Subject
Re: Oceanus Nox
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Date
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Alexey Sklyarenko: The sky was also heartless and dark, and her [Lucette's] body, her head, and particularly those damned thirsty trousers, felt clogged with Oceanus Nox, n, o, x. (Ada, Part Three, 5). The chapter of Byloe i dumy in which Herzen tells about the death of his mother and son in a ship-wreck is entitled Oceano Nox (1851).
JM: I've always puzzled about the black "Nox" that clogged Lucette's movements. Your find seems to me to settle the matter quite satisfactorily. Kudos!
In the latest Fall 2010 Nabokovian, in Brian Boyd's "annotations to Ada" (199.25-26), he describes Ophelia's drowning, when her "clothes spread wide,/ And mermaid-like they bore her up", "one of Nabokov's favorite passages in Hamlet" Now quoting the end of the passage (motif Ophelia): "..."But long it could not be/ Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,/ Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay/ To muddy death."
I wonder if its first lines (introduced into Bend Sinister, ch 7,118), when they describe a "willow grows aslant a brook/ That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream" (Boyd,199.25.26), may be related to Lucette's "willow-green shorts" (BB, 198.11-12, motif red-green; willow-green). I was unable to check "willow-green" on line, though, but I'm neither an apt navigator nor a good swimmer...
Cf. http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ada17ann.htm#493334 144.33: sea-green eye: Green is associated with Lucette (her eye color, her favorite clothes) and her envious espials ("the keyhole turned an angry green," 213.30-31; "while Lucette considered with darkening green eyes," 278.28-29); sea-green with her death in the sea, and the movie that precedes the fatal Don Juan's Last Fling, "featuring a cruise to Greenland, with heavy seas in gaudy technicolor" (487.18-19, italics added). MOTIF: green [Lucette].
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In his note 199.33 Boyd observes that "celestino" is an "Invented trade name." Since the chapter "focuses on the comedy of change" and Van is grappling with "an abundance of others, family and filmmakers," I was wondering it the name could, in anyway, be related to a Brazilian singer and minor actor, Vicente Celestino ( Mexican Pedro and Rio are mentioned in Ch. 32), born in Rio, in 1894. Certainly the word "celestino" (sky-related) fits in well as a brand name for swimming-pool chemicals. I find it hard to imagine Nabokov would have heard of a Latin American sentimental Celestino.. Vicente Celestino - O Ebrio (1946)
4 min - 7 jul. 2006
Video enviado por rambonak
youtube.com
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JM: I've always puzzled about the black "Nox" that clogged Lucette's movements. Your find seems to me to settle the matter quite satisfactorily. Kudos!
In the latest Fall 2010 Nabokovian, in Brian Boyd's "annotations to Ada" (199.25-26), he describes Ophelia's drowning, when her "clothes spread wide,/ And mermaid-like they bore her up", "one of Nabokov's favorite passages in Hamlet" Now quoting the end of the passage (motif Ophelia): "..."But long it could not be/ Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,/ Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay/ To muddy death."
I wonder if its first lines (introduced into Bend Sinister, ch 7,118), when they describe a "willow grows aslant a brook/ That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream" (Boyd,199.25.26), may be related to Lucette's "willow-green shorts" (BB, 198.11-12, motif red-green; willow-green). I was unable to check "willow-green" on line, though, but I'm neither an apt navigator nor a good swimmer...
Cf. http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ada17ann.htm#493334 144.33: sea-green eye: Green is associated with Lucette (her eye color, her favorite clothes) and her envious espials ("the keyhole turned an angry green," 213.30-31; "while Lucette considered with darkening green eyes," 278.28-29); sea-green with her death in the sea, and the movie that precedes the fatal Don Juan's Last Fling, "featuring a cruise to Greenland, with heavy seas in gaudy technicolor" (487.18-19, italics added). MOTIF: green [Lucette].
...............................................................................................................................................................
In his note 199.33 Boyd observes that "celestino" is an "Invented trade name." Since the chapter "focuses on the comedy of change" and Van is grappling with "an abundance of others, family and filmmakers," I was wondering it the name could, in anyway, be related to a Brazilian singer and minor actor, Vicente Celestino ( Mexican Pedro and Rio are mentioned in Ch. 32), born in Rio, in 1894. Certainly the word "celestino" (sky-related) fits in well as a brand name for swimming-pool chemicals. I find it hard to imagine Nabokov would have heard of a Latin American sentimental Celestino.. Vicente Celestino - O Ebrio (1946)
4 min - 7 jul. 2006
Video enviado por rambonak
youtube.com
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/