Stan K-B,
I thought I was using the term as chosen by Nabokov in "Pale Fire"  ( "Auto da Fé" as we find it in English) for John Shade while burning his rejected poems in the backyard. I didn't check"! 
In Portuguese the correct expression is, as you pointed out, " Auto de Fé". 
Jansy
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Stan Kelly-Bootle
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] VN's Dismissals

On 29/6/06 13:32, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:

Jansy: you write

We can be almost sure that no "Auto de [da — nyet?! -- skb] Fé" awaits these authors. I also fear that books, like "Ada, or Ardor" or Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" would prove rather difficult to memorize ( if  we had to rely on a solution like the one proposed by Ray Bradbury...)

Many of us can indeed rattle off teems and tonnes of Finnegans Wake — for all its encrypted excesses (as noted by VN), FW does have a melodic, memorable flow for the gaelic ear and gob. One might note the same  ‘formulaic’ patterns that helped the ‘preliterate’ Homeric bards.

I would agree, though, that Ulysses and Ada offer similar challenges to memorizers.

Stan Kelly-Bootle

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies