Matthew Beedham made the same point as Stan K-B:Perhaps the term is more suitable in the comparison to relationships than VN's mind?

MB in addition brought to us "The Beatles"...they used the term metaphorically in the song "Helter Skelter."...When I get to the bottom /I go back to the top of the slide /Where I stop and turn/and I go for a ride / Till I get to the bottom and I see you again /Yeah, yeah, yeah ...

Nabokov's brain must have been shaped like most other fellow humans. Unless the left-lobe should be helter and the right-lobe skelter... American and Russian.

 

By the way, where does King Queen Knave fit, among the Nabokov "Russian novels" or among the American novels, considering its recreation together with his son, Dmitri?