SKB: Finally, Sárdi cites one of
VN’s most inspired jokes: “Gnostical turpitude.” VN would certainly know of the
miraculous discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices
If Stan had consulted Priglashenie na
kazn' (the novel written in 1935, ten
years before the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices), he would have known that
the phrase rendered in Invitation to a Beheading as "gnostical
turpitude" is gnoseologicheskaya gnusnost' (Cincinnatus C. is accused
of this most appalling of crimes) in the original (chapter VI). Its presence
in the Russian text is justified by the wonderful, if not
very pleasant, alliteration. Note that gnoseologicheskiy ("pertaining
to gnosiology, the theory of knowledge") and gnosticheskiy
("pertaining to gnostics or gnosticism") mean different things in
Russian.
I haven't read Sárdi's article, but I do
not agree with him that we should avoid an over-preoccupation with
VN’s allusional and word-play exploits. How can one study the worlds created by an artist and
ignore allusions and word-play that the artist uses as a means to
make his fictional worlds seem real (or, at least,
plausible)?
Alexey Sklyarenko