Matt: I suspect that we both feel in our bones that pulling out arbitrary strings of text and juggling their letters is unlikely to contribute to serious literary analysis? Nabokov indulges in many forms of word play (puns, mis-allusions, rhyming-slang, acrostics, spoonerisms, anagrams) but they are served with donnish knowing winks, nudges (and even the occasional embarrassing smirk) aimed at his prefered target audience. But, this audience of creative re-readers really disserve the Master if they overly dwell on these amusing but insignificant and short-lived tics and tricks. Future generations will be as puzzled as we are today by Shakespeare’s dated verbal jokes!
On 11/06/2010 23:47, "NABOKV-L" <NABOKV-L@HOLYCROSS.EDU> wrote:
In the spring 2010 Nabokovian, Alex Roy points out that according to the Index to PF, Gradus should appear in the note to line 12; however, he is not explicitly mentioned there. Roy finds him in an anagram of Angus MacDiarmid, which he refigures as "Gradus, ici madman" (ici = institute for the criminally insane, Jack G's last address). Anagram-hunting is not my sport (it's hard to tell the difference between chance and intent) but were I to play that game, I would point out another anagram directly following the MacDiarmid one. Paired with our man Angus is "Southey's Lingo-Grande," which, anagramized, comes out as "see Gradus, loony thing." Or, if you prefer a more index-like entry, "Gradus, see loony thing." So, does this double incidence confirm intention, or does it make the opposite point--that anagrams occur by chance all the time, so we should be wary of assigning intent?
Matt Roth
Search the archive <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu=en> Contact the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com>
Visit Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.