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Re: more zesty skaters
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I still don't know what if any meaning there is to it, but there is definitely something odd and alphabetical (W, X, Y, Z) going on here: ZestY SK[X] aters cross(X)ing from eXe to WYe.
Dear NY Lora C,
Good observations. I can add to them that Omega (the last letter of the Greek alphabet; besides, a play on Onega, a large lake in Karelia*) seems to be the other name of Lochan Lake:
"Higher up on the same wooded hill stood, and still stands I trust, Dr Sutton's old clapboard house and, at the very top, eternity shall not dislodge Professor C.'s ultramodern villa from whose terrace one can glimpse to the south the larger and sadder of the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero (Indian names garbled by early settlers in such a way as to accomodate specious derivations and commonplace allusions)." (from Kinbote's note to ll. 47-48 of Shade's poem).
As you know, ozero is Russian for "lake". Zero, apart from other meanings, is a roulette number. Cf. about Sybil switching over TV programs: "You played Network roulette..." (ll. 464-5)
*see Victor Fet's "Notes on Eryx, Omega and Alta" in The Nabokovian #51 (Fall 2003).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Dear NY Lora C,
Good observations. I can add to them that Omega (the last letter of the Greek alphabet; besides, a play on Onega, a large lake in Karelia*) seems to be the other name of Lochan Lake:
"Higher up on the same wooded hill stood, and still stands I trust, Dr Sutton's old clapboard house and, at the very top, eternity shall not dislodge Professor C.'s ultramodern villa from whose terrace one can glimpse to the south the larger and sadder of the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero (Indian names garbled by early settlers in such a way as to accomodate specious derivations and commonplace allusions)." (from Kinbote's note to ll. 47-48 of Shade's poem).
As you know, ozero is Russian for "lake". Zero, apart from other meanings, is a roulette number. Cf. about Sybil switching over TV programs: "You played Network roulette..." (ll. 464-5)
*see Victor Fet's "Notes on Eryx, Omega and Alta" in The Nabokovian #51 (Fall 2003).
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/