S.K-B, The: ... in Russian language (and Latin, too!) one survives without overt
articles, def. or indef. Likewise, copula usually omitted! [...] I wrote “When I
lectured in Soviet Union ...” ... and adding footnote ( and
aren't footnotes problem? In Portuguese, they dance a "nota
de rodapé" while a literal reading is achieved, as in French, "au pied de la
lettre").
This lack or vagueness in
grammatical “particularity/generality-markers” raises deep linguistic problems
[...]Suffice it to say that Russian title for Goodman’s [T]TOSK would not
normally distinguish “The Tragedy ...” from “A Tragedy ...” ...When we come to
V’s TRLOSK, I would suggest that there’s less ambiguity: REAL LIFE (in any
language) implies THE, one-and-only, REAL LIFE (beware of Unreal imposters!)
JM: From TRLSK's cat with
"celadon eyes" I went on to Samuel Johnson's ( because of the
importance Hodge acquires later on) and to his critical writings about
Dryden's drama on Celadon and Astrea. In Lives of
the Poets: Vol 1 Samuel Johnson wrote: When the king was restored, Dryden, like the other
panegyrists of usurpation, changed his opinion, or his profession, and published
"Astræa Redux"; a poem on the happy Restoration and Return of his most sacred
Majesty King Charles the second[...] Don
Sebastian, 1690, [...]makes
approaches to the possibilities of
real life, and has some
sentiments which leave a strong
impression..."
Don
Sebastian, of Dryden’s play, was a real king, like
Charles II. Could V.Nabokov have had
Johnson's words on Dryden in his mind when he chose the name "Sebastian Knight"
for his equally vanishing hero? (actually, among the eighteenth-century writers,
the one name that is conspicuously absent in VN list of eighteenth century
authors is, indeed, Trinity College’s John Dryden, who perfected the heroic couplet
later used by his disciple, Alexander Pope, and
explored by fictional John Shade in PF.Samuel Johnson, writing on Dryden and his "Don
Sebastian" was my first intimation of a familiarity between English 18th Century
authors ( read by Nabokov) and the
Portuguese king who disappeared in the North of Africa.
This is what VN had to say about
Dryden: “The play of inner assonances that
is so striking in EO and other poems by Pushkin occurs, not infrequently, in
English verse. One remembers Dryden’s beautifully couterpointed lines ( in his
imitation, 1962, of Juvenal, Satires,
VI) in which the confusion of intoxication is rendered by words echoing and
mimicking each other (ll. 422-23; my italics): When vapours to their swimming brains advance,And double tapers on the table dance. " Isn't it
reminiscent of SK's "lovely, dove and
lily" fragrant line?
S.K-B: This doesn’t explain why
“The” has been omitted in some English bibliographies, but it might be a clue
that texts have passed through Russian editorial hands?
JM: A good point. As I later realized, the title "Tragedy"
only appears in very Russian V's first chapter. You complained that
"Editor added missing “the’s,” “a’s” and “is’s” -- known in trade as “textual
harassment,” or “spoiling bad joke?”.
In V.Nabokov's book, not V's, we cannot at present be certain if there
were any intended jokes or just a case of editorial tactics.
S.K-B: I believe that the Anglo-Saxon
“the” evolved from the demonstrative “that?” -- the “pointing” theory of naming
concrete objects.Which brings us back to Jansy’s comment on ADAM being granted
the rights to naming the animals in what Joyce called the Book of
Guinnesses...Quite strange, surely, since someone (presumably Jahweh) has
already named the entities “light,” “darkness,” and “firmament!” So early
on in our Universe, we have the birth of language (but which language, shared by
God and Adam?)
JM: Ironically, Umberto Eco had to settle for " The Search
of the Perfect Language" because G.Steiner had before him named his book on
the same subject :"After Babel". As you know, they both discuss the
issue concerning the nature of God's language while addressing
Adam.
I have no idea why their arguments were so inconclusive!
S.K-B : I’m on the Welsh border where rumours of
consenting bestiality persist.
JM: Samuel Johnson's cat must then have
practiced "humanism" to avoid going astray?