NABOKV-L post 0016423, Mon, 26 May 2008 12:12:17 -0700

JA: I noticed what JM did as well, the prefiguration of Van and Ada in Lolita. I think you are correct about Pig Pigment: "I think he was a fondling pedophile who haunted 12 year-old Ada, not a punitive betrayed husband or father". After all, I believe there is a description of Ada's having to endure the man's atentions from behind, as he lifts or poses her or something, or am I mixing this up with the girl scout he painted which Van thinks is a work of genius justifying the painter's perversions--Van, who is loathe to believe in reality takes the notion of an even more ephemeral term like "genius" for granted; not to mention that it's funny an unpleasant freak like him should be so judgemental about other's perversions. Humbert did this as well about Gaston Godin. The man is basically a gay Humbert, but Humbert takes it for granted that by comparison to his great handsome self the man, Godin, is somehow subhuman.


----- Original Message ----
From: jansymello <jansy@AETERN.US>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 10:01:46 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov, Garshin and Russian alphabet letters - a note on ADA


Alexey: The word "charadoid" must have been devised by Ilf & Petrov, who used it, along with "arithmomoid" and "logogriph," in "The Golden Calf" (1931). It probably means "a charade-like puzzle." I didn't notice Gerald in Ronald Oranger. Thank you for pointing this out to me. It lead me to this:  RONALD ORANGER + G = GERALD + ORGANON + R [...] In a word, I hope that you will be able one day to read my big charadoid piece (but you'll have to learn Russian, because it is unlikely that my piece will ever be translated).
 
JM: The proximity of your reference to Emerald/Gerald and  the posting on Roland Oranger and Violet, plus the item on the gitanes spurred me to check VN's reference to El Cid. It is found in "Lolita", part II, chapter 19. "As expected, poor Poet stumbled in Scene III when arriving at the bit of French nonsense. Remember? Ne manque pas de dire à ton amant, Chimène, comme le lac est beau car il faut qu'il t'y mène. Lucky beau! Qu'il t'y - What a tongue-twister!" In his notes, Appel wrote ( page 415 AL) ...a parody of the classical alexandrine verse of seventeenth-century France, specifically of Le Cid ( 1636) by Pierre Corneille.
 
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By coincidence on the opposite page with Appel's notes there is a reference to Orange...and Emerald ( "The Dubliner's rainbow of children on p.221 would have been a miningless muddying of metphors had I tried to smuggle in a Pierid of the Southern States and a European moth. My only purpose here was to render a prismatic effect".) Finnegans Wake, J.Joyce.  HH writes: "Two children-colors were "exasperatingly lovely" and, to comfort Lolita, he calls her his "own ultraviolet darling".
Unfortunately I continue at a loss, perhaps only a "charadoid" technique will elucidate any relation bt Orange, Emerald and Violet -  should VN have been familiar with Ilf & Petrov's work. And, also unfortunately, I'm totally ignorant of Russian so I won't be able to enjoy your big charadoid piece.
Ada mentions a logogriph, or a similar sounding name for her word-concoctions and "mongrelizing", doesn't she?.
 
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Joseph Aisenberg wrote: "Iinterpreted the quote slightly differently. Marina is not doubting that Ada and Van are siblings, at least I don't think so. She's worried others will see that they must be brother and sister and coming up with a justification for it. I.E. of course they look so much alike, since she and Aqua were twins."
 
JM: Your conjecture is very reasonable! I was almost led astray into thinking that Marina had been even more "unfaithful" than I'd surmised.
While perusing "Lolita" I found a "preview" of the pair (AL, page 169): " I met the unblinking eyes of two strange and beautiful children, faunlet and nymphet, whom their identical flat dark hair and bloodless cheeks proclaimed siblings if not twins."
 
I was also intrigued by the reference in ADA of Don Juan's "Stone Guest" related to Pig Pigment (I think he was a fondling pedophile who haunted 12 year-old Ada, not a punitive betrayed husband or father).
Wikipedia offers a gigantic list with references to Don Juan ( including a play by Tolstoy, a poem by Blok.- and yet, there's no reference to Nabokov's invented work by Borges, "La Gitanilla", also mentioned by Appel)
To complicate references, the name of the first known author of Don Juan, Molina, means "windmill".
 
Lolita was born in a farm in which hogs were raised. There are various mentions to porcine names in Lolita ( at the Enchanted Hunter's exchanges, soon before Lolita and HH share a bed for the first time)
A row of parked cars, like pigs at a trough//There a bald porcine old man — everybody was old in that old hotel — examined my features with a polite smile //"Our double beds are really triple[...]. However — would there be a spare cot in 49, Mr. Swine?"I think it went to the Swoons," said Swine, the initial old clown.//Was pink pig Mr. Swoon absolutely sure my wife had not telephoned?  

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