Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0008627, Mon, 22 Sep 2003 15:28:52 -0700

Subject
Fw: triple viol
Date
Body
EDNOTE. May I be the second to congratulate <nitrogen14@australia.edu> for
his coup of Ladybird Johnson. NB Ladybird is the status mate of Mary Todd
Lincoln & Napolean's Josephine. It is especially humiliating that an
Australian has to point out this bit of American political history to the
(mostly) American subscribers to NABOKV-L. Also note this constitutes yet
another "triplet."

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: <chtodel@cox.net>
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 3:06 PM
Subject: triple viol


> With respect to nitrogen14, Lucette's answer shows she knows exactly what
> Van is referring to, and the humor lies in her picking up on it and
carrying
> it forward so fast.
>
> But nitrogen14's reference to Ladybird Johnson is a gas-and a gag I had
> completely missed. (How, I now wonder?0 (ADA I.5: Marina: "I loved to
> identify myself with famous women. There's a ladybird on your plate, Ivan.
> Especially with famous beauties-Lincoln's second wife or Queen
Josephine.")
> There's an extra joke, too, in that while Ladybird Johnson, though famous
at
> the time ADA was published, was no beauty, Kennedy's wife Jackie, whom she
> replaced as First Lady, certainly was. Another example of VN's being
rooted
> firmly in contemporary Terra and the trompe l'oeil tradition.
>
> And in response to Don: this may be pushing things too far, but if Rack's
> wife's lover is not only a musician and an adulterer but a posioner, could
> there not be a triple pun on viol-vile-vial?
>
> BB
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <nitrogen14@australia.edu> ---------------- Message requiring your
approval (112
> lines) ------------------
> > I would say, with respect to BB, that I don't think
> > Lucette is making a pun here; rather, that she and Van
> > are talking at cross purposes, and she has misheard
> > his one-word utterance
> >
> > for another example of nabokovian triple-(word)play,
> > see the passage in ADA in which the mother says that
> > she likens herself to famous women of history, then
> > points out to Van that there's a 'ladybird' on his
> > plate; a reference to the First Lady of the mid-1960's
> >