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Fw: [NABOKV-L] Carolyn on criticism from Jansy & Jerry
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Carolyn on criticism from Jansy & JerryCarolyn wrote to JM: "Either the use of the word kinbote was calculated by VN as I believe or as you put it he 'could not foresee the significance that would be attached to his choice of the name' ... Both are not possible in the world I live in."
JM: Different meanings can be found for "Kinbote" and VN didn't intend to use nor had knowledge of them all.
He must have started with only one of these meanings (say, indenization or wergeld, as in J&H) and later he had Kinbote plant misleading clues, such as a "Danish styletto", a Shakespearean "bodkin".
Or he may have begun with a Shakesperean bodkin ( he did use very special words and wordplays that came from Hamlet in "Bend Sinister"...) and came to "kinbote" with no conscious reference to J&H...
PS: A very common verb in Portuguese, "botar" ( Ant.French "botter", of germanic origin, as my unsophisticated dictionary informs ) means "to add, put,lay". It is also commonly applied to sharp edges of knives and similar cutting instruments, as in bodkin?.
Nevertheless here it mainly indicates the action of unsharpening, turning blunt ( botar, embotar) or making hazy, diffuse,faded (desbotar) .
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JM: Different meanings can be found for "Kinbote" and VN didn't intend to use nor had knowledge of them all.
He must have started with only one of these meanings (say, indenization or wergeld, as in J&H) and later he had Kinbote plant misleading clues, such as a "Danish styletto", a Shakespearean "bodkin".
Or he may have begun with a Shakesperean bodkin ( he did use very special words and wordplays that came from Hamlet in "Bend Sinister"...) and came to "kinbote" with no conscious reference to J&H...
PS: A very common verb in Portuguese, "botar" ( Ant.French "botter", of germanic origin, as my unsophisticated dictionary informs ) means "to add, put,lay". It is also commonly applied to sharp edges of knives and similar cutting instruments, as in bodkin?.
Nevertheless here it mainly indicates the action of unsharpening, turning blunt ( botar, embotar) or making hazy, diffuse,faded (desbotar) .
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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