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Re: fountains and the metric system
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Re: [NABOKV-L] fountains and the metric systemAlexey,
Thank you for the correction. Since I often ignore if I'll find free time to check my references, I usually prefer to mail fast and repent at leisure, so I have to leave certain themes open for future corrections. It was possible to find the reference to the posting you answered, on 1888. Actually, the date was 1881 ( or, as someone on the Pynchon List wrote: 1881 is Iris Acht in front of a mirror...)
Here it is: Strong Opinions,170 (Vintage International ) August,1970 interview with A.Appel Jr.
Q: ...why are you so fond of Vanessa atalanta?
A:Its coloring is quite splendid...Great numbers of them migrated from Africa to Northern Russia, where it was called "The Butterfly of Doom" because it was especially abundant in 1881, the year Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, and the markings on the underside of its two hind wings seem to read '1881".
Please, check your second correction. I don't speak German fluently, but I remember a line in Nietzsche's "Also Sprach Zaratustra" that begins with " O, Mensch, gib' Acht!Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht" where the word "Acht" does mean "attention"...
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: Alexey Sklyarenko
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] fountains and the metric system
Dear Jansy,
"The butterfly of doom" has to do not with Napoleonic wars, but with the murder of the tsar Alexander II in 1881. According to VN, the pattern on the butterfly's wings looks like 1881. There were unusually many Vanessa atalanta butterflies in St. Petersburg in the spring and summer of 1881.
"acht" can mean many things in German (for example, "exile"), but it is not "pay attention" (Achtung!), as you affirm.
Avdey Sky de la Renko (I mean, Alexey Sklyarenko)
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Thank you for the correction. Since I often ignore if I'll find free time to check my references, I usually prefer to mail fast and repent at leisure, so I have to leave certain themes open for future corrections. It was possible to find the reference to the posting you answered, on 1888. Actually, the date was 1881 ( or, as someone on the Pynchon List wrote: 1881 is Iris Acht in front of a mirror...)
Here it is: Strong Opinions,170 (Vintage International ) August,1970 interview with A.Appel Jr.
Q: ...why are you so fond of Vanessa atalanta?
A:Its coloring is quite splendid...Great numbers of them migrated from Africa to Northern Russia, where it was called "The Butterfly of Doom" because it was especially abundant in 1881, the year Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, and the markings on the underside of its two hind wings seem to read '1881".
Please, check your second correction. I don't speak German fluently, but I remember a line in Nietzsche's "Also Sprach Zaratustra" that begins with " O, Mensch, gib' Acht!Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht" where the word "Acht" does mean "attention"...
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: Alexey Sklyarenko
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] fountains and the metric system
Dear Jansy,
"The butterfly of doom" has to do not with Napoleonic wars, but with the murder of the tsar Alexander II in 1881. According to VN, the pattern on the butterfly's wings looks like 1881. There were unusually many Vanessa atalanta butterflies in St. Petersburg in the spring and summer of 1881.
"acht" can mean many things in German (for example, "exile"), but it is not "pay attention" (Achtung!), as you affirm.
Avdey Sky de la Renko (I mean, Alexey Sklyarenko)
Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB
Contact the Editors
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Visit Zembla
View Nabokv-L Policies
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