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Re: Amorandola
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from ck to Jansy - mandorla & roseA. Bouazza sent information on "amorandola" written by Ted Mills: " for a first novel in English, the vocabulary stretched my brain to its limit. Check out this list of words I had to look up:
megrim, triskelion, selenographer, amorandola, Keeweenawatin, mnemogenic, velvetina, ruelle, pauldron, salix, cardiarium, dolichocephalic, decorpitation, noumenon, eidolon, kurorts, deoculation, yarovization."
(The problem with Googling unknown words: every fifth word turns out to the name of a literary journal.[ Or a rock group or album])
The list of words chosen by Mills does not distinguish neologisms, wordplay and real words.
The latter: "mnemogenic", "eidolon", "noumenon", "Kurorts", "dolichocefalic"...
VN himself described amorandola as a "neologism"while Bouazza's interpretation seems to fit perfectly VN's critical view of amorous sentinels and policemen playing a mandolin. His additional suggestion of
a "gondola-shaped straitjacket" is wonderful: Googling for Amorandola, which I always considered a portmanteau of amor and mandolin in a gondola-shaped straitjacket..."
A "cardiarium" must be the equivalent for "heart-care" like a "serpentarium" for snakes or "orchidarium" for orchids.
Deoculation (excising the eyes) is merely descriptive, whereas "decorpitation" must be a word-play with "decapitation" (instead of looking at a head that is being cut off we look at the severed body) and, in my view, not really precise: it should be "decorpation" and, in that case, we would probably miss the wordplay...
It would be fun to read what other interpretations to neologisms and word plays, similar in spirit to Bouazza's gondola-shaped straig-jacket, issue from other talented List-members. A kind of Nabokovian lexicon...
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
megrim, triskelion, selenographer, amorandola, Keeweenawatin, mnemogenic, velvetina, ruelle, pauldron, salix, cardiarium, dolichocephalic, decorpitation, noumenon, eidolon, kurorts, deoculation, yarovization."
(The problem with Googling unknown words: every fifth word turns out to the name of a literary journal.[ Or a rock group or album])
The list of words chosen by Mills does not distinguish neologisms, wordplay and real words.
The latter: "mnemogenic", "eidolon", "noumenon", "Kurorts", "dolichocefalic"...
VN himself described amorandola as a "neologism"while Bouazza's interpretation seems to fit perfectly VN's critical view of amorous sentinels and policemen playing a mandolin. His additional suggestion of
a "gondola-shaped straitjacket" is wonderful: Googling for Amorandola, which I always considered a portmanteau of amor and mandolin in a gondola-shaped straitjacket..."
A "cardiarium" must be the equivalent for "heart-care" like a "serpentarium" for snakes or "orchidarium" for orchids.
Deoculation (excising the eyes) is merely descriptive, whereas "decorpitation" must be a word-play with "decapitation" (instead of looking at a head that is being cut off we look at the severed body) and, in my view, not really precise: it should be "decorpation" and, in that case, we would probably miss the wordplay...
It would be fun to read what other interpretations to neologisms and word plays, similar in spirit to Bouazza's gondola-shaped straig-jacket, issue from other talented List-members. A kind of Nabokovian lexicon...
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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