Subject
Re: Did VN know German? and a library is announced
From
Date
Body
Yes, that's what I was thinking of. Eleven, prepubescent probably.
Sadomasochistic old Maud. No, wait - this was one of his fainting spells. This
may have pre-dated John Shade's unhappy sexual initiation.
But, you're right - it must have been his eleventh birthday when his sexuality
and self were shattered. Happy Birthday to Kinbote.
Carolyn
________________________________
From: A. Bouazza <mushtary@YAHOO.COM>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Mon, May 6, 2013 11:05:22 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Did VN know German? and a library is announced
Dear Carolyn –and List,
The passage containing Shade’s eleventh birthday begins at line 140 of Canto
One:
A thread of subtle pain,
Tugged at by playful death, released again,
But always present, ran through me. One day,
When I’d just turned eleven, as I lay
Prone on the floor and watched a clockwork toy—
A tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy—
And as to “the young girl who is planted on poor innocent young John Shade”, it
is in fact a simile for his condition –lines 161 till the end of the same Canto:
But like some little lad forced by a wench
With his pure tongue her abject thirst to quench,
I was corrupted, terrified, allured,
And though old doctor Colt pronounced me cured
Of what, he said, were mainly growing pains,
The wonder lingers and the shame remains.
A. Bouazza
From:Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of
Carolyn Kunin
Sent: zondag 5 mei 2013 2:24
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Did VN know German? and a library is announced
Perhaps there are other cats in VN besides Hodges (there's the intriguing cat
with celadon eyes that spurns milk in RLSK) Some who understand human language
and act as spies all over the house retelling gossip for example, written by
???
Dear Jansy,
Beside's Johnson's real cat Hodge (no s), there is that very odd cat that is
left for Kinbote to look after, so odd that I doubt he even exists in the 'real'
world of New Wye. He is to be fed so many sardines every other day and to drink
nothing but looking glass milk, which Martin Gardner has interesting things to
say about - it would seem that Lewis Carroll foresaw modern, nay even
post-modern physics. Why not? (Wye knot, indeed).
The way he, Kinbote, strokes the pussy cat makes me think he is 'actually' in
Kinbote World caressing Fleur de Fyler, who in 'real' New Wye is a pseudonym for
the young girl who is planted on poor innocent young John Shade on his birthday
- so frustrating that I can't recall and no one will help in finding which
birthday it was. The birthday that gave birth to Charles Kinbote, Shade's
younger brother.
In my reading Aunt Maud and the Countess de Fyler are one and the same. The one
lives in New Wye and drives a sporty car and has young girlfriends, the other
lives rawther stodgily in Zembla. There may be proof that they are the same
basic person, in that they die on the same day, that's what I wrote to the List
once at any rate. Sylvia and Sybil (note similarity of the names) are of course
both married to John Shade.
________________________________
From:Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@att.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sat, May 4, 2013 9:20:11 AM
Subject: Did VN know German? and a library is announced
Haphazard trouvailles seem to be piling up to validate my suspicion that Nabokov
was a Hoffman reader at some time.
>
>
Dear Jansy,
I too have been a cat person in the past - but these days it's all dogs and
horses. You suspect N of being a secret admirer of Hoffmann, and I suspect his
German was much better than he let on. Why? Keine Ahnung. No, actually I am sure
that he read Goethe in the original and Hoffmann, too,. I do believe that the
"von Lichberg" Lolita was probably read by VN in Berlin in '23 when it came out.
The German is very simple. I only have high school German and I could read it
easily.
I love the "burst appendix" in your attic. I too have books coming out of the
seams - but, I am proud to announce that Westminster Cottage (where I live now)
is being transformed into a Library which will become part of the UC library
system after my passing on. After I die - why not say it. By the end of the
summer, the transformation will be complete and WC (oh dear) will be ready to
admit readers. Some of you may be aware that my alma mater, UCLA, owns a very
beautiful and important library in the West Adams district (close to USC, as it
happens), a sort of mimiatura version of the Huntington Library, the William
Andrews Clark Memorial Library, which is the repository of the largest and most
important collection of Oscar Wildeana in the world. "Westminster Cottage" will
be a branch library, so to speak, of the Clark.
The first tenant of my house (he rented) was Ralph Freud - no relation to
Jansy's Freud, so far as I know (and it's pronouncedfrood), one of the founders
of the Pasadena Play House and the founder of the theater arts department at
UCLA. Most of my book collecting was in the area of modern illustrated books and
fine bindings, music, dance and Russian literature of course. But I am now
collecting in the area of theater as well. My most prized acquisition is a 1705
printing of Shakespeare plays - the first illustrated Shakespear (that's how
it's spelled) ever published. The texts of the plays are considerably shorter
than in the more famous First Folios, and I suspect that they are closer to the
actual text of the plays as they were performed at that time, and Shakespear's
of course.
Forgive my rambling on - but I am really proud of myself in this regard. When
the library is ready, I will invite the List members to visit, so I hope you all
will forgive my prolixity this morning. And now it's back to KP!
________________________________
From:Jansy <jansy@AETERN.US>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sat, May 4, 2013 8:56:59 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Kater Murr
C. Kunin: Murli-kat'! (to purr in Russian, n'est-ce-pas?). Well, I don't know if
E T A Hoffmann (one n or two?) knew Russian or not, but his pussy is indeed a
learned Tom -- and not unNabokovian, you may agree - perhaps even a bit Pale
Fireish: The Life And Opinions Of the Tomcat Murr together with a fragmentary
Biography of Kappelmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper is
a complex satirical novel by Prussian Romantic-era author E.T.A. Hoffmann. It
was first published in 1819-1821 as Lebens-Ansichten des Katers Murr nebst
fragmentarischer Biographie des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler in zufälligen
Makulaturblättern, in two volumes. A planned third volume was never completed.
It was Hoffmann's final novel and is considered his masterpiece. It reflected
his concepts of aesthetics, and predated post-modern literary techniques in its
unusual structure. Critic Alex Ross writes of the novel, "If the phantasmagoric
'Kater Murr' were published tomorrow as the work of a young Brooklyn hipster, it
might be hailed as a tour de force of postmodern fiction."
Jansy Mello: What a find, Carolyn. It seems to anticipate Kinbote's muddling
of Zembla and Shade's life in New Wye. I had already posted something about
certain similarities and references in the VN-L concerning "Hoffmann's short
story 'My Cousin's Corner Window' [ in Berlin, that] is the dominant feature of
a "small room with a low ceiling, high above the street" "That is the usual
custom of writers and poets," writes Hoffmann. "What does the low ceiling
matter? Imagination soars aloft and builds a high and cheerful dome that rises
to the radiant blue sky.".and, recently, about the doll Olympia and the Sandman
(from Freud's article on the "Uncanny"). Haphazard trouvailles seem to be piling
up to validate my suspicion that Nabokov was a Hoffman reader at some time.
Since I used to be a cat-person (now there's Stark in my life, a devilish black
shipperke dog) and collected many stories about them, I'll start to read a
forgotten collection of ."Feline Fairy Tales" [ The King of the Cats and
other... edited by John Richard Stephens, Faber and Faber] following your
original push.I wish I could remember the plot of a cat one in Karel Kapek's (or
find his book "Nine Fairy Tales and one thrown in for good measure" that's lost
in "the burst appendix" of my attic).
Perhaps there are other cats in VN besides Hodges (there's the intriguing cat
with celadon eyes that spurns milk in RLSK) Some who understand human language
and act as spies all over the house retelling gossip for example, written by
???
It's difficult to forget that Nabokov even read with delight his uncle's
collection from La Semaine de Suzette and Bibliothèque de
www.bibliothequedesuzette.com/
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline
View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline
View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline
View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
Sadomasochistic old Maud. No, wait - this was one of his fainting spells. This
may have pre-dated John Shade's unhappy sexual initiation.
But, you're right - it must have been his eleventh birthday when his sexuality
and self were shattered. Happy Birthday to Kinbote.
Carolyn
________________________________
From: A. Bouazza <mushtary@YAHOO.COM>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Mon, May 6, 2013 11:05:22 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Did VN know German? and a library is announced
Dear Carolyn –and List,
The passage containing Shade’s eleventh birthday begins at line 140 of Canto
One:
A thread of subtle pain,
Tugged at by playful death, released again,
But always present, ran through me. One day,
When I’d just turned eleven, as I lay
Prone on the floor and watched a clockwork toy—
A tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy—
And as to “the young girl who is planted on poor innocent young John Shade”, it
is in fact a simile for his condition –lines 161 till the end of the same Canto:
But like some little lad forced by a wench
With his pure tongue her abject thirst to quench,
I was corrupted, terrified, allured,
And though old doctor Colt pronounced me cured
Of what, he said, were mainly growing pains,
The wonder lingers and the shame remains.
A. Bouazza
From:Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of
Carolyn Kunin
Sent: zondag 5 mei 2013 2:24
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Did VN know German? and a library is announced
Perhaps there are other cats in VN besides Hodges (there's the intriguing cat
with celadon eyes that spurns milk in RLSK) Some who understand human language
and act as spies all over the house retelling gossip for example, written by
???
Dear Jansy,
Beside's Johnson's real cat Hodge (no s), there is that very odd cat that is
left for Kinbote to look after, so odd that I doubt he even exists in the 'real'
world of New Wye. He is to be fed so many sardines every other day and to drink
nothing but looking glass milk, which Martin Gardner has interesting things to
say about - it would seem that Lewis Carroll foresaw modern, nay even
post-modern physics. Why not? (Wye knot, indeed).
The way he, Kinbote, strokes the pussy cat makes me think he is 'actually' in
Kinbote World caressing Fleur de Fyler, who in 'real' New Wye is a pseudonym for
the young girl who is planted on poor innocent young John Shade on his birthday
- so frustrating that I can't recall and no one will help in finding which
birthday it was. The birthday that gave birth to Charles Kinbote, Shade's
younger brother.
In my reading Aunt Maud and the Countess de Fyler are one and the same. The one
lives in New Wye and drives a sporty car and has young girlfriends, the other
lives rawther stodgily in Zembla. There may be proof that they are the same
basic person, in that they die on the same day, that's what I wrote to the List
once at any rate. Sylvia and Sybil (note similarity of the names) are of course
both married to John Shade.
________________________________
From:Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@att.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sat, May 4, 2013 9:20:11 AM
Subject: Did VN know German? and a library is announced
Haphazard trouvailles seem to be piling up to validate my suspicion that Nabokov
was a Hoffman reader at some time.
>
>
Dear Jansy,
I too have been a cat person in the past - but these days it's all dogs and
horses. You suspect N of being a secret admirer of Hoffmann, and I suspect his
German was much better than he let on. Why? Keine Ahnung. No, actually I am sure
that he read Goethe in the original and Hoffmann, too,. I do believe that the
"von Lichberg" Lolita was probably read by VN in Berlin in '23 when it came out.
The German is very simple. I only have high school German and I could read it
easily.
I love the "burst appendix" in your attic. I too have books coming out of the
seams - but, I am proud to announce that Westminster Cottage (where I live now)
is being transformed into a Library which will become part of the UC library
system after my passing on. After I die - why not say it. By the end of the
summer, the transformation will be complete and WC (oh dear) will be ready to
admit readers. Some of you may be aware that my alma mater, UCLA, owns a very
beautiful and important library in the West Adams district (close to USC, as it
happens), a sort of mimiatura version of the Huntington Library, the William
Andrews Clark Memorial Library, which is the repository of the largest and most
important collection of Oscar Wildeana in the world. "Westminster Cottage" will
be a branch library, so to speak, of the Clark.
The first tenant of my house (he rented) was Ralph Freud - no relation to
Jansy's Freud, so far as I know (and it's pronouncedfrood), one of the founders
of the Pasadena Play House and the founder of the theater arts department at
UCLA. Most of my book collecting was in the area of modern illustrated books and
fine bindings, music, dance and Russian literature of course. But I am now
collecting in the area of theater as well. My most prized acquisition is a 1705
printing of Shakespeare plays - the first illustrated Shakespear (that's how
it's spelled) ever published. The texts of the plays are considerably shorter
than in the more famous First Folios, and I suspect that they are closer to the
actual text of the plays as they were performed at that time, and Shakespear's
of course.
Forgive my rambling on - but I am really proud of myself in this regard. When
the library is ready, I will invite the List members to visit, so I hope you all
will forgive my prolixity this morning. And now it's back to KP!
________________________________
From:Jansy <jansy@AETERN.US>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sat, May 4, 2013 8:56:59 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Kater Murr
C. Kunin: Murli-kat'! (to purr in Russian, n'est-ce-pas?). Well, I don't know if
E T A Hoffmann (one n or two?) knew Russian or not, but his pussy is indeed a
learned Tom -- and not unNabokovian, you may agree - perhaps even a bit Pale
Fireish: The Life And Opinions Of the Tomcat Murr together with a fragmentary
Biography of Kappelmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper is
a complex satirical novel by Prussian Romantic-era author E.T.A. Hoffmann. It
was first published in 1819-1821 as Lebens-Ansichten des Katers Murr nebst
fragmentarischer Biographie des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler in zufälligen
Makulaturblättern, in two volumes. A planned third volume was never completed.
It was Hoffmann's final novel and is considered his masterpiece. It reflected
his concepts of aesthetics, and predated post-modern literary techniques in its
unusual structure. Critic Alex Ross writes of the novel, "If the phantasmagoric
'Kater Murr' were published tomorrow as the work of a young Brooklyn hipster, it
might be hailed as a tour de force of postmodern fiction."
Jansy Mello: What a find, Carolyn. It seems to anticipate Kinbote's muddling
of Zembla and Shade's life in New Wye. I had already posted something about
certain similarities and references in the VN-L concerning "Hoffmann's short
story 'My Cousin's Corner Window' [ in Berlin, that] is the dominant feature of
a "small room with a low ceiling, high above the street" "That is the usual
custom of writers and poets," writes Hoffmann. "What does the low ceiling
matter? Imagination soars aloft and builds a high and cheerful dome that rises
to the radiant blue sky.".and, recently, about the doll Olympia and the Sandman
(from Freud's article on the "Uncanny"). Haphazard trouvailles seem to be piling
up to validate my suspicion that Nabokov was a Hoffman reader at some time.
Since I used to be a cat-person (now there's Stark in my life, a devilish black
shipperke dog) and collected many stories about them, I'll start to read a
forgotten collection of ."Feline Fairy Tales" [ The King of the Cats and
other... edited by John Richard Stephens, Faber and Faber] following your
original push.I wish I could remember the plot of a cat one in Karel Kapek's (or
find his book "Nine Fairy Tales and one thrown in for good measure" that's lost
in "the burst appendix" of my attic).
Perhaps there are other cats in VN besides Hodges (there's the intriguing cat
with celadon eyes that spurns milk in RLSK) Some who understand human language
and act as spies all over the house retelling gossip for example, written by
???
It's difficult to forget that Nabokov even read with delight his uncle's
collection from La Semaine de Suzette and Bibliothèque de
www.bibliothequedesuzette.com/
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline
View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline
View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline
View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/