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Fwd: Repost missing TT-16. John Rea comments
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Therefore I repost for all who wish it:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Akiko Nakata" <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 12:12 AM
> Subject: TT-16 Introductory Notes
>
My first or second thought on wordings of Chapter 16. If you need to
classify what I am doing, I suppose you could call it "reader response"
theoretical. I have no divine communications from the beyond from
fathers and antipodean spirits, nor from extant sons. Although I have
always been good at spelling, my computer is less so, and frequently
introduces obvious misprints: I beg that you cooperate in correcting
these in your copy! In material already given by Akita, I'm snipping
out any of it that does not lead directly to my remarks.
John
>
> 57.04: Guy: Another anonymous-like name. His full name is possibly Guy
> Person
.
Also, as someone else has said, the name is short for "Guido", = 'guide.
It also impresses me as having a homosexual overtone, as
I have it used ("Hey, Guy! with the second word lengthened __ I
started to say "dragged out"!) as a greeting.
>
> 58.26-28: winning in a mist of well-being the Davis cup brimming with the
> poppy: Cf. "Humbert imagines Dolly to be a tennis champion and
himself her
> husband and coach: "Dolores, with two rackets under her arm, in
Wimbledon.
> Dolores endorsing a Dromedary.> Dolores turning professional.
Used in reference to females, the word "professional" in this often
implies prostitution.
> Dolores acting a girl champion in a movie.
> Dolores and her gray, humble, hushed husband-coach, old Humbert" (II.20).
>
> 60.07-12: he would find himself trying to stop or divert a trickle of
grain
> or fine gravel from a rift of the texture of space. . . . He was finally
One is reminded of the tale of the little Dutch boy stemming the flow of
water from a hole in the dike (no humor intended), and The "Magician's
apprentice trying in vain to stop the flow he has started -- inclluding
but not limited to the version with Mickey Mouse in "Fantasia"
60.17 "the valleys of Toss and Thurn." A word play on the princes of
Thurn and Taxis who "enjoyed the privilege of a postal monopoly before
the formation of the German empire, and thus before introduction of
modern postal systems in the nineteenth century. The beginnings of this
probably date back into the late middle ages in Northern Italy. In
addition to another bit of play with Nabokov's sleep problems, there
is probably also here a word game involving the Swiss city of Thun,
(which I was fortunate enough to become acquainted with by taking a
regularly scheduled boat from Thun to Interlaken in 1950, for which
one's train tricket is valid: very beautirul ride. (I have wondered
if this postal system "inspired" the one in _Crying of Lot 69_)
60.20 "Dream-man" contains "Armande". Also, as I've mentioned
elsewhere, Hugh's troubled sleep reflects that of Nabkov: and of
Lewis Carroll and of James Joyce.
>
> 60.35-61.03: He was advised that in calling her by her first name one
simply
> meant to induce an informal atmosphere. One always did that. Only
yesterday
> one had put another prisoner completely > at ease by saying: The peculiar
> first person "one" is used by a character other than Armande for the
>first time.
Actually not so peculiar. In everyday spoken French, not in "polished
discourse" the verbal paradigm is normally simplified, in part by using
"on" plus a third person singular verb form in place of a first person
plural. We recall that in the majority of French verbs in the present
tense there is no audible ending in the three persons of the singular,
and typically likewish the third plural. In a casual conversation with
close acquaintances (and in an number of other situations) the second
person singular is used in address, rather than the "polite" second
person plural. (Others devices assist in this simplification: "Ca
coute cher aujourd'hui les diamants". Forgive my computer's inaccented
French.)
61.19-20 "Clarissa Dark". Another female psychoanalyst (probably of
Freudian persuasion), possibly a colleague of Blanche Schwartzmann and
Melanie Weiss whom Nabokov has introduced elsewhere, all with the black
versus white names, and possibly based on the actual psychoanalyst
Melanie Klein.
Thanks for listening.
John
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
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