"Below, a wide ripple, almost a wave, and something vaguely white attracted my eye. As I came quite close to the lapping water, I saw what it was-an aged swan, a large, uncouth, dodo-like creature, making ridiculous efforts to hoist himself into a moored boat. He could not do it. The heavy, impotent flapping of his wings, their slippery sound against the rocking and plashing boat, the gluey glistening of the dark swell where it caught the light-all seemed for a moment laden with that strange significance which sometimes in dreams is attached to a finger pressed to mute lips and then pointed at something the dreamer has no time to distinguish before waking with a start." (pg. 116)
I've always paid more attention to writers when they create vivid images for the reader to really make the point of what it is they are trying to get across. I think that Nabokov does this throughout his memoir, but so far the image of the swan has been my favorite. I can exactly picture this scene because he lays it all right out on the page, right down to the color and feel of the water. It is because of his ability to take an event that he witnessed fifty years ago and make me, as the reader, see the same thing that I've enjoyed reading his autobiography. It makes the subject matter of his life that much more interesting.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Nabokov's Colorful Alphabet
I believe it was Margaret who mentioned Nabokov's correlation between letters and colors in class, but I just wanted to point out the specific passage (Chapter 2, page 34).
"I present a fine case of colored hearing. Perhaps "hearing" is not quite accurate, since the color sensation seems to be produced by the very act of my orally forming a given letter while I imagine its outline. The long a of the English alphabet has for me the tint of weathered wood, but a French a evokes polished ebony."
Nabokov then classifies certain letters into different categories of color. For instance, "In the green group, there are alder-leaf f, the unripe apple of p, and pistachio t. Dull green, combined somehow with violet, is the best I can do for w."
I find it highly entertaining that he imagines letters not only as different colors like green, blue, or purple, but "alder-leaf," "pistachio," and "violet." I also find it entertaining that he seems almost exasperated with the letter w and therefore, the color schemes in which he sees the letter is "the best [he] can do." If he sees letters in different colors then I wonder how he views words, sentences, and entire passages? Either as a resplendent rainbow or a horrible mess, I would think!
"I present a fine case of colored hearing. Perhaps "hearing" is not quite accurate, since the color sensation seems to be produced by the very act of my orally forming a given letter while I imagine its outline. The long a of the English alphabet has for me the tint of weathered wood, but a French a evokes polished ebony."
Nabokov then classifies certain letters into different categories of color. For instance, "In the green group, there are alder-leaf f, the unripe apple of p, and pistachio t. Dull green, combined somehow with violet, is the best I can do for w."
I find it highly entertaining that he imagines letters not only as different colors like green, blue, or purple, but "alder-leaf," "pistachio," and "violet." I also find it entertaining that he seems almost exasperated with the letter w and therefore, the color schemes in which he sees the letter is "the best [he] can do." If he sees letters in different colors then I wonder how he views words, sentences, and entire passages? Either as a resplendent rainbow or a horrible mess, I would think!
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