Jerry Friedman replies to
Jansy [If rain there was, for
the needed refraction of the light creating an iridescence, it must be falling
high up in the strata and never reach the earth.] This is called virga, but I have to be careful about
saying that here in New Mexico (where virga is common), because the word is on
the verge, Van, of an obscene Spanish word.
JF's second
reply [Iridules, according to Shade, are a rare phenomenon. I
don't think I ever saw one, I wonder if they exist except for Shade. Has anyone
ever found an iridule?] Nabokov, apparently. Brian Boyd ...
doesn't tell us whether Nabokov said at the time that the "iridule" was a
reflection of the rainbow... I don't think Shade's description can be correct,
because I don't believe a cloud can reflect an image, especially of something
distant and no brighter than its surroundings... An iridescent cloud is one
thing, a parhelion is another, and a mother-of-pearl cloud is yet another. I
still suspect that Nabokov saw a parhelion and a rainbow at the same time and
thought, or let Shade think, that the former was a reflection of the latter. In
that case Kinbote, of all people, would be right.
I have no idea how the
alder fits in. Something to do with alderflies, aquatic insects of the family
Sialidae? But in pictures on the Web, they don't seem to be iridescent.
Panayoti Kelaidis writes:I and my family have observed
iridules on several occasions in Colorado... I am not sure they are a reflection
of a rainbow at all, but in fact a distant, high altitude rainbow that occurs
when light hits a cloud at just the right angle at a certain time of
day...
JM: I gather, from JF's quote
from Boyd, that VN saw various special iridescences and named
them "iridules" - and then let John Shade apply the neologism. Isn't
it curious, though, that Shade would have employed the term incorrectly,
by extending it to a cloud that reflects an image (as JF said:
"he let Shade think..."), whereas VN let Kinbote get
it right?
Legend describes a buried treasure close
to the rainbow and a gender change for those who "pass under" the
rainbow.
Alder carries us to the
"Erlkönig" (Alderking): "Muderperlwelk" contains "erl", as
does "peacock-herl" and the play with "pearl". This is why I thought
Kinbote might be misinforming us about Shade's neologism.
Nevertheless, if it is impossible to have a
cloud reflect a distant rainbow (as Shade defined the opal-oval cloud and
distant valleys), wouldn't VN here have made an intrusion to mock the
reader with Shade's "mirage"?
Another word-play (pearl-herl-erl-alder;
opal-oval) might be "range" (Shade: "mountain range"/ "adult range"
in the connection made by
Kinbote)
Thanks to P.Kelaidis for the clarification on "high altitude rainbow",
perhaps in association to JF's "virga".
Jerry, wonderful links to parhelion, iridescent, and mother of pearl,
clouds with their exciting images. It seems that Nabokov mentioned all the three
effects in PF!
Now what did Kinbote mean by: "The short (166 lines) Canto One, with all those
amusing birds and parhelia"?