The dragon dressing gown would seem to substantiate somewhat the myth aspect of the Hokusai image.
If I may, as I am investigating the Jungian influences in Pale Fire, I’d like to add that the dragon is a major alchemical symbol, and subtle illusions to it are found in Pale Fire. I find that the process of alchemy is followed out through the novel.
Carl Jung was the major exponent of alchemy as a psychological/spiritual process. Writing largely though the 20’s and 30’s it would seem quite probable that Nabokov would have been familiar with his studies. According to Jung:
“The dragon itself is a monstrum – a symbol combining the chthonic principle of the serpent and the aerial principle of the bird. It is, as Ruland says, a ‘variant’ of Mercurius. But Mercurius is the divine winged Hermes manifest in matter, the god of revelation, lord of thought and sovereign psychopomp.” (Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, P.292)
Dragons, as we know, guard the treasure and must be slain.
Interestingly, Shade does not deign to wear the gift. Kinbote foists it upon him, just as he does his story, projecting his self-worship onto his hero-worship. ("Gift", as we know from Dar is synonymous with spiritual apprehension and creativity.)
Another instance of “dragon” is perhaps alluded to at the Villa Libitina. Gradus is shown around the Villa by the enticing young Gordon, who either is a shapeshifter, or Kinbote is getting salaciously carried away by this “faunlet”. Faunus is the Latin name of Pan. Gordon is a musical prodigy. In this turnaround Pan plays classical rather than rustic music. He is seen drinking from a pipe, though.
Pan was the dragon/goat god of the ancient Arcadians. If you were to play a word-golf game, changing one letter and then creating an anagram, “Gordon” becomes “dragon”.
The "versipel" aspect of the dragon is suggested for both Gordon and Shade's dragon-skin dressing gown
The dragon also has connections with other alchemical symbols found in PF, the Sphinx and the Toad, but too much to go into here, but the main idea is transformation and transcendence.
Mary
Thanks to Brian for the lovely Hokusai illustrations. Had I checked Brian's LoA notes to PF before I sent my original message, I would have seen that he lays out the allusion to Hokusai there. I tend to agree that VN probably did not know of the legend behind the image, however Gerard de Vries, off-list, reminded me that Kinbote tries to dress Shade in a "veritable dragon skin of oriental chromas, fit for a samurai" (C. 181). So Shade-as-Dragon does have a companion image in the text. Food for thought.
Cheers,
Matt
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/ Dieter Zimmer Website: http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/
On 4/30/18, Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> I asked Véra Nabokov was the fish image in Pale Fire a homage to Hokusai?
> With a smile, she said Yes. So I think that settles the matter.
>
>
> I have loved Hokusai's work for over forty years. He's incomparably
> the greatest Japanese artist. I had three Hokusai prints in my part of
> the On the Origin of Art
> exhibition?<https://mona.net.au/museum/exhibitions/past- exhibitions/on
> -the-origin-of-art> at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart,
> Tasmania, 2016-17, including the Great Wave (the last and culminating
> piece in the show).
>
>
> Here's the better known of his carp in waterfall (two fish--one could
> imagine that the lower one is not going to make it; but we can suspect
> that Nabokov knew only the image, not the legend) and a Hokusai carp
> image I like even more, almost monochrome, with two turtles also
> enjoying the water and its ripples.
>
>
> Brian Boyd
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> on behalf of
> Roth, Matthew <mroth@MESSIAH.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, 1 May 2018 6:18 a.m.
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: [NABOKV-L] John Shade as Japanese Fish
>
> Near the end of Kinbote's note to line 691 ("the attack"), he pictures
> JS "squirming up the college hall stairs as a Japanese fish up a cataract"
> (250). Kinbote seems to think we will understand the image, and indeed
> it turns out that the carp ascending a waterfall is a common image in
> Japanese art. There is even a story to go with the image, as told here
> by M. McLean from his 1889 book, Echoes of Japan:
>
> The Carp Ascending The Waterfall.
> It is a common sight to see, on Japanese works of art, and in
> picture-books, a carp trying to swim against a strong current or
> waterfall. This allegorical picture has a very interesting history,
> and is derived from a Chinese story. In some part of China there is a
> strong current, called Rio-mon, or Dragon's Gate. This stream is
> looked upon as sacred; so that, if any fish succeeds in scaling it, it
> becomes a dragon. The passage is very difficult, it being rocky and
> steep, and every fish except the carp fails in the attempt.
>
> Other versions make clear that only one of a thousand carp ascends to
> the top and is transformed. The others remain mere fish in the pool
> below. I see at least three connections to PF in this story. First, it
> is a story of animal metamorphosis-a theme associated with Hazel (wood
> duck, trying on furs, Vanessa). It is also a story of the passage into
> immortality-certainly a theme of the novel, played out in myriad ways.
> Thirdly, we might see a transmuted version of the Gradus ad Parnassum,
> as Shade ascends the academic stairs. Did he make it to the top? I
> think he did. Perhaps others can do more with the image/allusion.
>
> Cheers,
> Matt Roth
>
> PS. I have attached a representative image of the koi's ascent
>
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