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Fwd: ADA: mimo, chitatel'
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ADA, I.6.
---On the other, or some other, side of the house was the ball-
room, a glossy wasteland with wallflower chairs. "Reader, ride
by" ("mimo, chitatel," as Turgenev wrote).---
I think that Mr. Boyd is misleading the reader of the ADAOnline here, as
he annotates: 'The ballroom is a wasteland, and the reader urged to "ride
by," presumably because there are no Turgenevian or any other kind of
balls at Ardis while Van is there'.
In my opinion it is obvious that the author (or Van, for that matter)
urges the reader to skip this longish and tedious (full of, let's say,
bizarre, horrible details) passage altogether. Of course it is a planned
joke and only a bad, not the Nabokovian 'good', reader would ever do it.
Otherwise, he or she would lose some precious detail and could as well put
the book away. Decisively.
Considering all those silent exclamations ("Im going to scream", "thank
Log") of Van's anger (which he shares with the reader, not Ada), that
precede the above-mentioned phrase, it's meaning should be ovious, I
think. The reader is urged not to ride by, but 'ride away' (on the lil'
pony?) - and right away!
Hell, probably Mr. Boyd knows all that, but his comment could mislead
somebody, so I thought it won't be any harm to comment upon it.
Regards,
Tomasz
----- End forwarded message -----
---On the other, or some other, side of the house was the ball-
room, a glossy wasteland with wallflower chairs. "Reader, ride
by" ("mimo, chitatel," as Turgenev wrote).---
I think that Mr. Boyd is misleading the reader of the ADAOnline here, as
he annotates: 'The ballroom is a wasteland, and the reader urged to "ride
by," presumably because there are no Turgenevian or any other kind of
balls at Ardis while Van is there'.
In my opinion it is obvious that the author (or Van, for that matter)
urges the reader to skip this longish and tedious (full of, let's say,
bizarre, horrible details) passage altogether. Of course it is a planned
joke and only a bad, not the Nabokovian 'good', reader would ever do it.
Otherwise, he or she would lose some precious detail and could as well put
the book away. Decisively.
Considering all those silent exclamations ("Im going to scream", "thank
Log") of Van's anger (which he shares with the reader, not Ada), that
precede the above-mentioned phrase, it's meaning should be ovious, I
think. The reader is urged not to ride by, but 'ride away' (on the lil'
pony?) - and right away!
Hell, probably Mr. Boyd knows all that, but his comment could mislead
somebody, so I thought it won't be any harm to comment upon it.
Regards,
Tomasz
----- End forwarded message -----