Jansy: it remains a question of fact whether VN ever read anything by Vian. Given VN’s unbounded curiosity, and Vian’s relative prominence, the chances are indeed high. Further, it’s one of those annoying class of facts that resist disproof! Short of a deathbed interview? “Ever read anything by Boris Vian?” “Boris WHO?” “Vian. V-I-A-N.” “Rings a faint bell. Any relation to that Terrible IVAN or those VAIN Vane sisters?”
But Alexey seemed to suggest that the anagrams of v-i-a-n might be relevant, or may even have played a role in VN’s choice of reading. Not sure if you accept my rejection of this dubious approach? You certainly favour more promising, but still tenuous, avenues by noting obvious similarities between VN and BV: use of wordplay, hoaxes, pseudonyms, and possibly a writer they both admired. I wonder what you would count as evidence for meaningful influences between VN and BV in either direction?
I would hope such evidence would be stronger than in the recent exchanges on Martin Amis, where the latter’s use of “limp” was rated significant.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 12/03/2010 22:18, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
Stan K-Bootle [to A.S]: All of us bright young Brit Commies in the 50s knew of Boris Vian mainly (solely?) through his then-popular, anti-war, draft-burning song, Le
Déserteur...Reading reports of Vian’s Nabokovian wordplay a few years ago, I tried to order his surreal novel L'Écume des jours (1947) ...The anagrammatic coincidence you offer is unlikely to play a plausible role in resolving these factual probabilities.
JM: A naboko/vian wordplay? Boris V., himself, wrote under different pseudonyms: "Bison Ravi," an obvious anagram of his name, "Hugo Hachebuisson" and the most famous one, "Vernon Sullivan" (he introduced him to French readers as an American writer, whose work he translated). Sullivan's l947 best-selling wildly outrageous novel was "J'Irais Cracher Sur Vos Tombes." He was a close friend of Raymond Queneau ( a writer Nabokov admired & I must re-check it in SO to be sure), and an illustrious member of the "École de Pataphysique." There are tenuous, but actual, links to Nabokov (black commedy, anagrams, playful hoaxes).