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Re: QUERY: Swinburne, Dolores, Mazeppa
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Jerry: for us mathematicians/logicians/philosophers, Quine is as familiar as
Shakespeare or Jehovah! Ditto Tarski and L[slashed]ukasiewicz! As soon as
Jansy cited ³Quine the Swine² I reached out for my nearby well-thumbed copy
of W V Quine¹s memoirs (The Time of My Life An Autobiography) to confirm
my recollection that Nabokov gets a mention. It¹s quite brief (p 348) but
establishes that they were indeed ³acquainted.² WVQ is staying at Hans
Epstein¹s house near Lugano, 1968. He admires Hans¹ ³built-in butterfly
racks² adding that ³Hans, like his friend and my acquaintance Nabokov, was
an ardent amateur [my emphasis] lepidopterist.² I¹m not sure if it¹s worth
pursuing this matter. It¹s no surprise that VN and WVQ were ³acquainted²
(quite a vague predicate!) since both were ³prominent persons² at Harvard
(and also at Stanford but I¹m not sure of the dates); but it throws little
light on VN¹s choice of names. One might as well postulate the influence of
the VAN in Willard¹s name -- another allusionist paper-chase for some! BTW:
Note that Quine¹s famous ³Quiddities² exploits playful alliteration (cf
Quine and Quilty). It¹s also unsurprising that both VN and WVQ shared
linguistic talents and a love of word-play. Quine¹s au pair, a Mexican lass
called Tecla, is subjected to anagrams: ³Set the table, Tacle!² ³Bring the
treacle, Tecal!² ³Where¹s the meat, Cleat?² ³Take my plate, Clate!² ³What¹s
for repas, Eclat?²
If there¹s any record of them earnestly discussing Ontology or the extremely
arcane aspects of Quine¹s Mathematical Logic, I¹ld love to know. Quine¹s
autobiography has a Nabokovian devotion to detail. Had the two exchanged
significant thoughts, I would have expected some mention.
PS: Does DN remember HANS EPSTEIN? Strange career: left academe to join the
CIA; then married into money & retired to live in Miglieglia.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 17/12/2008 13:25, "NABOKV-L" <NABOKV-L@HOLYCROSS.EDU> wrote:
> Jerry Friedman writes:
>
> It's impossible for me, and I suspect was for VN, to see
> a mention of Swinburne's "Dolores" without thinking
> about sadism and masochism, the subject of the poem and
> one of Swinburne's interests. (I've read contradictory
> things on how far it was one of his practices. No doubt
> a good biography would settle this--or maybe two good
> biographies.) I don't see how Oursler or the reviewer
> who quotes him could have missed it either.
>
> I can't see the surname "Quine" without thinking about
> the Harvard philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine, who
> wrote about topics that might have interested Nabokov,
> such as translation and "word and object". But I
> know little about Quine, and can't tell you whether
> Nabokov would have known him or known of his ideas
> when he wrote /Lolita/.
>
> By the way, Quine was talented at languages, and according
> to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Van_Orman_Quine>,
> he spent part of World War II in Brazil lecturing on
> logic in Portuguese.
>
> Another Quine is Richard Quine, an American actor and
> director who had directed a number of films by the time
> /Lolita/ was written. In the inevitable VN coincidence,
> his last directing credit was /The Prisoner of Zenda/
> (1979), starring "Peter Sellers & Peter Sellers".
>
> I'm afraid I may have only provided more red herrings.
>
> On another subject, what I find strange about Nabokov's
> comparison of Ultima Thule and Zembla is how little Zemblan
> natural history there is in /Pale Fire/. Except for the
> capercaillie and woodcock shooting and the low altitude
> of timberline, it could be pretty much anywhere in
> the north temperate zone. Nabokov must have been
> telling us those bogs and butterflies were in his
> imagination.
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
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Shakespeare or Jehovah! Ditto Tarski and L[slashed]ukasiewicz! As soon as
Jansy cited ³Quine the Swine² I reached out for my nearby well-thumbed copy
of W V Quine¹s memoirs (The Time of My Life An Autobiography) to confirm
my recollection that Nabokov gets a mention. It¹s quite brief (p 348) but
establishes that they were indeed ³acquainted.² WVQ is staying at Hans
Epstein¹s house near Lugano, 1968. He admires Hans¹ ³built-in butterfly
racks² adding that ³Hans, like his friend and my acquaintance Nabokov, was
an ardent amateur [my emphasis] lepidopterist.² I¹m not sure if it¹s worth
pursuing this matter. It¹s no surprise that VN and WVQ were ³acquainted²
(quite a vague predicate!) since both were ³prominent persons² at Harvard
(and also at Stanford but I¹m not sure of the dates); but it throws little
light on VN¹s choice of names. One might as well postulate the influence of
the VAN in Willard¹s name -- another allusionist paper-chase for some! BTW:
Note that Quine¹s famous ³Quiddities² exploits playful alliteration (cf
Quine and Quilty). It¹s also unsurprising that both VN and WVQ shared
linguistic talents and a love of word-play. Quine¹s au pair, a Mexican lass
called Tecla, is subjected to anagrams: ³Set the table, Tacle!² ³Bring the
treacle, Tecal!² ³Where¹s the meat, Cleat?² ³Take my plate, Clate!² ³What¹s
for repas, Eclat?²
If there¹s any record of them earnestly discussing Ontology or the extremely
arcane aspects of Quine¹s Mathematical Logic, I¹ld love to know. Quine¹s
autobiography has a Nabokovian devotion to detail. Had the two exchanged
significant thoughts, I would have expected some mention.
PS: Does DN remember HANS EPSTEIN? Strange career: left academe to join the
CIA; then married into money & retired to live in Miglieglia.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 17/12/2008 13:25, "NABOKV-L" <NABOKV-L@HOLYCROSS.EDU> wrote:
> Jerry Friedman writes:
>
> It's impossible for me, and I suspect was for VN, to see
> a mention of Swinburne's "Dolores" without thinking
> about sadism and masochism, the subject of the poem and
> one of Swinburne's interests. (I've read contradictory
> things on how far it was one of his practices. No doubt
> a good biography would settle this--or maybe two good
> biographies.) I don't see how Oursler or the reviewer
> who quotes him could have missed it either.
>
> I can't see the surname "Quine" without thinking about
> the Harvard philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine, who
> wrote about topics that might have interested Nabokov,
> such as translation and "word and object". But I
> know little about Quine, and can't tell you whether
> Nabokov would have known him or known of his ideas
> when he wrote /Lolita/.
>
> By the way, Quine was talented at languages, and according
> to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Van_Orman_Quine>,
> he spent part of World War II in Brazil lecturing on
> logic in Portuguese.
>
> Another Quine is Richard Quine, an American actor and
> director who had directed a number of films by the time
> /Lolita/ was written. In the inevitable VN coincidence,
> his last directing credit was /The Prisoner of Zenda/
> (1979), starring "Peter Sellers & Peter Sellers".
>
> I'm afraid I may have only provided more red herrings.
>
> On another subject, what I find strange about Nabokov's
> comparison of Ultima Thule and Zembla is how little Zemblan
> natural history there is in /Pale Fire/. Except for the
> capercaillie and woodcock shooting and the low altitude
> of timberline, it could be pretty much anywhere in
> the north temperate zone. Nabokov must have been
> telling us those bogs and butterflies were in his
> imagination.
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/