Carolyn Kunin: "...'e o antegozo
de encontrar a menina sozinha derreteu-se como cocaína em suas
entranhas.' " Strange how unpoetic this is, sounds very
unpleasant really [ ] How warming is cocaine? There's the land of
Cockaigne, no relation that I'm aware of. But I can imagine a warm rush, drug
induced perhaps, sent straight to the loins, so Nabokov's metaphor is
satisfactory.
Jansy Mello: It doesn't sound as
strange in Portuguese as it does to your anglophone ears because of the rythm,
you know. These poetic effects in prose, at times without the coloring of
sounds (if I may say so) are a direct echo of what often happens
in Nabokov's writing (although he believed, indeed, that he thought in
images instead of words). Freud was one of the first to experiment with
cocaine (and local anaesthetics) and he recommended it warmly to Martha,
then his fiancée, to enhance the rosiness of her cheeks. Mysterious drugs,
sex and literature are imtertwined in various Nabokov sentences (perhaps rock
and roll, too).
There's a Nabokovian touch in this "land of Cockaigne"
(Ardis, Paradise, Utopia?).Your message reminded me
of another terrible land where roasted pigs wandered about with forks and knives
stuck on them, or flying geese, while striped candies had faces. It
was rather cannibalistic and there are dim reflections of this
nightmarish Brueghelish land of delights in
VN, not only when he makes a direct reference to "Flemish hells" Before I ever
saw a soda fountain, I saw images of this legendary place in which medieval
waterfountains sprouted all sorts of yellow, green and rosy
liquids.
Carolyn Kunin: I was intrigued by
the reference below to a barmen/Carmen ditty, so googled up said ditty. Very odd
- had never heard of it.
Jansy Mello: All through the davenport
scene Nabokov suggestes the barmen/Carmen ditty but altering the
images during his mounting excitement, gasping Carmen, ahmen, ahahamen
charmin' parkling carsi*, an effect that is exploited more explicitly and
extensively in "The Enchanter" ( for example, when "Arthur" sees a "black salad devouring a green rabbit" and his ecstatic
vision is blurred)
.................................................................
* - "O my Carmen, my little Carmen, something,
something, those something nights, and the stars, and the cars, and the bars,
and the barmen; I kept repeating this automatic stuff and holding her under its
special spell (spell because of the garbling) .... The stars that sparkled, and the cars that
parkled, and the bars, and the barmen, were presently taken over by her; her
voice stole and corrected the tune I had been mutilating. She was musical and
apple-sweet.... Suspended on the
brink of that voluptuous abyss (a nicety of physiological equipoise comparable
to certain techniques in the arts) I kept repeating the chance words after her —
barmen, alarmin', my charmin', my carmen, ahmen, ahahamen — as one talking and
laughing in his sleep while my happy hand crept up her sunny leg as far as the
shadow of decency allowed" and " At this point I may as well give the
words of that song hit in full — to the best of my recollection at least — I
don't think I ever had it right. Here goes:
O my Carmen, my little
Carmen!
Something,
something those something nights,
And the stars,
and the cars, and the bars and the barmen —
And, O my
charmin', our dreadful fights.
And the
something town where so gaily, arm in
Arm, we went,
and our final row,
And the gun I
killed you with, O my Carmen,
The gun I am
holding now.
(Drew his .32 automatic, I guess, and put a bullet through his
moll's eye.)" And much later: " I believe the poor fierce-eyed child had figured
out that with a mere fifty dollars in her purse she might somehow reach Broadway
or Hollywood — or the foul kitchen of a diner (Help Wanted) in a dismal
ex-prairie state, with the wind blowing, and the stars blinking, and the cars,
and the bars, and the barmen, and everything soiled, torn,
dead."