Subject
Of bumblebees, moths and flies
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Date
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Vladimir Nabokov mentions Robert Browning in Lolita and Pale Fire. One of the references, to "Pippa passes," is made at least twice. Today I was examining some of its verses before I reached the widely quoted last lines about "God's in his Heaven -- All's right with the world! ".*
There are two other works by Nabokov, probably unrelated to anything Browningian, in which there is a reference to a similar atmosphere of intimacy, serenity and peace that evolves into an epiphanic quality.
The paragraphs in question, in these two books (Bend Sinister and Speak, Memory) are connected by the small turmoil caused by an insect ( a bumblebee, a moth).
"I see again my schoolroom in Vyra, the blue roses of the wallpaper, the open window. Its reflection fills the oval mirror above the leathern couch where my uncle sits, gloating over a tattered book. A sense of security, of well-being, of summer warmth pervades my memory. That robust reality makes a ghost of the present. The mirror brims with brightness; a bumblebee has entered the room and bumps against the ceiling. Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die." (Speak,Memory)
..........................................
"The various parts of my comparative paradise - the bedside lamp, the sleeping tablets, the glass of milk - looked with perfect submission into my eyes[...] Some tower clock which I could never exactly locate, which, in fact, I never heard in the daytime, struck twice...Across the lane, two windows only were still alive...The shredded ray of a streetlamp brought out a bright green section of wet boxhedge. I could also distinguish the glint of a special puddle (the one Krug had somehow perceived through the layer of his own life), an oblong puddle invariably acquiring the same form ...Possibly, something of the kind may be said to occur in regard to the imprint we leave in the intimate texture of space. Twang. A good night for mothing."(Bend Sinister, closing lines).
While trying to get the VN quotes from the internet to check any possible and tangible link to R.Browning, I reached a site [actually this should be termed a "Sighting"] that included a new insect, a fly buzzing through memories and Marcel Proust:
"when a bumblebee, in a nearly perfect iteration of Proust's flies, enters the adult Nabokov's room, the recovery is complete: "nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die"** Although this is something I'm unable to pursue any further, I suppose that the relevant aspects of the "mothing optimism" it reveals, is still worth bringing up to the attention of the VN-List.
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* Robert Browning - Pippa passes (last lines):
The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven --
All's right with the world!
** "Sex, lies, and autobiography: the ethics of confession," by James L. O'Rourke - 2006 .
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There are two other works by Nabokov, probably unrelated to anything Browningian, in which there is a reference to a similar atmosphere of intimacy, serenity and peace that evolves into an epiphanic quality.
The paragraphs in question, in these two books (Bend Sinister and Speak, Memory) are connected by the small turmoil caused by an insect ( a bumblebee, a moth).
"I see again my schoolroom in Vyra, the blue roses of the wallpaper, the open window. Its reflection fills the oval mirror above the leathern couch where my uncle sits, gloating over a tattered book. A sense of security, of well-being, of summer warmth pervades my memory. That robust reality makes a ghost of the present. The mirror brims with brightness; a bumblebee has entered the room and bumps against the ceiling. Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die." (Speak,Memory)
..........................................
"The various parts of my comparative paradise - the bedside lamp, the sleeping tablets, the glass of milk - looked with perfect submission into my eyes[...] Some tower clock which I could never exactly locate, which, in fact, I never heard in the daytime, struck twice...Across the lane, two windows only were still alive...The shredded ray of a streetlamp brought out a bright green section of wet boxhedge. I could also distinguish the glint of a special puddle (the one Krug had somehow perceived through the layer of his own life), an oblong puddle invariably acquiring the same form ...Possibly, something of the kind may be said to occur in regard to the imprint we leave in the intimate texture of space. Twang. A good night for mothing."(Bend Sinister, closing lines).
While trying to get the VN quotes from the internet to check any possible and tangible link to R.Browning, I reached a site [actually this should be termed a "Sighting"] that included a new insect, a fly buzzing through memories and Marcel Proust:
"when a bumblebee, in a nearly perfect iteration of Proust's flies, enters the adult Nabokov's room, the recovery is complete: "nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die"** Although this is something I'm unable to pursue any further, I suppose that the relevant aspects of the "mothing optimism" it reveals, is still worth bringing up to the attention of the VN-List.
......................................................................................................................................................................
* Robert Browning - Pippa passes (last lines):
The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven --
All's right with the world!
** "Sex, lies, and autobiography: the ethics of confession," by James L. O'Rourke - 2006 .
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/