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Wonderful, Meghan, Alexey et al. Thanks. It is a powerful riposte in
all its variations. Tolstoy echoes Christopher Wren's epitaph in St
Paul's Cathedral:
Si monumentum requiris circumspice
Roughly: if you want proof of my genius, LOOK AROUND!
AS: love your "Und fluch for allen der Geduld! ("And cursed be
Patience most of all!")
It reminds us that _real_ people have names as "funny" as those made
up by VN and Dickens. But are they "appropriate?" I'll bet HMG has
heard every possible joke on his name. We knew a lady called Helen
Thick who eventually changed her name by deed poll. No, not Helen Thin
or Helen Smart.
James Twigg introduced us to Franchine PROSE, who's far from prosaic.
I enjoyed her essay on Lolita. Her point about Pornography being
over-devoted to coital mechanics, reminded me why there's MORE of VN
in Kinbote that in Shade. "Proof" is in K's comment on lines 275 et seq.
"One regrets that the poet did not pursue this theme [Shade's removed
lines pondering the meaning of his name] - and SPARE HIS READER THE
EMBARRASSING INTIMACIES THAT FOLLOW."
More later on this in relation to Shade-Aunt Maud: who did what to and
for whom?
skb