Subject
Re: Query: PF's pirouetting nymph?
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Date
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Less romantic than Andrew¹s recalls, but relevant to VN and ads for gentle
dishwashing aids, herewith a cartoon of unknown provenance.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 31/10/06 21:10, "Andrew Brown" <as-brown@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>
> Steven,
>
>
> I don¹t think D. Barton Johnson, a major figure in Nabokov studies and a
> founder of the N-list, was asking for the name of a real life model for the
> nymph. He was asking for an identification of the toiletry inside ³an altar in
> a wood.²
>
> I was born in 1954 and, using my earliest memories, I picture the ³altar² to
> be a decorative sink countertop surmounted by a shell-shaped mirror, larger
> and more elaborate than a mere medicine cabinet mirror. In the cabinetry
> adjacent to the mirror one would find commercial beauty and health care
> products from Chanel and Revlon, as well as facial creams by Pacquins (my
> mother¹s favorite, and a scent that, to me, has a Proustian mnemonic power) to
> ³medicine¹s² such as Miltown or Seconal, for one¹s beauty sleep, and
> Benzedrine for keeping that youthful figure nice and slim.
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
> On 10/30/06 10:51 PM, "Steven" <mcquaryq@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>
>> I was born in '54 and so don't qualify as an expert on the tv of the early
>> 50s.... but -- Why are you so sure that there's a real life model for the
>> image? Like a lot of the names and such in his American triptych, there was
>> a lot of fun had by the author, generalizing from the specifics of American
>> culture.
>>
>>
>> On Oct 25, 2006, at 1:48 PM, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Can some one in my aged age group (or older) identify the toiletry in this
>>> description in a TV commercial circa the early fifties? The winner will be
>>> immortalized in a footnote. Don Johnson
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Line 412ff The Cause of Poetry
>>> on Channel 8.
>>> A nymph came pirouetting,
>>> under white
>>> Rotating petals, in a
>>> vernal rite
>>> To kneel before an altar
>>> in a wood
>>> Where various articles of
>>> toilet stood.
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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dishwashing aids, herewith a cartoon of unknown provenance.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 31/10/06 21:10, "Andrew Brown" <as-brown@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>
> Steven,
>
>
> I don¹t think D. Barton Johnson, a major figure in Nabokov studies and a
> founder of the N-list, was asking for the name of a real life model for the
> nymph. He was asking for an identification of the toiletry inside ³an altar in
> a wood.²
>
> I was born in 1954 and, using my earliest memories, I picture the ³altar² to
> be a decorative sink countertop surmounted by a shell-shaped mirror, larger
> and more elaborate than a mere medicine cabinet mirror. In the cabinetry
> adjacent to the mirror one would find commercial beauty and health care
> products from Chanel and Revlon, as well as facial creams by Pacquins (my
> mother¹s favorite, and a scent that, to me, has a Proustian mnemonic power) to
> ³medicine¹s² such as Miltown or Seconal, for one¹s beauty sleep, and
> Benzedrine for keeping that youthful figure nice and slim.
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
> On 10/30/06 10:51 PM, "Steven" <mcquaryq@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>
>> I was born in '54 and so don't qualify as an expert on the tv of the early
>> 50s.... but -- Why are you so sure that there's a real life model for the
>> image? Like a lot of the names and such in his American triptych, there was
>> a lot of fun had by the author, generalizing from the specifics of American
>> culture.
>>
>>
>> On Oct 25, 2006, at 1:48 PM, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Can some one in my aged age group (or older) identify the toiletry in this
>>> description in a TV commercial circa the early fifties? The winner will be
>>> immortalized in a footnote. Don Johnson
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Line 412ff The Cause of Poetry
>>> on Channel 8.
>>> A nymph came pirouetting,
>>> under white
>>> Rotating petals, in a
>>> vernal rite
>>> To kneel before an altar
>>> in a wood
>>> Where various articles of
>>> toilet stood.
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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
