Jansy: I agree that such allusions/sightings add to our sheer reading pleasure. What I find boring about much of my non-Nabokov-fiction reading is the absence of “lexical challenge.” But I must say that “celadan eyes” are more intriguing than the almost commonplace idiom “light of my life.” The latter’s appeal derives from the alliterative context of Lolita’s loins and labia[ls].
“Celadan” will certainly have me brushing up my somewhat stale Dryden, and re-reading RLSK for further clues of relevance beyond the mere fact (coincidence?) of usage. My chief reservation against “dis-allusion,” to cite Priscilla Meyers again, is not to extrapolate VN’s use of, say, a few Anglo-Saxon puns into reading Pale Fire as a hidden treatise on the evolution of the English Language competing with Otto Jesperson! (I exaggerate; sorry).
An instance of Nabokovian serendipity: today I notice a book on lepidoptery on my daughter’s shelf. I read of the warnings of over-collecting rare butterflies, and the growing interest in breeding threatened species and releasing them into the wild. Immediate thought: must check if VN ever tried this? The author specializes with Big Blues, tricky since they breed in ant-hills! On the first page discussing ecozonal distributions, the word PALEARCTIC puzzles until I realize that the PALE, pronounced PALLY [sic], is from the prefix PALEO- meaning ancient or Old-World. Do we have Friendly Pale(o)-Fire with Promethean implications?
I may not be the first to ask this, but
Your search - "Pale Fire" Prometheus site:listserv.ucsb.edu=en - did not match any documents.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 21/02/2009 17:15, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
I wondered how common were certain apparently simple associations of words, created by Nabokov, to warrant a "sighting" when they appear in another author's work, or if they are then merely unrelated recurring images.
1. Celadon eyes ( RLSK and "a cat with celadon eyes") could indicate John Dryden's play Astrea ( through her lover, Celadon), Chinese blue-green porcelain and, after Eric Rohmer's movie Celadon et Astrée, fashionable items such as brands of wine [Cf. 2005 Topanga Vineyards, 'Celadon',CA: a shadowy girl with smoky celadon eyes as frigid as glacier ice ( files.meetup.com/397296/Nectar_wine_glass_list_marina.pdf0.] or make-up [ Celadon Pure Eyes Matte Eyeshadow: A rich mid-deep toned green matte shadow...]
2. Light of my life ( Lolita ) with its whiff of tango. There are several songs in Portuguese titled "Luz da minha vida" (Bosco & Vinicius and two other country music lyrics) and in Spanish "Luz de Mi Vida" Cf. www.metrolyrics.com/luz-de-mi-vida-lyrics-los-lobos.html <http://www.metrolyrics.com/luz-de-mi-vida-lyrics-los-lobos.html> ;cifras.clickgratis.com.br/marcos_witt_-_gospel/luz_de_mi_vida-18269.html; letras.terra.com.br/patricia-sosa/495645/
The most surprising is the "Gospel" by Marcos Witt: "Luz de mi vida, aliento en mi ser/ tu amor me consume, es fuego en mi ser/ y nada podrá apagar este amor/ Luz de mi vida eres tú/ al contemplarte te quiero adorar, tu voz seduce mi voluntad/ tú eres mi primer amor, y yo anhelo tu gloria en mí", also because it mentions "light of my life/ fire in my being (fuego en mi ser)"
The curious sighting/references (?) I came across today came from Dean Koontz: "From the Corner of his Eye" ( 2000 Bantam Books):
1. "A man with beautiful celadon eyes, his face beaded with jewels of rain, reached through the cut-away door and removed the blanket from Agnes." (p.59)
2."Get this through your head, you shit-for-brains. I lost a daughter, a precious daughter, my Naomi, the light of my life." (p.169).
I haven't yet progressed enough and wonder if I will go on but these two references stood out in its initial chapters. The new-born hero is called Bartholomew ( is there also something in common with Lolita's and Pnin's St.Bart?)