----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 3:48 AM
Subject: Fw: Fw: Bras d ´Or ?? J-5
Alexey´s complaint: By the way,
here is my reply re "donkey" which Don did not post. I wonder why?
Jansy´s complaint : Don has not
mailed my answer to you, either. I don´t know what could have happened.
I´ll send your unposted message and mine once more to Don, numbered below as (1)
and (2)
..................................................................................................................................
(1)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 1:28 PM
Subject: Re: Bellevue, dreams and Freud in Ada (
J-2/april)
Hi, Alexey
You say Van´s birthday was on January 1 ( but
he was only acknowledged two weeks later when offered to replace Aqua´s
dead baby) and I had wanted to count the days to reach the "mid-July"
date.
From your note I gather I should consider January 1 ( and
check about leap-years) as the point of departure.
Van was
writing about "his real birthday" while he was driving to meet
Ada so the day should fall on July 13 or 14 ( Fall of the Bastille),
and there´s also the "fallen plafond" to consider.
Thank you for the information about Av. Nevsky and
the "Bellevue".
Jansy
(2)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 6:51 AM
Subject: Fw: Fw: Bras d ´Or ?? - J-4
By the way, here is my reply re "donkey" which Don
did not post. I wonder why?
The "equine" name in the Chekhov story I mention
("Loshadinaia familiia", "The Equine Name") is Ovsov ("ovyos" is Russian for
"oats").
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 5:24 AM
Subject: Fw: Fw: Bras d ´Or ?? - J-4
Dear Don, Jansy and the List,
I don't know if "donkey" lurks in Baron
d'Onsky, but a horse (Onegin's Don stallion, "donskoi zherebets": see EO: Canto
Two: V: 4) certainly does. Brian Boyd wrote a brilliant article on the name
d'Onsky, "d'O You Get the Joke?" (The Nabokovian no. 47), but it seems to me
(sorry, Brian!) that he failed to see that particular one (namely,
that Baron d'O., like a certain character in a story by Chekhov, has an
"equine" name). I would even suggest that not only has d'Onsky an equine
name; he is, in some sense, a horse. His (one-way) nickname is "Skonky," which
is an anagram of "konsky" ("of a horse" in Russian), his physical appearence
("an easy-going, lanky, likeable fellow") might somewhat resemble that of a
horse and, finally, he wears a hat ("that's my [Demon's] hat, his is older, but
we have the same London hatter.") Cf.: "did you remember that horses wore hats -
yes, hats - when heat waves swept Manhattan?" (Part Five, chapter
5).
best,
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2005 10:39
PM
Subject: Fw: Bras d ´Or ?? - J-4