Subject
Re: one-armed Baron in ADA
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Most plausible, Hafid.
May I take this opportunity to correct Alexey un p’tit peu? True that Gypsy
(aka Gitano, Zingari ...) and Bohemian share some semantic overlap. But
misleading to call them synonyms. The Gypsy cognates, such as Romany, Tinker
and Traveler, have only remote metaphorical links with the artistic free
spirits following La Vie Boheme (as portrayed by Pavarotti and Dmitri
Nabokov!)
Cripple is one of many formerly-factual words that has become tagged as
Offensive, especially in the UK. I would welcome the forum’s views on
whether VN’s Cripple seems deliberately cruel, or accepted ‘neutral’ usage
in Lolita’s America? As recently as the 1970s I used to drive past a warning
sign near a San Francisco Shriners Hospital: Danger, Cripples Crossing. Many
years earlier, I met a boogie-woogie pianist in New Orleans called Cripple
Clarence Lofton. All of which proves that Political Correctness is mighty
volatile.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 19/06/2011 22:02, "Hafid Bouazza" <hafidbouazza@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Concerning the gambling involved and implied, is it not also a wordplay with
> the slotmachine, a one-armed bandit, I wonder?
>
> Best,
>
> Hafid Bouazza
>
> 2011/6/19 Jansy <jansy@aetern.us>
>> lexey Sklyarenko: [At Marina's funeral] D'Onsky's son, a person with only one
>> arm, threw his remaining one around Demon and both wept comme des fontaines.
>> (Ada: 3.8)... Soon after his arrival in Kishinev ...Pushkin met Alexander
>> Ypsilanti ... a Phanariot who served in the Russian army and lost his right
>> arm in the Battle of Dresden (1813). Pushkin mentions безрукий князь
>> (one-armed prince) in a poem written in Kishinev (c. Apr. 5, 1821) and
>> addressed to Vasiliy Davydov ..."
>>
>> JM: There's also a one-armed man in "Lolita," Bill, a friend of the
>> Schillers, inserted during Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's last encounter.
>> Through the image of deformity Nabokov makes a reference to surrealism and
>> pointillism: "He nursed his glass and, nodding sagely, replied: "Well, he cut
>> it on a jagger, I guess. Lost his right arm in Italy." Lovely mauve almond
>> trees in bloom. A blown-off surrealistic arm hanging up there in the
>> pointillistic mauve. A flowergirl tattoo on the hand. Dolly and band-aided
>> Bill reappeared. It occurred to me that her ambiguous, brown and pale beauty
>> excited the cripple."
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May I take this opportunity to correct Alexey un p’tit peu? True that Gypsy
(aka Gitano, Zingari ...) and Bohemian share some semantic overlap. But
misleading to call them synonyms. The Gypsy cognates, such as Romany, Tinker
and Traveler, have only remote metaphorical links with the artistic free
spirits following La Vie Boheme (as portrayed by Pavarotti and Dmitri
Nabokov!)
Cripple is one of many formerly-factual words that has become tagged as
Offensive, especially in the UK. I would welcome the forum’s views on
whether VN’s Cripple seems deliberately cruel, or accepted ‘neutral’ usage
in Lolita’s America? As recently as the 1970s I used to drive past a warning
sign near a San Francisco Shriners Hospital: Danger, Cripples Crossing. Many
years earlier, I met a boogie-woogie pianist in New Orleans called Cripple
Clarence Lofton. All of which proves that Political Correctness is mighty
volatile.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 19/06/2011 22:02, "Hafid Bouazza" <hafidbouazza@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Concerning the gambling involved and implied, is it not also a wordplay with
> the slotmachine, a one-armed bandit, I wonder?
>
> Best,
>
> Hafid Bouazza
>
> 2011/6/19 Jansy <jansy@aetern.us>
>> lexey Sklyarenko: [At Marina's funeral] D'Onsky's son, a person with only one
>> arm, threw his remaining one around Demon and both wept comme des fontaines.
>> (Ada: 3.8)... Soon after his arrival in Kishinev ...Pushkin met Alexander
>> Ypsilanti ... a Phanariot who served in the Russian army and lost his right
>> arm in the Battle of Dresden (1813). Pushkin mentions безрукий князь
>> (one-armed prince) in a poem written in Kishinev (c. Apr. 5, 1821) and
>> addressed to Vasiliy Davydov ..."
>>
>> JM: There's also a one-armed man in "Lolita," Bill, a friend of the
>> Schillers, inserted during Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's last encounter.
>> Through the image of deformity Nabokov makes a reference to surrealism and
>> pointillism: "He nursed his glass and, nodding sagely, replied: "Well, he cut
>> it on a jagger, I guess. Lost his right arm in Italy." Lovely mauve almond
>> trees in bloom. A blown-off surrealistic arm hanging up there in the
>> pointillistic mauve. A flowergirl tattoo on the hand. Dolly and band-aided
>> Bill reappeared. It occurred to me that her ambiguous, brown and pale beauty
>> excited the cripple."
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/