C.Kunin[ about "preterist"]
The word has only two usages that I am aware of -- one is grammatical
(Hebrew has a preterist "mood" if you like, neither passé composé
nor passé simple), the other is a particular, according to
some "heretical", interpretation of the bible.* Neither of which makes sense in
the context of the poem, except possibly in the sense of "heretic", which at
least works grammatically but still needs explanation.
JM: To ellucidate one point: Nabokov
is not the sole "owner" of a word. I used "preterist" in
connection to Kinbote because I was engaged in a preterist mood of my own,
ie, using the word as it may be encountered in some dictionaries.
It is to be understood as being related to what is past.
In my sentence there was no conjecture about Shade's
peculiar use.
C.Kunin [continuation} In the
wilder flights of my own reading of PF, I have conjectured...I have thought it
interesting... that the Shade house lies between that of a judge and that of
Shade's (possibly mental) physician.
JM: Now that's a very interesting
observation, as I see it. A symbolic setting! Shade's inherited home,
in which he still lives and was never capable to leave, being placed
between the judge's (Law) and a physician ( physical and mental-illnesses).
Remember that Sutton's house lay above these three
other houses and, somehow, with its view and visitors, may be
indirectly associated to astronomy, sun calendars and a view that
encompasses both a lake lying below and the open sky and universe.
btw: a "cold nest" could be related to all
the empty houses that are left behind ( VN's own possessions in Russia, fixed
abodes he could never reconstruct in America or anywhere else). But the empty
shell of eggs and cold nests might also present an interesting parallel
for Kunin's correlational model (New Wye and Zembla): remember those other empty
shells, those in the sea... the kingly pursuits of
"conchology" ...