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Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] The most transgressive book ever
published ("souffler" in Lolita)] |
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From:
"jansymello" <jansy@aetern.us> |
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Date:
Sat, 17 Jun 2006 21:32:36 -0300 |
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To:
"Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> |
Dear A. Bouazza,
Your explanation about "blow/souffler" was quite
elegant and VN´s lines allow us to perceive quite clearly that HH
mentioned "a literal French translation" of "a disgusting slang term"
( I couldn't find the quoted description about a "beastly verb",
though).
Thank you for the
clarification. It turns the initial issue under discussion more absurd
as ever ( [. . .] Vladimir
Nabokov spoke perfect Russian and French before he
became the unrivaled master of English prose, and his 1955 masterpiece,
Lolita, was considered the most transgressive book ever published. (It
may still be.) Why, then, could he not bring himself to write the words
"blow" or "blowjob"? [. . .]
Jansy Mello
Cf. Lolita ( Part II, ch.29, page 276 in "The Annotated Lolita", Penguin):
"Oh, things... Oh, I — really I" — she uttered
the "I" as a subdued cry while she listened to the source of the ache,
and for lack of words spread the five fingers of her angularly
up-and-down-moving hand. No, she gave it up, she refused to go into
particulars with that baby inside her.
That made sense.