Subject
Re: Yo-semite? (fwd)
Date
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I have to admit that it never occurred to me that Yo-semite can be read
that way -- but then I came from Russia directly to California and
spent the next 15 years there, so Yosemite was my backyard.
I think the clue to Yosemite may lie more in Nabokov's linguistic
sensibilities than it does in Szeftel's. As in any non-native speaker,
regardless of one's mastery of the second language, Nabokov's perception
of English was inevitably fresher and more "defamiliarized" than that of
the "natives." Nabokov's punning in English often stems from this "new"
reading and re-interpretation of familiar words. Yosemite could have been
affected by that as well. If it had been, I am not sure it had any deep
implications or necessarily echoed the rest of the narrative and, in
particular, the Jewish theme in the Belochkins. I guess what I
am trying to say is that it would not surprise me if Pnin, indeed, did
pronounce Yosemite that way -- but it would surprise me if Nabokov
intended to make much of it.
Galya Diment
that way -- but then I came from Russia directly to California and
spent the next 15 years there, so Yosemite was my backyard.
I think the clue to Yosemite may lie more in Nabokov's linguistic
sensibilities than it does in Szeftel's. As in any non-native speaker,
regardless of one's mastery of the second language, Nabokov's perception
of English was inevitably fresher and more "defamiliarized" than that of
the "natives." Nabokov's punning in English often stems from this "new"
reading and re-interpretation of familiar words. Yosemite could have been
affected by that as well. If it had been, I am not sure it had any deep
implications or necessarily echoed the rest of the narrative and, in
particular, the Jewish theme in the Belochkins. I guess what I
am trying to say is that it would not surprise me if Pnin, indeed, did
pronounce Yosemite that way -- but it would surprise me if Nabokov
intended to make much of it.
Galya Diment