Sandy Klein on Vladimir Nabokov’s Drawings
at
http://flavorwire.com/171588/vladimir-nabokovs-drawings-of-butterflies (excerpts:
In honor of Vladimir Nabokov’s upcoming birthday,
we thought we’d take a look at the literary great’s artistic expression of the
one thing he loved as much as language – lepidoptera. In his whirling
autobiography, Speak,
Memory, Nabokov writes, “From the age of seven, everything I felt a
connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single
passion. If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was
for the butterflies it would engender… )
JM:
What a lovely posting, Sandy!
There's a very amusing
exchange about butterfly drawings in "Dear Bunny, dear
Volodya". Besides, there is a butterfly
fluttering over a pair of abandoned shoes in a lawn (p.74, letter 43), one
attempt by Edmund Wilson to inquire about a Dos Passos moth (p.114,letter
68), pen and ink on page 206(letter 157) and on page 228.
The particular message I
have in mind appears on page 190 (letter 142), written by Nabokov in reply
to Wilson's sketches of a couple of butterflies. S.Karlinski warns in his
note to this letter that "Their description is a parody of a Sherlock
Holmes investigation."
Nabokov begins with: "Many
thanks for the lepidoptera: most of them belong to the Ebriosus ebrius
(SK:"inebriated drunkard") but there is a good
sprinkling of the form vinolentus (SK: "full
of wine"). At least one seems to be an authentic A. luna seen
through a glass (of gin) darkly*; the person who drew these insects possessed
the following attributes:
1) was not an
entomologist;
2) was vaguely aware of the
fact that a lepidoperton has four, and not two wings;
3) in the same vague groping
way was more familiar (very comparatively, of course) with moths (Heterocera)
than butterflies (Rhopalocera);
4) the latter suggest that at
one time he may have spent the month of June ( for the luna lurking at
the back of his mind occurs only in the early summer) in a country-house in New
York state: warm, dark, fluffy nights.*
5) He was not a smoker since
the empty Regent cigarette box....
(the list goes to number 13
and who is interested can look it up directly in the "DB,DV" edition...)
..............................................................................................................
* - the letter is from March
24,1946.
btw|:I thought it amusing
to find a reference to Sherlock Holmes and to "an authentic A.luna seen
through a glass...darkly" in a very light funny mood since in future years
we'll find A.Luna, Holmes and a reference to "through a glass, darkly" in
Nabokov's Pale Fire. We also know that John Shade
began to write his poem in the beginning of July and Nabokov deduces the
inebriated artist's vision of the moth in June & early summer. I think
that Aunt Maud's Luna is, sofar, undated and
"undeducted")