Jansy Mello: Alvin Toffler asked VN to describe "the germination of a book" in a 1963 interview for Playboy Magazine. Nabokov refused this invitation, but allowed him to examine a box filled with "index cards with some notes I made at various times more or less recently and discarded when writing Pale Fire. It's a little batch of rejects. Help yourself. "Selene, the moon Selenginsk, an old town in Siberia: moon-rocket town" . . . "Berry: the black knob on the bill of the mute swan" . . "Dropworm: a small caterpillar hanging on a thread" . . [ ] "Not 1, too,lived in Arcadia,' but 'I,' says Death, even am in Arcadia'--legend on a shepherd's tomb (Notes and Queries, June 13,1868, p. 561)" . . . "Marat collected butterflies" . . . "From the aesthetic point of view, the tapeworm is certainly an undesirable boarder. The gravid segments frequently crawl out of a person's anal canal, sometimes in chains, and have been reported a source of social embarrassment." (Ann. N. Y.Acad. Sci. 48:558.Nabokov's interview. (03) Playboy [1964]http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/Inter03.txt

Several bits from Nabokov's "rejects" did make an apprearance later on, in Pale Fire.or, at least, specific words, such as "higher state" [from:"Time without consciousness-- lower animal world; time with consciousness--man; consciousness without time-- some still higher state"].or the inclusion of Death (and Dementia) in Arcadia.

Yesterday, in one of the references to Dr. Krolik, a new chain of associations was awakened in me, concerning the index card information about Marat as a butterfly collector. As we all know, the French radical ideologue, his psoriatic illness and even Cora Day appear in ADA and that, in Pale Fire VN has Hazel suffer from psoriatic fingernails (will her spirit turn into a butterfly?).

Everything began with a mistake I made while spelling "lepidopterist." The terms "lepidoptera" and "leporidade" were bungled (our Ed S.B kindly revised it before sending out the posting) after I got stung by the similarity of sounds in lepidopterists, lepers, lepidosis - and the intruding leporidae and rodents. .

The instigating paragraph in ADA: "Mademoiselle, who was in the know, too, looked up ‘Psoriasis’ in a one-volume medical encyclopedia [ ] In the present case, the cure optimistically advised was to ‘take a warm bath at least twice a month and avoid spices’; this she typed out and passed on to her cousin in a Get-Well envelope. Finally, Ada showed Van a letter from Dr Krolik on the same subject; it said (English version): ‘Crimson-blotched, silver-scaled, yellow-crusted wretches, the harmless psoriatics (who cannot communicate their skin trouble and are otherwise the healthiest of people — actually, their bobo’s protect them from bubas and buboes, as my teacher used to observe) were confused with lepers — yes, lepers — in the Middle Ages, when thousands if not millions of Vergers and Vertograds crackled and howled bound by enthusiasts to stakes erected in the public squares of Spain and other fire-loving countries.’ But this note they decided not to plant in the meek martyr’s index under PS as they had first intended: lepidopterists are over-eloquent on lepidosis."

Rats are related to Proust (in ADA Marcel Proust's perversion is ambiguously described as his sadistic pleasure derived from torturing rats) and to some other author in Pale Fire. (this item has been exhaustively explored in our List, together with scatological musings in Shade's verses and in Swift). Nevertheless, after checking in the www, I realized that rodents and leporidae (lepus=hare) were to be excluded so that I could focus only on "scales" (lepis)*.

"I have seen The Red Admirable feasting on oozy plums and, once, on a dead rabbit. It is a most frolicsome fly. An almost tame specimen of it was the last natural object John Shade pointed out to me as he walked to his doom (see, see now, my note to lines 993-995).I notice a whiff of Swift in some of my notes. I too am a desponder in my nature, an uneasy, peevish, and suspicious man, although I have my moments of volatility and fou rire.":

* wiki: The presence of scales on the wings of Lepidoptera, comprising moths and butterflies, characterises this order of insects. The name is derived from Ancient Greek λεπίδος (scale) and πτερόν (wing). The wings of Lepidoptera are minutely scaled, which feature gives the name to this order.[1] Scales also cover the head, parts of the thorax and abdomen as well as parts of the genitalia.

Lepidoptera (n.) 1773, "insects with four scaly wings," the biological classification that includes butterflies and moths, coined 1735 in Modern Latin by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (Karl von Linné, 1707-1778) from Greek lepido-, comb. form of lepis (genitive lepidos) "(fish) scale" (related to lepein "to peel;" see leper) + pteron "wing, feather" (see pterodactyl).

Psoriasis "is an immune-mediated disease that affects the skin" [ ] It "occurs when the immune system mistakes a normal skin cell for a pathogen, and sends out faulty signals that cause overproduction of new skin cells. [ ] The most common form, plaque psoriasis, is commonly seen as red and white hues of scaly patches appearing on the top first layer of the epidermis (skin).The name psoriasis (ψωρίασις) is from theGreek language, meaning roughly "itching condition" (psora "itch" + -sis "action, condition").[ ]The disorder is a chronic recurring condition that varies in severity from minor localized patches to complete body coverage. Fingernailsand toenails are frequently affected (psoriatic nail dystrophy) and can be seen as an isolated sign.

leper: "one afflicted with leprosy," late 14c., from Late Latin lepra, from Greek lepra "leprosy," from fem. of lepros (adj.) "scaly," from leops "a scale," related to lepein "to peel," from lopos "a peel," from PIE root *lep- "to peel, scale" (see leaf (n.)). Originally the word for the disease itself (mid-13c.); because of the -er ending it came to mean "person with leprosy," so leprosy was coined 16c. from adjective leprous.