CANTO ONE: "slain/By"

[Michael Joseph]

Jasper, this is wonderful. May I echo you and suggest that 1881 might
represent one's perception of the infinite perceived in the mirror/glass
18 = 81, which may suggest the illusion of infinity (since the 1 projects
the 8) or might suggest through the illusion an actual perception of
pattern, where the palindrome symbolizes an overarching symmetry.

One could also speculate that in experience, the self proceeds a sense of
something beyond oneself -18-, but upon mature reflection, realizes that
which is greater than oneself is actually antecedent -81-, a realization
that would constitute a eureka moment that for Nabokov occurs as the
experience of art as pattern -1881. (And also, might suggest a divine
precedence, if we think of this as a reading moment that we can articulate
as a succession (in reverse)  Kinbote, Shade, Nabokov, Something beyond
Nabokov, "potustoronnost'."

One could also speculate, following Boyd's ghost-story hypothesis, that 18
relates to a transcendent self, that is the self situated outside of
spacetime interacting with another self, i.e. Shade and Kinbote whereby
Kinbote influences Shade influencing Kinbote .... The pattern formulated
by 1881 is endless (1881881881881...) although elegantly limned as 1881,
and thus the transcendent correspondence occurs within the historical
moment as it does within the historical cipher, 1881.


Michael






On Thu, 24 Jul 2003, Jasper Fidget wrote:

> >
> > "slain / By the false azure in the windowpane,"
> > "slain / By the feigned remoteness of the windowpane,"
> >
>
>
> I think VN had a lot of fun with the numbers of the poem, since he could
> count on them being the same in any edition (unlike page numbers).  Many
> numbers in the Commentary are linked to line numbers in more ways than as
> cross-references.
>
> From hacking with the numbers in Note to Line 130 (with which I'll be
> flooding the list when we get there), I find something possibly interesting
> on ln 131 (the reprise "I was the shadow of the waxwing slain").  In K's
> Commentary, the numbers 1888 and 1881 become visually important: 1888 as an
> infinite serious beyond a fixed point (wall infinity infinity infinity),
> i.e. the future; and 1881 as infinity between two fixed barriers (wall
> infinity infinity wall), i.e. life.  But then the number 3 also takes on
> some more significance as 1/2 infinity -- 3 as visually half of 8.  So the
> number 131, as in line 131, becomes 1/2 infinity between two fixed points
> (wall 1/2infinity wall).
>
> What the hell does that mean?
>
> Maybe it's worth remembering that the window is attached to a house.  There
> is a good deal of personal involvement with this house for Shade: he has
> lived his entire life there, grew up in it, brought his new wife to it, his
> newborn baby, wrote poetry upstairs, and while sitting there learned that
> his daughter was gone.  It is in a way a container for his life -- the
> external equivalent of himself -- and a record of that life (in slight
> parallel to the poem).  The window offers a view into his house -- his
> memory -- and through the window his house projects the objects of his life
> to the world outside (as the poet offers up his memories through verse).
> Inside and outside of the house are joined by the transparent mirror window,
> the surface of mortality and his memory reflecting an illusory continuance
> of life beyond death, a false symbol as later with the fountain / mountain.
>
> Isn't PF in some ways about the ultimate failure of symbols, and the greater
> promise of patterns for pointing beyond nature and the self?  If the
> transparent mirror window is intended for use as a symbol that the poet can
> use in order to transcend space, time, mortality, etc, it's only half
> capable of the task, an illusion, a failure.  The mirror is a vicious circle
> where Shade can only ultimately see himself and never beyond it -- it's a
> cage linked to memory.  So 1/2 infinity = the illusion of infinity from the
> perspective of a being trapped in life.
>
> And so on,
> JasperF
>
>