Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0019496, Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:10:48 -0300

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RES: [NABOKV-L] Bacon and Redwop, Nova Zembla in Wilson's poem
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Matt Roth: Bacon was writing in Latin in the year 1252. Were redwop an
anagram for powder in Latin and/or Middle English, as well as in modern
English, it would be a statistical monster indeed. This anagram's history
keeps getting weirder. I should say, however, that Bacon's letter is quite
Nabokovian in its own way..." the key to the cipher is evidently a piece of
parchment with holes in it. When this is superimposed upon the page of
writing, the words appearing through the holes constitute a clear and
connected description of the preparation of black powder."
PS: In my post on Wilson's "Pickerel Pond" poem, I should have noted the
reference to Nova Zembla!

JM: A statistical monster. I heard this expression somewhere before:
Nabokov?
Nova Zembla, nabob,balletomanes, Russian words and then Rio de Janeiro
reverts into "Orange". Important observation concerning Bacon's writs in
Latin and the very peculiar anagram for "powder."

Matt's observation that Bacon's letter is "quite Nabokovian," also can
illustrate, by this parallel, how certain story-lines (I only experimented
with ADA) may be followed, independently, when we retain specific words and
cover the rest with a "mascodagama" mask ( a template), to look thru its
orifices. It's the same process for the rotating cylinders with needles
in music- boxes, perhaps also in Babbage's first computer At present any
"search" button applied to VN's digitalized full-text serves as a kind of
"parchment with holes"'. I tried selecting "bout/bouteiller" and followed
this lead once, just for amusement, when butlers, taverns and their
love-affairs came to life in a private kind of plot. It's like playing
several games of chess at the same time.






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