CK: give Jansy a break! The VN-Wilson correspondence was indeed ‘only published in 1979, more than a decade after Pale Fire (1962).’ But the powder/redwop anagram inversion* occurs in a letter dated 1949, long before its re-emergence in Pale Fire.
I read the 1949 Red Wop as a derogatory dig at the Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), clearly a plausible target for VN’s contempt. At least my interpretation is an amusing alternative to the cheap wine, Red Wop, that Truman Capote’s Percy Smith guzzled by the gallon in In Cold Blood. The communist reading of Red is supported by the partizan/nazi-trap margana in the same letter. Incidentally, partizan/nazi-trap is quite staggeringly realistic compared with the mundane powder/redwop, where there’s less immediate connection between the two words. Not that that should discourage creative speculation. I could, if bribed, suggest Hey Gramsci, Lasciami in pace! Take a powder!
Seeking motivations for VN’s recycling, I agree with Jansy that it seems an example of the awkward Hazel’s verbal problems.
If there are hints of dyslexia (alt.spell dyxlesia!) then Hazel turns out to be remarkably lucky with her clever inversions!
As CK suggests, powder/redwop could just be one of the many wordplays in VN’s vast, volatile repertoire that sprang to his mind. But, contra Jansy, we can never be sure that VN was consciously referring back to his previous uage in a 1949 letter.
* which can be called a margana after the software program that shuffles text* also known as Alexey’s Little Helper??
See e.g., http://margana.runslinux.net/
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 20/02/2010 02:04, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
Dear Jansy,
Give me a break! The correspondence between Wilson and VN was only published in 1979, more than a decade after PF (1962):
Author/Name:Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977. <http://catalog.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?SC=Author&SEQ=20100219174223&PID=3DvXVTlXpvD31QQ8TGh6dLem7&SA=Nabokov,+Vladimir+Vladimirovich,+1899-1977.>
Title:The Nabokov-Wilson letters : correspondence between Vladimir Nabokov and Edmund Wilson, 1940-1971 / edited, annotated and with an introductory essay by Simon Karlinsky.
Edition:1st ed.
Published/distributed:New York : Harper & Row, c1979.
What would VN's motive be in making reference to something in his private correspondence? Or does it simply mean that powder/red wop is without any hidden intention, which I guess is what we all assumed before Matt Roth asked the question? But the problem remains - - what's so "wonderful" about that? Or does VN simply give Hazel a joke that had meaning only for himself and possibly Wilson? It just doesn't add up.
Carolyn
p.s. "supreptitious"?
On Feb 19, 2010, at 11:35 AM, jansymello wrote:
C. Kunin:I fail to see what is the link between the apparently explosive powder/red wop and Hazel?
JM: Once in a while I've the feeling that Kinbote bears traits inspired in how Nabokov sees critic E.Wilson.
By his own admission, Kinbote notices that he has something in common with Hazel (twisting of words).
Hazel twists T.S. Eliot into "Toilest" and "Powder" into "Red Wop." This practice is part of Bunny-Volodya exchanges, long before Hazel was born. Perhaps this element shared by Hazel and Kinbote is a jest with E.Wilson and their supreptitious envious "ban"s?
I'll quote only from page 249 (letter 192, Feb.1949) VN addressed to Bunny:
Do you still work upon such sets
as for example "step" and "pets,"
as "Nazitrap" and "partizan,"
"Red Wop" and "powder," "nab" and "ban"?
(And gosh! here we find "pets" and "powder" exploding in the same "quadruplets"... more amusing coincidences?)
More about "amphisbaeniae" on page 241 ( VN's: stupor/Proust) and E.Wilson's comment on pg. 244 ("stupor fits, not Proust, but reputes, or better, rope Utes...")