Alexey Sklyarenko: The hero of
Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" is the charming rogue
Ostap Bender. Interestingly, Herr Bender (a loser, like his namesake, but a less
cheerful one) is a character in Heine's poem Frau Mette (1830)... (Nach dem
Dänischen)" Herr Peter und Bender saßen beim Wein, ..."Ich war heut Nacht am
Nixenfluß,/ "Ich war heut nacht im Elfenwald, Zu schaun den Elfenreigen..."Die
Elfen tanzen im Monat Mai...Jetzt aber herrscht der kalte Herbst/Und heult der
Wind in den Wäldern."
JM: I did some checking
before I ventured to add a story about another Bender, a
Viennese familiar to every psychologist, ie: Lauretta
Bender. Lucky me, for her husband, Paul Schilder, was killed
by a motor-car, not by a cab-horse (the latter happened with Gaudí in
Barcelona).
Anyway, thanks
for bringing up Heine's poem (he was very critical of the German mania of
elves and fairies while he explained German Romantics to the French), in
the full glory of "Elfenwald" and "Nixenfluss".
It's interesting to note that Mr.
Bender corrected his wandering wife's stories, setting the events in
their correct season (ie: the elves only dance in May and the season was, at
that time,Fall.)
btw: Nobody answered me why
was there an autumnal breeze blowing through Shade's poem at that
point (query in 18 May 2010 related to "Raised by a trillion crickets
in the fall".) According to Gary Lipon's
theory, Shade was sane at the time when he wrote lines 115/116. He was
then reminiscing about his childhood and the passage of time, so
"autumn" may nicely contrast with his life's springtime. And
yet?
It's interesting to notice that Shade will
return to Dr. Sutton at the close of his poem ( line 119 "That’s Dr.
Sutton’s light. That’s the Great Bear."**). In this Canto he
already mentions death with the familiar lines that were used in the
opening chapter of Speak,Memory ( "Outstare the stars. Infinite
foretime and/Infinite aftertime: above
your head/They close like giant wings, and you are dead"), refer to
"making water" (cp.with "here
Papa pisses", CK note on line 347), and return to his first line with a
slight alteration (132/33):
I was the shadow of the
waxwing slain
By
feigned remoteness in the windowpane.
PS: When I checked the
Nab-L archives, to retrieve the autumnal question, I came to this
interesting posting: "In Chapter Seven of The Hound of the Baskervilles,
Mr. Stapleton of Merripit House, a naturalist carrying a butterfly net
and specimen box, addresses Dr. Watson with a laugh: "'That is the great
Grimpen Mire,'... Even in dry seasons it is a danger to cross it, but after
these autumn rains it is an awful place."
the posting from the Pynchon list, dates
from Mon, 28 Jul 2003. It extracts from the OED 2nd
edition: grimpen [Etym. uncertain.] A marshy
area.
1902 A. Conan Doyle Hound of Baskervilles vii. 153 Life
has become like that great Grimpen Mire, with little green
patches everywhere into which one may sink and with no guide to
point the track.
1940 T. S. Eliot East Coker ii. 10 In a
dark wood, in a bramble,/On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure
foothold.
1968 W. S. Baring-Gould Annotated Sherlock Holmes II.
xxxvi. 47/ As is well known, Watson's "Great Grimpen Mire" is
Grimspound Bog, three miles to the north and west of
Widecombe-in-the-Moor.
.............................................................................................................................................................................
*
- "The sun
attains/ Old
Dr. Sutton’s last two windowpanes" Isn't this reference to "windowpane" on lines 985/86 suggestive that PF's
line 1000 would not close with a similar "windowpane"????????? Shade could
be as mad as you will...but he wouldn't allow this to happen, or would he?
.