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Fw: [NABOKV-L] An interesting interview of Nabokov in French
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Re: [NABOKV-L] An interesting interview of Nabokov in FrenchQ- Did you invent the word "nymphet"?
V. Nabokov: Yes, I did. There was already the word "nymph". And Ronsard, who likes Latin diminutives, used the word "nymphette" in a sonnet. But not in the sense I used it. For him it was a nymph who was gentle....
Stan Kelly-Bootle: "I think the verb 'invent' needs clarification in the context of forming words as opposed to building material gadgets or devising production processes...Claimed 'neologisms,' such as VN's 'nymphet,' lack a comparable verification trail... what VN 'invented' was not 'nymphet,' the diminutive of 'nympth,' but, as he clearly acknowledges in the cited interview, the first user of the 'pre-existing' noun 'nymphet' with an original, 'refined/specific' definition... Nabokov was justified in claiming to be the first to use 'nymphet' as defined in his novel Lolita. But, as Maurice Couturier notes, this confers no 'monopoly' on the word itself, and can never preclude other valid usages of 'nymphet' and 'nymphette' based on the diminutive suffixes.
JM: I tormented myself after having chosen to render Couturier's "Nabokov prétend avoir inventé le mot" as "Nabokov pretends to have invented the word," because, although the English "pretend" is ample enough to accommodate Couturier's meaning, certainly the more common "feigns," instead of "claims," will be the first (never the "nympth") interpretation to hit the reader.
It seems clear to me that Nabokov's "invention," implies, as you demonstrate*, in his recognition that he'd been "the first user of the pre-existing noun...with an original...definition" and that a movie, with the title "Les Nymphettes," to be released almost at the same time as Nabokov/Kubrick's "Lolita," smacks of opportunism. Nevertheless VN would have the same difficulty to win a suit against the French producers as he'd have now, concerning all the non-nymphic Lolitas (even an innocent bed) we now find haunting the media. Unless he could prove that the French "Les Nymphettes" arose from the translation of (his) "Nymphet," not from Ronsard's original term of endearment or any present-day fresh or accidental coinage*.
.......................
* - As did Couturier, at first, when he wrote "It is thanks to him, though, that the word got a new lease on life in French in the very special meaning we know." [ http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287 <http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287>
** -Similar quandaries would never take place in Popper-Borges's Orbis Tertius . Besides, no one can complain about W.G.Sebald's re-appropriation of Borges's words in the crystals of his saturnine novel.
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V. Nabokov: Yes, I did. There was already the word "nymph". And Ronsard, who likes Latin diminutives, used the word "nymphette" in a sonnet. But not in the sense I used it. For him it was a nymph who was gentle....
Stan Kelly-Bootle: "I think the verb 'invent' needs clarification in the context of forming words as opposed to building material gadgets or devising production processes...Claimed 'neologisms,' such as VN's 'nymphet,' lack a comparable verification trail... what VN 'invented' was not 'nymphet,' the diminutive of 'nympth,' but, as he clearly acknowledges in the cited interview, the first user of the 'pre-existing' noun 'nymphet' with an original, 'refined/specific' definition... Nabokov was justified in claiming to be the first to use 'nymphet' as defined in his novel Lolita. But, as Maurice Couturier notes, this confers no 'monopoly' on the word itself, and can never preclude other valid usages of 'nymphet' and 'nymphette' based on the diminutive suffixes.
JM: I tormented myself after having chosen to render Couturier's "Nabokov prétend avoir inventé le mot" as "Nabokov pretends to have invented the word," because, although the English "pretend" is ample enough to accommodate Couturier's meaning, certainly the more common "feigns," instead of "claims," will be the first (never the "nympth") interpretation to hit the reader.
It seems clear to me that Nabokov's "invention," implies, as you demonstrate*, in his recognition that he'd been "the first user of the pre-existing noun...with an original...definition" and that a movie, with the title "Les Nymphettes," to be released almost at the same time as Nabokov/Kubrick's "Lolita," smacks of opportunism. Nevertheless VN would have the same difficulty to win a suit against the French producers as he'd have now, concerning all the non-nymphic Lolitas (even an innocent bed) we now find haunting the media. Unless he could prove that the French "Les Nymphettes" arose from the translation of (his) "Nymphet," not from Ronsard's original term of endearment or any present-day fresh or accidental coinage*.
.......................
* - As did Couturier, at first, when he wrote "It is thanks to him, though, that the word got a new lease on life in French in the very special meaning we know." [ http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287 <http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287>
** -Similar quandaries would never take place in Popper-Borges's Orbis Tertius . Besides, no one can complain about W.G.Sebald's re-appropriation of Borges's words in the crystals of his saturnine novel.
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/