Subject
Re: bathroom talk (fwd)
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From: Vitaly Kupisk <kupisk@compuserve.com>
I used to be a native speaker, and no, I've never heard this euphemism
("place where one finds solitude"? I am not sure what the Oxford
Russian/English dict. says) either. It did jump out, but as a possible
word that little Luzhin was taught to use. It jumps out as another
manifestation
of Luzhin's childhood, where things of all sorts are not called by their
names ("tualet" and "ubornaya" are quite acceptable and direct, although
euphemisms at their birth), and of Luzhin not having gone past that
childhood.
Thanks for pointing out that this is the room of Luzhin's final
"uedinenie".
Vitaly Kupisk
Berkeley, CA
kupisk@compuserve.com
From Eric Naiman <naiman@violet.berkeley.edu>:
> I am curious about a remark made by Luzhin when he and his wife move into
> their new apartment. He says to her: "Gde uedinenie? -- shepnul Luzhin.
> -- Gde samaia malen'kaia komnata?" "V vannoi, vse v vannoi". This is
> obviously a significant moment, since it will be through that uedinenie
> that Luzhin will exit both novel and life. My question is whether this
> was a standard euphemism at the time (and thus, whether Nabokov is subtly
> punning), or whether the line should jump out at the reader as markedly
> strange. In the English this line is dropped, Luzhin just says: "Where's
> the little place." (Native speakers whom I have questioned have never
> heard of the term, and I don't find it in Dal'.)
I used to be a native speaker, and no, I've never heard this euphemism
("place where one finds solitude"? I am not sure what the Oxford
Russian/English dict. says) either. It did jump out, but as a possible
word that little Luzhin was taught to use. It jumps out as another
manifestation
of Luzhin's childhood, where things of all sorts are not called by their
names ("tualet" and "ubornaya" are quite acceptable and direct, although
euphemisms at their birth), and of Luzhin not having gone past that
childhood.
Thanks for pointing out that this is the room of Luzhin's final
"uedinenie".
Vitaly Kupisk
Berkeley, CA
kupisk@compuserve.com
From Eric Naiman <naiman@violet.berkeley.edu>:
> I am curious about a remark made by Luzhin when he and his wife move into
> their new apartment. He says to her: "Gde uedinenie? -- shepnul Luzhin.
> -- Gde samaia malen'kaia komnata?" "V vannoi, vse v vannoi". This is
> obviously a significant moment, since it will be through that uedinenie
> that Luzhin will exit both novel and life. My question is whether this
> was a standard euphemism at the time (and thus, whether Nabokov is subtly
> punning), or whether the line should jump out at the reader as markedly
> strange. In the English this line is dropped, Luzhin just says: "Where's
> the little place." (Native speakers whom I have questioned have never
> heard of the term, and I don't find it in Dal'.)