...as thrilling to get as a blank check
signed by Jupiter or Jurojin (Ada:
1.36)
Jupiter is the supreme deity of the ancient Romans. On the
other hand, Jupiter ("Jup") is an orangutan in Jules Verne's novel
The Mysterious Island. One of its characters, Ayrton, initially
appeared in Jules Verne's The Children of Captain Grant (known on
Antiterra, Earth's twin planet on which Ada is set, as Captain Grant's
Microgalaxies: 1.35). He was abandoned on the Tabor Island in the
South Pacific which turned out to be Captain Grant's shelter. "Mount Tabor
Ltd." is the publishing house that brought out Anna Arkadievitch
Karenina, Tolstoy's novel transfigured into English by R. G. Stonelower
(Ada: 1.1).
As to Jurojin, he belongs to the same pantheon as Benten
(a Japanese goddess mentioned in Around the World in Eighty Days,
another Jules Verne novel alluded to in Ada: 1.1).
In Chekhov's play The Seagull (Act One) Dorn
calls Arkadina "Jupiter" and she replies that she is a woman, not
"Jupiter:"
Дорн. Юпитер, ты
сердишься...
Аркадина. Я не Юпитер, а
женщина.
DORN. Thou art angry, O Jove!
ARKADINA. I am a woman, not Jove.
Chekhov is the author of a parody "Flying Islands (by Jules
Verne)."
Alexey Sklyarenko