NPPF: Notes Line 286

[Vincent A. Maeder]

> > From: Scott Badger [mailto:lupine at ncia.net]
> > > "Verba volant, scripta manent"
> > > Words fly away, writing remains. Butterfly and cocoon? These
> > > letters, then, are the husk of some more sublime exchange.
> 
Again, the afterlife issues.  Brings back the commentary on the Amber
reference left by the cicada which flies away.  Perhaps an overarching
commentary by Nabokov on the nature of the artistic process in general,
writing in particular, where the artist holds the art in the cocoon of his
mind until it is deposited behind like amber waiting for the wary critic
to be trapped in its goo.  V.