JM wrote: I was curious about Swinburne
in "Lolita" and "Ada"...Another entry on Swinburne brought
up by google is by Brian Boyd and it connects "Algy" to James
Joyce. In "Colors and shades: the Temnosiniy and Proust
allusions," (Nov.16, 2002) B.B posted to the VN-L[
]Brian Boyd explains how this reference relates to the Veen
Family Tree ["Prince Vseslav Zemski and Princess Sofia Temnosiniy...First,
Russian Zemski ("earthly") derives from the root zem, "earth, land" (as in
zemlya, "earth, land,"; zemskiy, zemnoy "earthly") and Temnosiniy, "dark
blue," is the "traditional epithet for the sky" (Johnson 1985:129).
Jansy Mello: Although the connection to James
Joyce relates to a snotgreen sea derives from Van's exclamation: "the sea, his dark-blue
great-grandmother," in his argumentation Brian Boyd
moves on to the mythological incestuous relation between Terra and Coelus
(Earth and Sky), based on Johnson's explanation to "dark blue." However, the
watery elements and mermaids are very important in ADA.
I cannot help but wonder why pick dark-blue
for "sky" and not the "sea". Of course, there's Demon hustling down
from heaven in the environs of Haiti (Gavaille?) and I remember the
celestial eyes of Lady Erminin watching over a picnic in Ardis. But
what about Aqua and Marina and Oceanus Nox? After all Temnosiniy as a
surname corresponds to one of Van's great-grandmothers: couldn't he have
been merely literal and not convolutedly allusive, then? I hope
there's an explanation for it in DBJ's "Worlds in Regression"... I always
doubted the validity of the Veen family tree, with all the antlered noblemen and
their sprightly young wives: is there any article about the Tree's
genealogical or biological implications?
Thinking about trees, there's a lot about them in ADA that refers
to the Biblical pentateuch. How about Yggdrasil, besides the Druidic
Oak?