping meanings. In a sense, they are ³double entendres² more to
the foreigner than to the native speaker. It¹s often said that being able
to ³swear properly² is one of the signs that you have mastered that other
language. (The other is solving cryptic crosswords) The challenge is
compounded by the constant change (in all languages & cultures) of what is
considered derogatory, offensive, vulgar (the usual warning tags used by
lexicographers) and under which circumstances. ³Intention² is often cited as
the key, but that means delving into people¹s minds. Back to ³lecheur con²
which, like ³arse licker,² undoubtedly carries the surface image of tongues
delving into crudely-named private cavities, the naughty implication being
that ³lap dogs² do a little more for old maids than sit in laps. I suspect
JM may be confused by the ³coincidence² that ³lap² can also mean ³lick² as
in ³cats lapping milk.² The English ³lap dog,² however, is named for the
place it occupies rather than any extra-mural immoralities!
Three relatives sharing the same birthday seems remarkable until you scan
the database of the trillions of HomSaps born since the big BEGAT began and
start counting the clusters of shared birthdates within kin groups. Trust
me, Jansy, I¹m a mathematician! It¹s almost certain that at least 10,000
related 3-somes share the same birthday. But even if there were just one
such trio in human history, why not you and your parents-in-law? I
meantersay, it has be a particular trio. If not yours, some other trio would
be claiming the coincidence. It¹s not unlike a lottery where the chances of
winning are 1 in 100 million, yet each week SOMEONE is certain to WIN. Your
husband¹s Gypsy tale is unverifiable but QUITE FISHY. You are right to be
suspicious. Fortune tellers of all breeds are unlikely to venture into such
precise prophecies.
It¹s good to have VN¹s various comments on coincidences assembled for
comparison. As I mentioned, the same word is being used for different
entities: coincidences in fact; coincidences in fiction. An author of
fiction makes definite decisions when he/she invents a narrative. The
³realism² of the narrative, if such is intended, will be judged against the
probabilities of narrated events compared with those we observe in nature. I
see no reason to straddle any author with preconceived notions as to how
³real-actual-world² a narrative should be. VN¹s own novels, each in a
distinct way, create their own mix of internal and external ³reality² to
which he is uniquely and teasingly honest. Whether this allows him to
establish a ³holy canon² and ³write off² other approaches is a separate
issue for ongoing debate. I happen to share all his ³likes² (Onegin, Bovary,
Ulysses, Bleak House) but at the same time admire many of his ³dislikes²
(Finnegans Wake, Crime & Punishment, Onegin the opera!)
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 01/10/2008 18:06, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> [Sandy Klein from
> http://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/2008/09/quaintly-circumstantial.html ,in
> Are You There, Crocodile?: Inventing Anton Chekhov, Michael Pennington
> lovingly describes his visit to Melikhovo[...]thrilled to have stood on the
> steps where the dandyish-looking Chekhov was famously photographed holding
> Quinine, his dachshund [...] Pennington picks up the Chekhov/Nabokov
> connection.[..]coincidences, however abhorrent in art, are reality¹s
> consolation prizes. JM: Dachs must have been favourites among artists. Victor
> Hugo's grandson had a dachs, called "Lolita" and he once dressed her up to
> meet Picasso's dachs, "Lump", as a "bride".]
>
> Stan K-B to Sandy/Jansy: I¹m both proud and ashamed that I knew the French
> slang for ³lap dog² when I was 10 years old, some years before I discovered
> the literal meaning of ³lecheur con.²
> JM: Should I be proud or ashamed that I still don't get it? I understand the
> literal alusion but not how it is employed in ordinary discourse.
> In Portuguese we have equivalents (at least three & they may be freely
> employed, even by kids) but they carry no erotic suggestion. They are
> offensive slang-words used to describe a despicable flattering attitude.
> Actually, behavioristically speaking, timid dogs are, really, "lap dogs"!
>
> S. K-B:The ³deep² significance of ³coincidences² continues to intrigue.
> [...]The difficult thing for HomSaps to accept is that many of the things that
> happen have very small, even zero prior probabilities. Don your logic
> hard-hats and listen up: all impossible events have zero probability, but some
> zero probability events do happen. We mathematicians have the useful term
> ³vanishingly small.² [...] You could argue that in fiction you are free to
> invent an event (what d¹you make of that rhyme?!) of varying probabilities
> betweeen 0 and 1, but since you have left the realm of actualities, it becomes
> difficult to estimate or even define ³probability.² In the real world we can
> in principle estimate the fraction of real outcomes to potential outcomes. In
> a novel, we can ditch causal chains, and, as in VN¹s Invitation to a Beheading
> or Prospero¹s Tempest, just make the pageant disappear. That¹s quite a
> coincidence, nein?
> JM: While I was searching for Nabokov on "coincidence" I discovered another
> instance in which Nabokov mentions the "Cry Wolf" analogy he used in GRGW and
> in his Cornell Lecture - and that was mentioned a few days ago here in the
> List.
>
> In 1962, SO,page11: "Do you know how poetry started? I always think that it
> started when a cave boy came running back to the cave, through the tall frass,
> shouting as he ran, "Wolf,wolf," and there was no wolf. His baboon-lie
> parents, great sticklers for the truth, gave him a hiding, no doubt, but
> poetry had been born - the tall story had been born in the tall grass." (the
> question he is answering is about "reality as an intensely subjective matter"
> and "perverse delight in literary deception").
> Later on we read: "poetry represents the mysteries of the irrational perceived
> through rational words" (p.44).
>
> See, Stan, both my parents-in-law were born on the same day and, several
> decades later, so was I. By itself, this would not represent an extraordinary
> coincidence were it not for a gipsy once (before my husband met me) telling
> him that he was going to marry a girl whose birthday coincided with both his
> parents' (nevertheless, since he is a playful guy, he might have invented the
> gipsy-story after he discovered the three similar dates. He swears he didn't).
> Here are somes examples I had underlined in my Vintage "Strong Opinions":
> p.67 I:Some critics may find the use of coincidence in a novel arch or
> contrived. I recall that you yourself at Cornell Called Dostoevski's usage of
> coincidence crude.
> VN: But in "real" life they do happen [...] It is not the coincidence in the
> story that bothers us so much as the coincidence of coincidences in several
> stories by different writers, as, for instance, the recurrent eavesdropping
> device in nineteenth-century Russian fiction.".
> p.79: "There is no science without fancy, and no art without facts."
> p.147/8: "I go by books, not by authors [...]War and Peace, though a little
> too long, is a rollicking historical novel[...] In terms of artistic structure
> it does not satisfy me. I derive no pleasure from its cumbersome message, from
> the didactic interludes, from the artificial coincidences..."
> p.177:"I am subject to the embarassing qualms of superstition: a number, a
> dream, a coincidence can affect me obsessively - though not in the sense of
> absurd fears but as fabulous ( and on the whole rather bracing) scientific
> enigmas incapable of being stated, let alone solved."
>
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I¹m not sure where to start. To take French as an example (although all
languages have similar quirks), words like ³con² and ³baiser² have evolved
both naughty and less-naughty (even nice) meanings. The native French
speaker can call someone ³un pet¹t con² (dumb person) or say ³quel¹
connerie!² (what stupidity!) with neither speaker nor native hearer
necessarily thinking consciously of vaginas. Nevertheless, there can be a
wry smile when, e.g., Brassens sings ³Le Roi des Cons² (He can never be
dethroned!) Likewise, ³baiser² can mean ³kiss² or ³copulate² depending on
context. Those learning French are more aware of and likely to snigger at
these overlapping meanings. In a sense, they are ³double entendres² more to
the foreigner than to the native speaker. It¹s often said that being able
to ³swear properly² is one of the signs that you have mastered that other
language. (The other is solving cryptic crosswords) The challenge is
compounded by the constant change (in all languages & cultures) of what is
considered derogatory, offensive, vulgar (the usual warning tags used by
lexicographers) and under which circumstances. ³Intention² is often cited as
the key, but that means delving into people¹s minds. Back to ³lecheur con²
which, like ³arse licker,² undoubtedly carries the surface image of tongues
delving into crudely-named private cavities, the naughty implication being
that ³lap dogs² do a little more for old maids than sit in laps. I suspect
JM may be confused by the ³coincidence² that ³lap² can also mean ³lick² as
in ³cats lapping milk.² The English ³lap dog,² however, is named for the
place it occupies rather than any extra-mural immoralities!
Three relatives sharing the same birthday seems remarkable until you scan
the database of the trillions of HomSaps born since the big BEGAT began and
start counting the clusters of shared birthdates within kin groups. Trust
me, Jansy, I¹m a mathematician! It¹s almost certain that at least 10,000
related 3-somes share the same birthday. But even if there were just one
such trio in human history, why not you and your parents-in-law? I
meantersay, it has be a particular trio. If not yours, some other trio would
be claiming the coincidence. It¹s not unlike a lottery where the chances of
winning are 1 in 100 million, yet each week SOMEONE is certain to WIN. Your
husband¹s Gypsy tale is unverifiable but QUITE FISHY. You are right to be
suspicious. Fortune tellers of all breeds are unlikely to venture into such
precise prophecies.
It¹s good to have VN¹s various comments on coincidences assembled for
comparison. As I mentioned, the same word is being used for different
entities: coincidences in fact; coincidences in fiction. An author of
fiction makes definite decisions when he/she invents a narrative. The
³realism² of the narrative, if such is intended, will be judged against the
probabilities of narrated events compared with those we observe in nature. I
see no reason to straddle any author with preconceived notions as to how
³real-actual-world² a narrative should be. VN¹s own novels, each in a
distinct way, create their own mix of internal and external ³reality² to
which he is uniquely and teasingly honest. Whether this allows him to
establish a ³holy canon² and ³write off² other approaches is a separate
issue for ongoing debate. I happen to share all his ³likes² (Onegin, Bovary,
Ulysses, Bleak House) but at the same time admire many of his ³dislikes²
(Finnegans Wake, Crime & Punishment, Onegin the opera!)
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 01/10/2008 18:06, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> [Sandy Klein from
> http://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/2008/09/quaintly-circumstantial.html ,in
> Are You There, Crocodile?: Inventing Anton Chekhov, Michael Pennington
> lovingly describes his visit to Melikhovo[...]thrilled to have stood on the
> steps where the dandyish-looking Chekhov was famously photographed holding
> Quinine, his dachshund [...] Pennington picks up the Chekhov/Nabokov
> connection.[..]coincidences, however abhorrent in art, are reality¹s
> consolation prizes. JM: Dachs must have been favourites among artists. Victor
> Hugo's grandson had a dachs, called "Lolita" and he once dressed her up to
> meet Picasso's dachs, "Lump", as a "bride".]
>
> Stan K-B to Sandy/Jansy: I¹m both proud and ashamed that I knew the French
> slang for ³lap dog² when I was 10 years old, some years before I discovered
> the literal meaning of ³lecheur con.²
> JM: Should I be proud or ashamed that I still don't get it? I understand the
> literal alusion but not how it is employed in ordinary discourse.
> In Portuguese we have equivalents (at least three & they may be freely
> employed, even by kids) but they carry no erotic suggestion. They are
> offensive slang-words used to describe a despicable flattering attitude.
> Actually, behavioristically speaking, timid dogs are, really, "lap dogs"!
>
> S. K-B:The ³deep² significance of ³coincidences² continues to intrigue.
> [...]The difficult thing for HomSaps to accept is that many of the things that
> happen have very small, even zero prior probabilities. Don your logic
> hard-hats and listen up: all impossible events have zero probability, but some
> zero probability events do happen. We mathematicians have the useful term
> ³vanishingly small.² [...] You could argue that in fiction you are free to
> invent an event (what d¹you make of that rhyme?!) of varying probabilities
> betweeen 0 and 1, but since you have left the realm of actualities, it becomes
> difficult to estimate or even define ³probability.² In the real world we can
> in principle estimate the fraction of real outcomes to potential outcomes. In
> a novel, we can ditch causal chains, and, as in VN¹s Invitation to a Beheading
> or Prospero¹s Tempest, just make the pageant disappear. That¹s quite a
> coincidence, nein?
> JM: While I was searching for Nabokov on "coincidence" I discovered another
> instance in which Nabokov mentions the "Cry Wolf" analogy he used in GRGW and
> in his Cornell Lecture - and that was mentioned a few days ago here in the
> List.
>
> In 1962, SO,page11: "Do you know how poetry started? I always think that it
> started when a cave boy came running back to the cave, through the tall frass,
> shouting as he ran, "Wolf,wolf," and there was no wolf. His baboon-lie
> parents, great sticklers for the truth, gave him a hiding, no doubt, but
> poetry had been born - the tall story had been born in the tall grass." (the
> question he is answering is about "reality as an intensely subjective matter"
> and "perverse delight in literary deception").
> Later on we read: "poetry represents the mysteries of the irrational perceived
> through rational words" (p.44).
>
> See, Stan, both my parents-in-law were born on the same day and, several
> decades later, so was I. By itself, this would not represent an extraordinary
> coincidence were it not for a gipsy once (before my husband met me) telling
> him that he was going to marry a girl whose birthday coincided with both his
> parents' (nevertheless, since he is a playful guy, he might have invented the
> gipsy-story after he discovered the three similar dates. He swears he didn't).
> Here are somes examples I had underlined in my Vintage "Strong Opinions":
> p.67 I:Some critics may find the use of coincidence in a novel arch or
> contrived. I recall that you yourself at Cornell Called Dostoevski's usage of
> coincidence crude.
> VN: But in "real" life they do happen [...] It is not the coincidence in the
> story that bothers us so much as the coincidence of coincidences in several
> stories by different writers, as, for instance, the recurrent eavesdropping
> device in nineteenth-century Russian fiction.".
> p.79: "There is no science without fancy, and no art without facts."
> p.147/8: "I go by books, not by authors [...]War and Peace, though a little
> too long, is a rollicking historical novel[...] In terms of artistic structure
> it does not satisfy me. I derive no pleasure from its cumbersome message, from
> the didactic interludes, from the artificial coincidences..."
> p.177:"I am subject to the embarassing qualms of superstition: a number, a
> dream, a coincidence can affect me obsessively - though not in the sense of
> absurd fears but as fabulous ( and on the whole rather bracing) scientific
> enigmas incapable of being stated, let alone solved."
>
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/