Subject
Re: Shelley on Mont Blanc... II
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The bizarre -- even Nabokovian -- thing is that some years ago, in an
effort to identify the young patient whom Freud mentions in his letters to
Fliess, I inspected hotel registers, cure-lists, etc. I also asked the staff
and proprietors of a number of Interlaken hotels whether I might view any
lavatories installed at the time in question from which one might, in however
contorted a position, observe the Jungfrau. These good people assured me
politely -- without any hint of a suggestion that my request was an odd one
-- that, in the late nineteenth century, while every hotel was built with
its best rooms facing the Jungfrau, the lavatories were all at the rear of
the building, thus affording no possibility whatever of glimpsing that
mountain.
In the end, another historian of psychoanalysis (Peter Swales), after much
inconclusive research by both of us, identified the young patient (Oskar
Fellner) from an archive in Vienna.
Anthony Stadlen
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
For Existential Psychotherapy and Inner Circle Seminars see:
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/)
In a message dated 05/12/2013 03:01:45 GMT Standard Time,
jansy.nabokv-L@AETERN.US writes:
Robert Roper: "What was the Shelleyan effect upon VN of encountering the
American sublime, in the form of the Rockies and other Western landscapes
he cherished first for their butterflies?"
Jansy Mello: The only novelistic reference that I remember relates to
"Lolita" (but Quilty intervened and, besides, should we trust HH?).
"I remember as a child in Europe gloating over a map of North America that
had "Appalachian Mountains" boldly running from Alabama up to New
Brunswick, so that the whole region they spanned — Tennessee, the Virginias,
Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, appeared to my
imagination as a gigantic Switzerland or even Tibet, all mountain, glorious diamond
peak upon peak, giant conifers, le montagnard émigré in his bear skin
glory, and Felis tigris goldsmithi, and Red Indians under the catalpas. That it
all boiled down to a measly suburban lawn and a smoking garbage
incinerator, was appalling. Farewell, Appalachia! Leaving it, we crossed Ohio, the
three states beginning with "I," and Nebraska — ah, that first whiff of the
West!"
It would be nice to read VN's testimonies about the "American sublime"
that were unrelated to his passion for butterflies.*
............................................................................
............................................................................
....................................................................
* - (1) http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/LolitaUSA/LoUSNab.htm
Cf. Nabokov's Summer Trips to the West, 1941-1953
.........................................
......................................................
(2) In his letter 279 (written in August 14,1956) Nabokov writes to Wilson
that "we moved on to higher altitudes in Wyoming and Montana.
Incidentally, in one of his letters to Fliess the Viennese Sage mentions a young
patient who masturbated in the w.c of the Interlaken hotel in a special
contracted position so as to be able to glimpse (now comes the Viennese Sage's
curative explanation) the Jungfrau. He should have been a young Frenchman in a
Wyoming motel with a view of the Tetons."
(Jungfrau in German means "virgin". Wiki informs that "The Teton Range
(the Rocky Mountains in North America)...on the Wyoming side of the state's
border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park....Early French
voyageurs gave the name "les Trois Tétons" (the three breasts)." (copied
from VN-L archives)
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effort to identify the young patient whom Freud mentions in his letters to
Fliess, I inspected hotel registers, cure-lists, etc. I also asked the staff
and proprietors of a number of Interlaken hotels whether I might view any
lavatories installed at the time in question from which one might, in however
contorted a position, observe the Jungfrau. These good people assured me
politely -- without any hint of a suggestion that my request was an odd one
-- that, in the late nineteenth century, while every hotel was built with
its best rooms facing the Jungfrau, the lavatories were all at the rear of
the building, thus affording no possibility whatever of glimpsing that
mountain.
In the end, another historian of psychoanalysis (Peter Swales), after much
inconclusive research by both of us, identified the young patient (Oskar
Fellner) from an archive in Vienna.
Anthony Stadlen
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
For Existential Psychotherapy and Inner Circle Seminars see:
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/)
In a message dated 05/12/2013 03:01:45 GMT Standard Time,
jansy.nabokv-L@AETERN.US writes:
Robert Roper: "What was the Shelleyan effect upon VN of encountering the
American sublime, in the form of the Rockies and other Western landscapes
he cherished first for their butterflies?"
Jansy Mello: The only novelistic reference that I remember relates to
"Lolita" (but Quilty intervened and, besides, should we trust HH?).
"I remember as a child in Europe gloating over a map of North America that
had "Appalachian Mountains" boldly running from Alabama up to New
Brunswick, so that the whole region they spanned — Tennessee, the Virginias,
Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, appeared to my
imagination as a gigantic Switzerland or even Tibet, all mountain, glorious diamond
peak upon peak, giant conifers, le montagnard émigré in his bear skin
glory, and Felis tigris goldsmithi, and Red Indians under the catalpas. That it
all boiled down to a measly suburban lawn and a smoking garbage
incinerator, was appalling. Farewell, Appalachia! Leaving it, we crossed Ohio, the
three states beginning with "I," and Nebraska — ah, that first whiff of the
West!"
It would be nice to read VN's testimonies about the "American sublime"
that were unrelated to his passion for butterflies.*
............................................................................
............................................................................
....................................................................
* - (1) http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/LolitaUSA/LoUSNab.htm
Cf. Nabokov's Summer Trips to the West, 1941-1953
.........................................
......................................................
(2) In his letter 279 (written in August 14,1956) Nabokov writes to Wilson
that "we moved on to higher altitudes in Wyoming and Montana.
Incidentally, in one of his letters to Fliess the Viennese Sage mentions a young
patient who masturbated in the w.c of the Interlaken hotel in a special
contracted position so as to be able to glimpse (now comes the Viennese Sage's
curative explanation) the Jungfrau. He should have been a young Frenchman in a
Wyoming motel with a view of the Tetons."
(Jungfrau in German means "virgin". Wiki informs that "The Teton Range
(the Rocky Mountains in North America)...on the Wyoming side of the state's
border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park....Early French
voyageurs gave the name "les Trois Tétons" (the three breasts)." (copied
from VN-L archives)
_Google Search _
(http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en
)
_the archive_
(http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en
) _Contact_ (mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu)
_the Editors_ (mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu) _NOJ_
(http://www.nabokovonline.com/) _Zembla_
(http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm) _Nabokv-L _ (http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm)
_Policies_ (http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm) _Subscription
options_ (http://listserv.ucsb.edu/) _AdaOnline_ (http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/)
_NSJ Ada Annotations_ (http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html) _L-Soft
Search the archive_ (https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L)
_VN Bibliography Blog_ (http://vnbiblio.com/)
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/
