NPPF: Notes Line 286

[Scott Badger]

> Line 286: A jet's pink trail above the sunset fire
>
> "Even in Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture."
> http://www.parnasse.com/etpnt.htm
> "[A] Latin phrase found in Virgil's fifth eclogue that translates
> literally as "Even in Arcady, there am I," or "Death is even in
> Arcady," but has been interpreted in various ways through the ages"
>
> Kinbote seems to be linking Shade's "jet's pink trail" with
> Gradus' flight from Copenhagen to Paris. Interestingly, a
> different version is erroneously quoted at:
> http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/pale/summ4.html
> "Even in Arcady am I," says Dementia, chained to her gray column."
> I don't recognize it, and couldn't find the source (a sign of my
> own arcadian intellect, I'm sure.), but "Dementia" is suggestive
> of Kinbote and could also point to the insane asylum escapee, Jack Grey.
>
> Also from the same site: "The name "D'Argus" is hardly a disguise
> as it is an anagram of "Gradus." The name "Argus" alludes to
> Greek mythology. Argus was a watchman‹not an assassin, and
> another anagram of the name "Gradus" is GUARDS. The earlier
> commentary foreshadowed the arrival of "Dementia" in "Arcadia."
> In Greek mythology, Argus was the watchman for the town of
> Arcadia, ridding the utopia of pests, giants, and monsters."
>
>
> "[Bretwit] had a flat in Meudon"
> http://www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/M/Meudon.html
> "Meudon[modoN´] town (1990 pop. 46,173), Hauts-de-Seine dept., N
> central France, a suburb SW of Paris. Metal products, automobile
> bodies, and explosives are the chief manufactures. The
> astrophysics department of the Paris Observatory is located in
> the pavilion of an 18th-century chateau, which commands a
> magnificent view of Paris. Francois Rabelais, Richard Wagner, and
> Auguste Rodin lived in Meudon. Rodin is buried in the garden of
> his villa, which is now a museum containing many of his sculptures. "
>
>
> "Verba volant, scripta manent"
> Words fly away, writing remains. Butterfly and cocoon? These
> letters, then, are the husk of some more sublime exchange.
>
>
> "Odevalla"
> Valley of song? Stony valley? How 'bout Uppsala, Sweden? (see next note)
>
>
> "Ferz Bretwit, Mayor of Aros"
> http://www.its.uu.se/sightsandsounds/ancient.html
> "Before 1280 Uppsala was named Aros (rivermouth), situated by the
> mouth of the river Fyris."
>
>
> "fustian"
> OED 2. fig. Inflated, turgid, or inappropriately lofty language;
> speech or writing composed of high-sounding words and phrases;
> bombast, rant; in early use also †jargon, made-up language,
> gibberish. For the development of sense cf. bombast.
>
>
> "the shining corrugations of the ocean"
> See (143)"ripple-warped reflections", (146)hideous tessellated
> texture", (297)"long ripplewake of my glory", (297)"wavelets of
> fire" and (line 313)"Of correlated pattern in the game".
>
>
> "But to return to the roofs of Paris"
> Why "roofs"?
>
>
> "holograph"
> OED 1. A letter or other document written wholly by the person in
> whose name it appears.
>
>
> "apograph"
> OED An exact copy or transcript.
>
>
> "(Small-fish gesture and wink)...(Pout and shrug)...(Traffic-stopper's
> palm)"
> Is this pantomime (a) put on for our benefit?
>
>
> "kikapoo puppet" ??
> http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/KK/bmk9.html
> "KICKAPOO INDIANS. The Kickapoo Indians, an Algonkian-speaking group of
> fewer than 1,000 individuals scattered across Texas, Oklahoma,
> Kansas, and northern Mexico, are the remnants of a larger tribe
> that once lived in the central Great Lakes region."
>
>
> "a sign corresponding to the X"
> http://home.earthlink.net/~villabullock/asl.x.html
>
>
> "aura"
> OED 4. Path. A sensation, as of a current of cold air rising from
> some part of the body to the head, which occurs as a premonitory
> symptom in epilepsy and hysterics.
>
>
> "pain in my groin"
> Cancer?
>
>
> "kick"
> Why "kick"? Kick in the groin? Or....the sound of stage-lights
> going dark at the end of a scene.
>
>
> Scott Badger