>I'm trying hard to recall where VN wrote "I've said all I have
to say," to whom and about which topic. I expect many will rush to
remind me.
Stan,
I believe it was Tolstoy who gave a similar answer when asked by an interviewer what was the main idea of Anna Karenina ("the main idea of the novel Anna Karenina is the novel Anna Karenina"). I don't remember where VN employs a similar formula. If he does, it must be in Strong Opinions.
>Prof HMG (a most
authoritarian abbreviation) whom I plan to pursue (platonically, of
course, unlike Kinbote after his alter-ego Shade!)
Pity, because you could email him a line from Faust's monologue: Und fluch for allen der Geduld! ("And cursed be Patience most of all!"). By a coincidence, I came across this line (not in Goethe, but in A. K. Tolstoy's poem addressed to Carolyn's namesake, the poet Karolina Pavlova, who had difficulties with this line's translation) on the same evening when Prof HGM was first mentioned on our List.
Alexey