Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0024265, Thu, 23 May 2013 16:35:10 +0300

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Arctic no longer vicious Circle
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On Antiterra (Earth's twin planet) 'Russia' is "a quaint synonym of Estoty, the American province extending from the Arctic no longer vicious Circle to the United States proper" (Ada, 1.3).

As he speaks of Revolution in his Opavshie list'ya ("Fallen Leaves," 1913, The First Basket), V. V. Rozanov (1856-1919) mentions perpetuum mobile and circulus vitiosus:

Perpetuum mobile, circulus vitiosus, и не от бесконечности - кудa! - a именно от короткости.

According to Rozanov (who began his career as a teacher of history and geography), Revolution has only two dimensions (length and width) and lacks the third (depth):

Революция имеет двa измерения - длину и ширину; но не имеет третьего глубины. И вот по этому кaчеству онa никогдa не будет иметь спелого, вкусного плодa, никогдa не "зaвершится"…

Also, there is no joy in Revolution. Joy (radost') is too noble a feeling and will never fall into the arms of this flunkey:

В революции нет рaдости. И не будет.
Рaдость - слишком цaрственное чувство и никогдa не попaдёт в объятия этого лaкея.

According to Van Veen, "Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution." (1.3)

Rozanov's last book written after the October Revolution was Apokalipsis nashego vremeni ("The Apocalypse of Our Time," 1918). The Book of ReveIation is also known as the Book of the Revelation of Saint John the Divine, or simply Revelation, or the Apocalypse. It was written on Patmos, an island in the Archipelago where Pan (the ancient Greek god of forests etc.) died. After he committed suicide in his dream, the hero of Dostoevski's story Son smeshnogo cheloveka ("The Dream of a Ridiculous Man," 1877) travels, accompanied by an angel, to Earth's twin planet and lands in the Archipelago or in the nearby mainland. Lermontov being the author of Geroy nashego vremeni ("The Hero of Our Time," 1840), one is reminded of Palermontovia, the Antiterran country that blends Palermo, a city in Sicily, with the author of prophetic Son ("The Dream," 1841). The name of Lermontov's hero, Pechorin, comes from Pechora, a river in N Russia flowing from the Ural Mountains to the Arctic Ocean. Pechorskaya guba (Pechora Bay) is a gulf in Russia, located in the Pechora Sea north of the Arctic Circle.

Rozanov's first wife Apollinaria Suslov was Dostoevski's mistress. The Antiterran L disaster in the beau milieu of the 19th century seems to correspond to the mock execution of Dostoevski and the Petrashevskians on January 3, 1850 (NS). January 3, 1876, is Lucette's birthday.

Alexey Sklyarenko

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