Subject
Fw: Fw: Linguistic showoffs
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Learmont" <tom@discobolus.co.za>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (19
lines) ------------------
> Dear Don and List...
>
> Perhaps not linguistic, but literary oneupmanship was one of the first
> things that made me a lifelong fan of Old McNab (maybe I'm a bit of a snob
> myself). It's in Lolita, where Quilty is leaving messges to be discovered
> by Humbert in motel registers. At first I thought he was confusing Rimbaud
> and Maeterlinck with "L'oiseau Ivre" and "Le Bateau Bleu," and said to
> myself: "This VN character ain't so clever as I am!" But then, a couple of
> pages later came the triumphant "Gotcha!" Apart from the fact that it gave
> me a laugh, and is an example of author vs reader, does it deepen
"Lolita,"
> or advance the plot? Not that I care!
>
> On a different tack: Humbert's maraschino abscess reminds me of Gradus's
> technicoloured entrails; VN had an X-ray imagination.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom
>
From: "Tom Learmont" <tom@discobolus.co.za>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (19
lines) ------------------
> Dear Don and List...
>
> Perhaps not linguistic, but literary oneupmanship was one of the first
> things that made me a lifelong fan of Old McNab (maybe I'm a bit of a snob
> myself). It's in Lolita, where Quilty is leaving messges to be discovered
> by Humbert in motel registers. At first I thought he was confusing Rimbaud
> and Maeterlinck with "L'oiseau Ivre" and "Le Bateau Bleu," and said to
> myself: "This VN character ain't so clever as I am!" But then, a couple of
> pages later came the triumphant "Gotcha!" Apart from the fact that it gave
> me a laugh, and is an example of author vs reader, does it deepen
"Lolita,"
> or advance the plot? Not that I care!
>
> On a different tack: Humbert's maraschino abscess reminds me of Gradus's
> technicoloured entrails; VN had an X-ray imagination.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom
>