Gary,

Interesting note about Frost and Stevens. My own feeling is that Shade/VN had the abstract expressionist painters in mind, rather than Stevens. In Ada, chapter 3, we find: "the mere geographic aspect of the affair possesses its redeeming comic side, like those patterns of brass marquetry, and bric-a-Braques, and the ormolu horrors that meant "art" to our humorless forefathers" (17).  Vivian Darkbloom glosses this as "Braques: allusion to a bric-a-brac painter."

 

Best,

Matt Roth