A.Sklyarenko [to JM:There seems
to be no justified reason to jumble "Torf/Fort/Tfor/Trof." Madame Trofim
Fartukoff belongs, rather, to the lineage of "pets" (another sort of gases)]
"Tfor" doesn't exist at all. Except a German would mispronounce thus dvor
("court[yard]" in Russian); You seem to confuse Blanche's husband, Trofim
Fartukov (Russian coachman whose name comes from fartuk, "apron"), with his
predecessor at Ardis, Ben Right..."
JM: Van quotes Marina, when she refers
to "rural rapes", and to what would have been Ben Wright’s "last petard at
Ardis." (p.316). We know that he was succeded by another coachman four years
later, Trofim Fartukoff, the one who married Blanche after warning Van to
lay off her, in his eyes a befouled, destroyed maid
who shouldn't be touched not even through an "apron".
The two "objects" (Bengal Ben and
Trofim) were blended together with the passing of time (Van uses the two as
an example in one of his musings about time and space).
V.Darkbloom plays with the word "petard," saying
that "Mr Ben Wright, a poet in his own right, is associated
throughout with pets (farts)," for "petard" in French has different
meanings (fire-cracker, an explosive bomb, a strong kick to the
soccer-ball, etc), only analogically related to "farts"... as far as I
know. It was this wordplay which authorized me to encounter "farts"
in "Fartukoff." I have checked the
names of the flying Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) and we can also
cancell a reference to their flying machines or to the children's
grand-father Dedalus.
Now what?