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Back to Bruce Stone:" Editorial In(ter)ference: Errata and Aporia
in Lolita"
in Lolita"
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According to Bruce Stone, one of John Ray's pomposities is "the too-precious and antiquated verb 'preambulates'."
In the word prologue (foreword) and in the epilogue (afterword) there's an indication of that which is being spoken, as in a play, or in a written in a text.
The same seems to be the case for "preface" (pre + phanai,"speak", phasis, "word").The ambiguity that Bruce Stone noticed in John Ray's preamble ["'Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male,' such were the two titles under which the writer of the present note received the strange pages it preambulates"] may become more glaring because the passage from a noun to a verb in this case gets problematic once we realize that, unlike "prologue" and "preface" (dealing with "words") the meaning of "ambulate" is "walk." (literally, to use a pair of legs to move around). John Ray walks ahead of himself just like Humbert Humbert comes before himself?*
So much for impossible figures...
Besides, the "preamble" usually points to a lawyer's introductory formalities to a decree, right?. In "Lolita" the lawyer in question must be JR Jr's cousin, not Jr himself. Strange....
(Jansy)
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* - "Had I come before myself, I would have given Humbert at least thirty-five years for rape, and dismissed the rest of the charges..."
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In the word prologue (foreword) and in the epilogue (afterword) there's an indication of that which is being spoken, as in a play, or in a written in a text.
The same seems to be the case for "preface" (pre + phanai,"speak", phasis, "word").The ambiguity that Bruce Stone noticed in John Ray's preamble ["'Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male,' such were the two titles under which the writer of the present note received the strange pages it preambulates"] may become more glaring because the passage from a noun to a verb in this case gets problematic once we realize that, unlike "prologue" and "preface" (dealing with "words") the meaning of "ambulate" is "walk." (literally, to use a pair of legs to move around). John Ray walks ahead of himself just like Humbert Humbert comes before himself?*
So much for impossible figures...
Besides, the "preamble" usually points to a lawyer's introductory formalities to a decree, right?. In "Lolita" the lawyer in question must be JR Jr's cousin, not Jr himself. Strange....
(Jansy)
..................................................................................................................................................................
* - "Had I come before myself, I would have given Humbert at least thirty-five years for rape, and dismissed the rest of the charges..."
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/