Subject
Re: Pale Fire paper
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JM: Jerry refers to the “long” Hungarian umlaut because that is one of its
correct technical, typographical names* You were seeking some metaphorical
significance to JF’s use of “long” that was entirely literal on this
particular occasion! This is no criticism but a reminder that the “perfect”
Nabokovian reader would need to be “omniscient” to avoid the following
extremes: (i) overlooking real, intended fruitful allusions (ii) inventing
far-fetched, daft unintended allusions (often disdainfully disowned by VN
Himself). There’s ample space in between to keep both scholars and amateurs
happily hunting and sniping away.
* Not every browser/text-editor can reproduce this particular diacritic (two
sloping acute accents [ő] rather than the two German dots) although it does
have special codes allocated in the Unicode and HTML tables. When I look at
JF’s recent email on my screen, I see the correct umlaut in Erdős (Bravo,
JF!) but other screens may not be so fortunate. Between the sending and
receiving of characters lies a complex jungle of bit-transformations. Some
of these can be controlled by the user (e.g., enabling HTML etc), others are
at the mercy of the diverse conventions adopted by competing suppliers.
See http://hissa.nist.gov/~black/erdos.html which also explains the coveted
Erdős number. I’m agonizingly close to an Erdős number 2 (I’ve had an MAA
article edited by Underwood Dudley who has an Erdős number 1. To qualify, I
would need to write a joint paper with Dudley. In a recent scandal, an
Erdős number 2 offered to collaborate with anyone willing to pay $10,000 to
achieve a number 3). JF makes the interesting analogy between Erdős and the
“gypsy-scholars” Pnin and Kinbote. All three were indeed itinerant exiles
from the “Eastern Bloc,” but let’s not forget the HUGE differences: Erdős
remains the most prolific mathematician in the history of mathematics! He
seldom stayed longer than a few weeks at any of the Universities which vied
with each other for his flying visitations.
skb
On 14/10/2008 18:24, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> Jerry Friedman: "Forward" for "foreword" is a common spelling error[...] I
> doubt that anything about Kinbote's Foreword particularly
> impels this error.
>
> JM: I was suggesting a connection bt. Kinbote and his invention, Gradus. A
> written text may have a "suggestive" effect that strikes readers in a
> particular manner. Like Jensen's "Gradiva", Gradus is stealthily moving
> forward with an "aggr-essive" intent. Kinbote wants Gradus to coincide with
> Shade's penning of his poem. Such a "foreword thrust" is a dominant feature in
> Pale Fire. Gradus' ghostly reality is manifest in CK's last lines (before the
> Index - and when was it inserted?): "But whatever happens, wherever the scene
> is laid, somebody, somewhere, will quietly set out — somebody has already set
> out, somebody still rather far away is buying a ticket, is boarding a bus, a
> ship, a plane, has landed, is walking toward a million photographers, and
> presently he will ring at my door — a bigger, more respectable, more competent
> Gradus."
>
> You are earnestly hoping that "some people got the o with the Hungarian 'long
> umlaut'[ Cf. SKB: note that o: stands here for ‘o’ with the Hungarian umlaut]
> but I don't get your "long" point. I hope I understood your former reference
> to a "symbolic reading", though, brought up right after you spoke of
> "overlapping" images/sentences! I greatly enjoyed your observations.
> Do you think that Nabokov, instead of always making them explicit, favored
> "impending metaphors"? Like a kind of :
> "when I confront you with overlapping visions, it is your task to find your
> own metaphors to render them in words"?
>
> SK-Bootle: I always took ‘The Big Maybe’ to refer to ‘Life after Death’ rather
> than Death itself [...] ... there’s no IF in Death. But the great
> ‘Hereinafter’ mystery surely persists as the dominant theme in human
> ruminations [...] Even for devout Zemblan Catholics like Kinbote, or
> Danish/Elizabethan Christians like Hamlet [ Peut-être ou ne pas peut-être,
> c’est pas la question,SK-B], the Afterlife can be truly terrifying. I also
> love Fitzgerald’s version of Omar Khayyam’s [...] Thou wilt not with
> Predestination round/ Enmesh me, and impute my Fall to Sin?
>
> JM: Kinbote ( in Humbert's case this is clearly stated by him) expressed their
> hellish fears directly and could not believe in a "felix culpa" nor hope for
> "salvation", although they kept their faith in an extraneous "punishment".
> They seem predestined to live in the worst of the impossible worlds.
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correct technical, typographical names* You were seeking some metaphorical
significance to JF’s use of “long” that was entirely literal on this
particular occasion! This is no criticism but a reminder that the “perfect”
Nabokovian reader would need to be “omniscient” to avoid the following
extremes: (i) overlooking real, intended fruitful allusions (ii) inventing
far-fetched, daft unintended allusions (often disdainfully disowned by VN
Himself). There’s ample space in between to keep both scholars and amateurs
happily hunting and sniping away.
* Not every browser/text-editor can reproduce this particular diacritic (two
sloping acute accents [ő] rather than the two German dots) although it does
have special codes allocated in the Unicode and HTML tables. When I look at
JF’s recent email on my screen, I see the correct umlaut in Erdős (Bravo,
JF!) but other screens may not be so fortunate. Between the sending and
receiving of characters lies a complex jungle of bit-transformations. Some
of these can be controlled by the user (e.g., enabling HTML etc), others are
at the mercy of the diverse conventions adopted by competing suppliers.
See http://hissa.nist.gov/~black/erdos.html which also explains the coveted
Erdős number. I’m agonizingly close to an Erdős number 2 (I’ve had an MAA
article edited by Underwood Dudley who has an Erdős number 1. To qualify, I
would need to write a joint paper with Dudley. In a recent scandal, an
Erdős number 2 offered to collaborate with anyone willing to pay $10,000 to
achieve a number 3). JF makes the interesting analogy between Erdős and the
“gypsy-scholars” Pnin and Kinbote. All three were indeed itinerant exiles
from the “Eastern Bloc,” but let’s not forget the HUGE differences: Erdős
remains the most prolific mathematician in the history of mathematics! He
seldom stayed longer than a few weeks at any of the Universities which vied
with each other for his flying visitations.
skb
On 14/10/2008 18:24, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> Jerry Friedman: "Forward" for "foreword" is a common spelling error[...] I
> doubt that anything about Kinbote's Foreword particularly
> impels this error.
>
> JM: I was suggesting a connection bt. Kinbote and his invention, Gradus. A
> written text may have a "suggestive" effect that strikes readers in a
> particular manner. Like Jensen's "Gradiva", Gradus is stealthily moving
> forward with an "aggr-essive" intent. Kinbote wants Gradus to coincide with
> Shade's penning of his poem. Such a "foreword thrust" is a dominant feature in
> Pale Fire. Gradus' ghostly reality is manifest in CK's last lines (before the
> Index - and when was it inserted?): "But whatever happens, wherever the scene
> is laid, somebody, somewhere, will quietly set out — somebody has already set
> out, somebody still rather far away is buying a ticket, is boarding a bus, a
> ship, a plane, has landed, is walking toward a million photographers, and
> presently he will ring at my door — a bigger, more respectable, more competent
> Gradus."
>
> You are earnestly hoping that "some people got the o with the Hungarian 'long
> umlaut'[ Cf. SKB: note that o: stands here for ‘o’ with the Hungarian umlaut]
> but I don't get your "long" point. I hope I understood your former reference
> to a "symbolic reading", though, brought up right after you spoke of
> "overlapping" images/sentences! I greatly enjoyed your observations.
> Do you think that Nabokov, instead of always making them explicit, favored
> "impending metaphors"? Like a kind of :
> "when I confront you with overlapping visions, it is your task to find your
> own metaphors to render them in words"?
>
> SK-Bootle: I always took ‘The Big Maybe’ to refer to ‘Life after Death’ rather
> than Death itself [...] ... there’s no IF in Death. But the great
> ‘Hereinafter’ mystery surely persists as the dominant theme in human
> ruminations [...] Even for devout Zemblan Catholics like Kinbote, or
> Danish/Elizabethan Christians like Hamlet [ Peut-être ou ne pas peut-être,
> c’est pas la question,SK-B], the Afterlife can be truly terrifying. I also
> love Fitzgerald’s version of Omar Khayyam’s [...] Thou wilt not with
> Predestination round/ Enmesh me, and impute my Fall to Sin?
>
> JM: Kinbote ( in Humbert's case this is clearly stated by him) expressed their
> hellish fears directly and could not believe in a "felix culpa" nor hope for
> "salvation", although they kept their faith in an extraneous "punishment".
> They seem predestined to live in the worst of the impossible worlds.
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/