Red Star Over Blue Seas
redstaroverblueseas
redstarover blueseas
Starover
Blue
Star
Over
Blue
Starover Blue
Don't go to this site to find out more:
Indirectly related or not, I'll Kinbote a passage.
Aside: I was watching the history channel today (while in the middle of doing drawl human nutrition), when on came a segment about WWII (that means world war two), and Hitler's tactics during the winter of '44 (1944). Hitler waged his war during the winter purposefully so as to dissuade the use of American planes when he was taking territories. He wanted drizzly, foggy, rainy weather. He would set up all his mustached schemes months in advance, planning and planning and planning and (To much?) planning but he would not set forth the orders until he knew that the conditions were optimal. Even after loosing the Atlantic Sea Battle (this will wrap up, I promise) to us, Awesome Americans, he left a few of his old U-boats in that Ocean for the soul reason of watching the weather fronts, watching the skies, so as to relay back to old hypocritical half-the-man-he-wanted-to-be Hitler, when the conditions would be correct.
(Did you go to the site?)
(Claws aside, really?)
Now let us take a look at John Shade's first canto, starting at verse 183
The Little scissors I am holding are
A dazzling synthesis of sun and star.
I stand before the window and I pare
My fingernails and vaguely am aware
Of certain flinching likenesses: the thumb,
Our grocer's son; the index, lean and glum
College astronomer Starover Blue;
The Middle fellow, a tall priest I knew;
The feminine fourth finger, an old flirt;
and little pinky clinging to her skirt.
And I make mouths as I snip off the thin
Strips of what Aunt Maud used to call "scarf-skin"
Meet Maud
(Military Application of Uranium Detonation)
And if you happen to read the little Russian Interest's Section
you will find a link to Igor Kurchatov
whom happened to study physics and Naval Engineering.
hmmmm.......
And later on we run into Igor in Canto number 3, starting at verse 623;
We heard cremationists guffaw and snort
At Grabermann's denouncing the Retort
As detrimental to the birth of wraiths.
We all avoided criticizing faiths.
The great Starover Blue reviewed the role
Planets had played as landfalls of the soul,
The fate of beasts was pondered. A Chinese
Discanted on the etiquette at teas
With ancestors, and how far up to go.
I tore apart the fantasies of Poe.
And dealt with childhood memories of strange
Nacreous gleams beyond the adult's range.
Among our auditors were a young priest
and an old Communist. Iph could at least
Compete with churches and the party line.
And as full as that passage is of what only Russians seem to be able to write, I'm afraid I'm not going to touch anymore of it tonight.
oh yeah, Kurchatov has a crater on the moon named after him.
Nice.
ReplyDeleteI have not read Pale Fire for awhile, but have you noticed the theme of 4 in it?
Also, why are there four (4) different fonts used in Pale Fire? Has anyone else noticed this?
Happy reading, and remember you are free to go wherever you like with Nabokov, because even those that have devoted their entire life to him argue amongst themselves as to what is going on, or what has REALLY happened.
"The true conflict is not between the characters in the novel, but between author and reader. In the long run, however, it is only the author's private satisfaction that counts" (Vladimir Nabokov)
This is the magic of Nabokov.
You are the judge and jury, listening to the evidence and trying to make it make sense. Through Nabokov's brilliance we can also make judgements upon our fellow humans, based upon the reaction he evokes in them.
It is a beautifully elaborate game. Is it only the characters in Nabokov's work that are pawns, or is it the reader?