Carolyn Kunin: Airplane
accident? did you say 'airplane accident'? Didn't Papa Veen die in an airplane
'accident'? Oh, yes - I see you mention that....You know I have always blamed
Ada for that 'airplane accident' - but then I blame her for all unexplained
deaths in Ada - even the explained ones!
Jansy Mello: Nabokov never crossed
the Atlantic in an airplane. I cannot remember where he mentions it,
perhaps in SO.* In PF and in ADA there are different references to flying
machines (jiggers, libelula wings probably associated to Dumont's Demoiselle, a
chocolate toy enjoyed by young prince Charles...) and there are two deathly
accidents (Demon Veen's and King Alfin's**). Did Nabokov ever travel to
continents situated below the equator?
Mike Marcus: The OED has a quote from Blackwood's in the
entry for ululation: "The women..burst forth in a shrill scream, with a quaver
or ululation resembling the note of the screech-owl." That's why it's called a
ululation. Didn't see anything about the Med, Asia or Portugal. "Usually
applied"? By Nabokov?
Jansy Mello: Brazilian are
familiar with the word "ululation"in its various uses. It was once applied to
corruption in politics (its being something so "obvious"
that it became noisily visibly "ululating") Brazilian playwright Nelson
Rodrigues coined the term that he chose for a title of his collected essays
( "O óbvio ululante e outros ensaios"). I remember two movie scenes with
ululations ( "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The sheltering sky") See also Ululation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ululation
I don't know if the image of the
ululating sound of the wind is used in English, in French or
in Russian. It appears in Portuguese and I thought Nabokov applied it in
this sense.
..........................................................................................................
* A slight attempt to check about VN's
complicated relationship with airplanes, from Brian Boyd's AY, led me to two
sentences:
"After a pleasant crossing -Nabokov always found the
leisurely pace and the uncrowded space of transatlantic liners much more
soothing than he imagined air travel must be - the Libertté
docked at Le Have on October 5." (393)
"Since Nabokov did not care to fly, the trip from
Menton to Beverly Hills took twelve days by train and boat and train again"
(405)
l
* "My friend could not
evoke the image of his father. Similarly the King, who also was not quite three
when his father, King Alfin, died, was unable to recall his face, although oddly
he did remember perfectly well the little monoplane of chocolate that he, a
chubby babe, happened to be holding in that very last photograph (Christmas
1918) of the melancholy, riding-breeched aviator in whose lap he reluctantly and
uncomfortably
sprawled."