Subject
What Daisy Knew in Ada
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Date
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But as Ada, beaming again, made fluttery introductions with an invisible wand, the person Van had grossly mistaken for Andrey Vinelander was transformed into Yuzlik, the gifted director of the ill-fated Don Juan picture. (3.8)
Ada had welcomed Yuzlik's unexpected reality in the lounge of the Bellevue not only as a counterpoise to the embarrassment and the deceit, but also because she hoped to sidle into What Daisy Knew; however, besides having no spells left in the turmoil of her spirit for business blandishments, she soon understood that if Lemorio were finally engaged, he would want her part for one of his mistresses. (ibid.)
Lemorio's agents, an elderly couple, unwed but having lived as man and man for a sufficiently long period to warrant a silver-screen anniversary, remained unsplit at table between Yuzlik, who never once spoke to them, and Van, who was being tortured by Dorothy. (ibid.)
Yuzlik's new film What Daisy Knew blends Henry James's novella Daisy Miller (1878) with his novel What Maisie Knew (1897). Describing his dinner with Lucette in Tobakoff's grill bar (after which they watch Don Juan's Last Fling in Tobakoff's cinema hall), Van mentions "Dr Henry's Atlantic prose in the medicine chest of the past" (3.5). Henry James was not a doctor. It is Anton Chekhov (who called medicine his lawful wife and literature, his mistress) who was one. Van's conversation at dinner with the Vinelanders is a parody of Chekhov's mannerisms (Darkbloom). Ada's husband, Andrey Andreevich Vinelander, is a namesake of the heroine's unattractive fiance in Chekhov's story Nevesta ("The Bride," 1903). On the other hand, Andrey who physically resembles Kosygin (a mayor of Yukonsk) is a namesake of Andrey Andreevich Gromyko (the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Brezhnev's government; Alexey Kosygin was the PM in it). Btw., in Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago (on Antiterra, Mertvago) Gromeko is the maiden name of Zhivago's wife Tonya (diminutive of Antonina).
The sexual orientation of Lemorio's agents brings to mind Captain Tapper, of Wild Violet Lodge, Kalugano, Van's adversary in a pistol duel, and the two seconds (1.42). It seems that "Dr. Henry" could belong to the same Lodge.
Yuzlik + kon + mask/smak = Yukonsk + klizma
bordel + bedroom + rebro + vino/ovin/voin = bred + dobro/Bordo + brevno + Lemorio
kon - game; round (in games)
smak - relish, savour
klizma - enema, clyster
rebro - rib
vino - wine
ovin - barn
voin - warrior
bred - delirium; ravings; gibberish; Dorothy Vinelander eventually married a Mr Brod or Bred, tender and passionate, dark and handsome, who traveled in eucharistials and other sacramental objects throughout the Severniya Territorii and who subsequently was to direct, and still may be directing half a century later, archeological reconstructions at Goreloe (the 'Lyaskan Herculanum'); what treasures he dug up in matrimony is another question. (3.8)
dobro - good; good deed; goods, property
Bordo - Russian spelling of Bordeaux (a city in France and the red wine praised by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin)
brevno - log, beam
'I'm delighted and honored to dine with Vasco de Gama,' said Yuzlik holding up his glass in front of his handsome facial apparatus.
The same garbling - and this gave Van a clue to Yuzlik's source of recondite information - occurred in The Chimes of Chose (a memoir by a former chum of Van's, now Lord Chose, which had climbed, and still clung to, the 'best seller' trellis - mainly because of several indecent but very funny references to the Villa Venus in Ranton Brooks).
...'Jack Chose's book is certainly most entertaining - especially that bit about apples and diarrhea, and the excerpts from the Venus Shell Album' - (Yuzlik's eyes darted aside in specious recollection; whereupon he bowed in effusive tribute to a common memory) - 'but the rascal should have neither divulged my name nor botched my thespionym.' (3.8)
Van's thespionym (stage name) is Mascodagama (1.30). As Mascodagama Van dances on his hands in variety shows. After the duel with Tapper Van looses his rare gift. Villa Venus in Ranton Brooks is one of Eric Veen's floramors (ideal bordels). Apples and diarrhea bring to mind Cherry, the boy whom Van tried during one of his visits to Villa Venus:
Cherry, the only lad in our next (American) floramor, a little Salopian of eleven or twelve, looked so amusing with his copper curls, dreamy eyes and elfin cheekbones that two exceptionally sportive courtesans, entertaining Van, prevailed upon him one night to try the boy. Their joint efforts failed, however, to arouse the pretty catamite, who had been exhausted by too many recent engagements. His girlish crupper proved sadly defaced by the varicolored imprints of bestial clawings and flesh-twistings; but worst of all, the little fellow could not disguise a state of acute indigestion, marked by unappetizing dysenteric symptoms that coated his lover's shaft with mustard and blood, the result, no doubt, of eating too many green apples. Eventually, he had to be destroyed or given away. (2.3).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Ada had welcomed Yuzlik's unexpected reality in the lounge of the Bellevue not only as a counterpoise to the embarrassment and the deceit, but also because she hoped to sidle into What Daisy Knew; however, besides having no spells left in the turmoil of her spirit for business blandishments, she soon understood that if Lemorio were finally engaged, he would want her part for one of his mistresses. (ibid.)
Lemorio's agents, an elderly couple, unwed but having lived as man and man for a sufficiently long period to warrant a silver-screen anniversary, remained unsplit at table between Yuzlik, who never once spoke to them, and Van, who was being tortured by Dorothy. (ibid.)
Yuzlik's new film What Daisy Knew blends Henry James's novella Daisy Miller (1878) with his novel What Maisie Knew (1897). Describing his dinner with Lucette in Tobakoff's grill bar (after which they watch Don Juan's Last Fling in Tobakoff's cinema hall), Van mentions "Dr Henry's Atlantic prose in the medicine chest of the past" (3.5). Henry James was not a doctor. It is Anton Chekhov (who called medicine his lawful wife and literature, his mistress) who was one. Van's conversation at dinner with the Vinelanders is a parody of Chekhov's mannerisms (Darkbloom). Ada's husband, Andrey Andreevich Vinelander, is a namesake of the heroine's unattractive fiance in Chekhov's story Nevesta ("The Bride," 1903). On the other hand, Andrey who physically resembles Kosygin (a mayor of Yukonsk) is a namesake of Andrey Andreevich Gromyko (the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Brezhnev's government; Alexey Kosygin was the PM in it). Btw., in Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago (on Antiterra, Mertvago) Gromeko is the maiden name of Zhivago's wife Tonya (diminutive of Antonina).
The sexual orientation of Lemorio's agents brings to mind Captain Tapper, of Wild Violet Lodge, Kalugano, Van's adversary in a pistol duel, and the two seconds (1.42). It seems that "Dr. Henry" could belong to the same Lodge.
Yuzlik + kon + mask/smak = Yukonsk + klizma
bordel + bedroom + rebro + vino/ovin/voin = bred + dobro/Bordo + brevno + Lemorio
kon - game; round (in games)
smak - relish, savour
klizma - enema, clyster
rebro - rib
vino - wine
ovin - barn
voin - warrior
bred - delirium; ravings; gibberish; Dorothy Vinelander eventually married a Mr Brod or Bred, tender and passionate, dark and handsome, who traveled in eucharistials and other sacramental objects throughout the Severniya Territorii and who subsequently was to direct, and still may be directing half a century later, archeological reconstructions at Goreloe (the 'Lyaskan Herculanum'); what treasures he dug up in matrimony is another question. (3.8)
dobro - good; good deed; goods, property
Bordo - Russian spelling of Bordeaux (a city in France and the red wine praised by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin)
brevno - log, beam
'I'm delighted and honored to dine with Vasco de Gama,' said Yuzlik holding up his glass in front of his handsome facial apparatus.
The same garbling - and this gave Van a clue to Yuzlik's source of recondite information - occurred in The Chimes of Chose (a memoir by a former chum of Van's, now Lord Chose, which had climbed, and still clung to, the 'best seller' trellis - mainly because of several indecent but very funny references to the Villa Venus in Ranton Brooks).
...'Jack Chose's book is certainly most entertaining - especially that bit about apples and diarrhea, and the excerpts from the Venus Shell Album' - (Yuzlik's eyes darted aside in specious recollection; whereupon he bowed in effusive tribute to a common memory) - 'but the rascal should have neither divulged my name nor botched my thespionym.' (3.8)
Van's thespionym (stage name) is Mascodagama (1.30). As Mascodagama Van dances on his hands in variety shows. After the duel with Tapper Van looses his rare gift. Villa Venus in Ranton Brooks is one of Eric Veen's floramors (ideal bordels). Apples and diarrhea bring to mind Cherry, the boy whom Van tried during one of his visits to Villa Venus:
Cherry, the only lad in our next (American) floramor, a little Salopian of eleven or twelve, looked so amusing with his copper curls, dreamy eyes and elfin cheekbones that two exceptionally sportive courtesans, entertaining Van, prevailed upon him one night to try the boy. Their joint efforts failed, however, to arouse the pretty catamite, who had been exhausted by too many recent engagements. His girlish crupper proved sadly defaced by the varicolored imprints of bestial clawings and flesh-twistings; but worst of all, the little fellow could not disguise a state of acute indigestion, marked by unappetizing dysenteric symptoms that coated his lover's shaft with mustard and blood, the result, no doubt, of eating too many green apples. Eventually, he had to be destroyed or given away. (2.3).
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/