This is just to emphasize a point -perhaps redundantly: HH does not not claim that "souffler" is the French slang equivalent of "blow", as he well knew; rather, he is struck by the fact that such a "beastly verb" turns quite harmless when translated literally into French; a kind of defamiliarization that enables him to endure the revelation.
 
In the past I referred to Van's pestering Ada to pronounce the word that rhymes with "patio", which she refuses, in connection with matters irrumatory.
 
A. Bouazza.
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU]On Behalf Of jansymello
Sent: 17 June 2006 03:59
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] The most transgressive book ever published ("souffler" in Lolita)]

Tom wrote "I agree with RL and DN on this one. But we're discussing HH, NOT his creator VN.
And if HH prefers to say "souffler", isn't that part of his francophone snobisme?" . A very good point.
 
Although I'm completely unfamiliar with most slang terms for oral sex in English or French, I remember that there were lots of puns in the movie "Les Invasions Barbares" ( by Denis Arcand) and the words they used suggested "pompier/pompadour" and not "souffle".   I'm now curious if HH's francophone inclinations were actually uptodate or correct.
 
While I was musing about the first posting on this theme the image that insistently came to my mind was related to a painting of Botticelli, where Venus is being blown ashore on top of a seashell. Then I discovered that beside all the references to the Riviera love and the Kingdom by the Sea, HH actually associated Lolita and that painting. After he finally found Mrs. Schiller we find: " Curious: although actually her looks had faded, I definitely realized, so hopelessly late in the day, how much she looked — had always looked — like Botticelli's russet Venus — the same soft nose, the same blurred beauty. In my pocket my fingers gently let go and repacked a little at the tip, within the handkerchief it was nested in, my unused weapon."   
Jansy Mello
----- Original Message -----
From: Nabokv-L
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 10:27 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] The most transgressive book ever published ("souffler" in Lolita)]

[EDNote: subscribers interested in VN's preference for punning insinuation ("ludic lewdness"?) over blatant sexual vulgarity are encouraged to seek out Eric Naiman's article, "A Filthy Look at Shakespeare's Lolita," Comparative
Literature 58.1 (winter 2006): 1-23, recently announced on Nabokv-L. On a related note, see also my own "Nabokov and Beardsley", available at http://www.nabokovmuseum.org/PDF/Blackwell.pdf -SB]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] The most transgressive book ever published ("souffler" in Lolita)
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:04:32 +0200
From: learmont <tom@discobolus.co.za>
Organization: DISCOBOLUS
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
References: <4492C5FE02000012002CA063@dudley.holycross.edu>

Dear Editors and List,

I agree with RL and DN on this one. But we're discussing HH, NOT his creator VN.
And if HH prefers to say "souffler", isn't that part of his francophone snobisme?

Regards,

Tom (Rymour)
   

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