Subject
Re: TT-9 Introductory Notes Versex = Vernex
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Date
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D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Date: Thursday, August 05, 2004 12:28 PM +0900
> From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: TT-9 Introductory Notes>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Akiko Nakata" <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 11:50 AM
> Subject: TT-9 Introductory Notes
>
> 25.02: between Thur and Versex: The Rhine has a tributary, the Thur, but I
> could not find Versex. In the next chapter, HP meets Mr. R. at the Versex
> Palace Hotel that is "venerable" like the Montreux Palace Hotel, where VN
> lived in 60s and 70s.
> --------------------------------------
> EDNOTE. My Swiss Michelin Guide lists neither as a town.
I'm going to get back to some of this play with placenames of which Nabokov
was fond, but for the moment a comment on a couple of toponyms
here. First, we recall that our narrator on page 4.3 "hears" of the
Hotel Fantastic in Blur. When he listens again, it turns out this was
the Hotel Majestic in Chur. It seems likely to me that Thur at 25.02
is just another incarnation of that city. Further, we recall that
in _Ada_ our author enjoy's a bit of word play with toponyms (no,
DON'T accuse me of an off color English / Italian pun!) Sex Noir
and Sex Rouge. This name is actually pronounced with no x at the end
as though it were a French word ending in acute e, thus as close as
we can come in English is "say". (But remember that the French toponyms
in Aix (as in "How we brought the good news from Ghent to Aix") do
pronounce the x, so that the toponym is homophonous with the letter 'x'.
I have a hunch that our author is tampering with the place name
"Vernex" near Montreux, by swapping the n for an x, to look sexier.
> -------------------------------------
>
>
> 26.20: June: Another "J" name.
And, of course, in German Juni comes just before Juli.
> 27.28-29: lovely wake of the sun through semiTRANSPARENT black fabric: I
> was not aware > of it, but Tadashi Wakashima pointed it out
> that HP could see Armande through her black skirt until she asked him to
> pull the blind down. "The low sun's funeral" refers to HP's "sorrow" too.
ah, another transparent thing!
(more later)
John
-----------------------------------------------
EDNOTE. I have ahazy recollection that evening sun rays are marked as
"otherworldly" in VN. Cf. Details of a Sunset?
> NABOKV-L
>
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Date: Thursday, August 05, 2004 12:28 PM +0900
> From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: TT-9 Introductory Notes>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Akiko Nakata" <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 11:50 AM
> Subject: TT-9 Introductory Notes
>
> 25.02: between Thur and Versex: The Rhine has a tributary, the Thur, but I
> could not find Versex. In the next chapter, HP meets Mr. R. at the Versex
> Palace Hotel that is "venerable" like the Montreux Palace Hotel, where VN
> lived in 60s and 70s.
> --------------------------------------
> EDNOTE. My Swiss Michelin Guide lists neither as a town.
I'm going to get back to some of this play with placenames of which Nabokov
was fond, but for the moment a comment on a couple of toponyms
here. First, we recall that our narrator on page 4.3 "hears" of the
Hotel Fantastic in Blur. When he listens again, it turns out this was
the Hotel Majestic in Chur. It seems likely to me that Thur at 25.02
is just another incarnation of that city. Further, we recall that
in _Ada_ our author enjoy's a bit of word play with toponyms (no,
DON'T accuse me of an off color English / Italian pun!) Sex Noir
and Sex Rouge. This name is actually pronounced with no x at the end
as though it were a French word ending in acute e, thus as close as
we can come in English is "say". (But remember that the French toponyms
in Aix (as in "How we brought the good news from Ghent to Aix") do
pronounce the x, so that the toponym is homophonous with the letter 'x'.
I have a hunch that our author is tampering with the place name
"Vernex" near Montreux, by swapping the n for an x, to look sexier.
> -------------------------------------
>
>
> 26.20: June: Another "J" name.
And, of course, in German Juni comes just before Juli.
> 27.28-29: lovely wake of the sun through semiTRANSPARENT black fabric: I
> was not aware > of it, but Tadashi Wakashima pointed it out
> that HP could see Armande through her black skirt until she asked him to
> pull the blind down. "The low sun's funeral" refers to HP's "sorrow" too.
ah, another transparent thing!
(more later)
John
-----------------------------------------------
EDNOTE. I have ahazy recollection that evening sun rays are marked as
"otherworldly" in VN. Cf. Details of a Sunset?
> NABOKV-L
>
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L