C.Kunin: Habanera, be damned! I needs most humbly and
publicly beg both your pardons ...
JM: The present subject's heading is "de
fencing lessons" and now we pass onto "garden fencing" in place of "en
garde fencing"! Thank you for your clarificatin, L.Hochard. Off-list, Andrea
offered additional information: The "s" is dropped when using imperative
in the 2nd person singular, and the verb garder takes "ŕ" rather than "de" as a
preposition in the context you quote."
SK-B [to Carolyn]: I share your doubts about Alexey's
(and occasionally JM's) "anagrammatic extensions" when used to interpret VN's
novels. VN
scatters his own playful anagrams and puns quite freely and
teasingly, providing us with ample scope for guessing his real intentions.To
introduce extra-textual anagrams of our own seems an unnecessary distraction!
Lots of laughs, of course, and dazzling ingenuity, but nevertheless a
distraction
JM: I have no idea if Sklyarenko will agree with me, but I
understand his "anagrammatic extensions" as being directed at extracting an
independent wealth of information about Russian writers and poets, and it
has chosen VN as a point of departure,
without indicating the full-circle that would lead us necessarily back onto
any VN novel. For myself, there's no discipline, no particular aim except a
kind of verbal exercise for the surprises we may meeet.
CK [ to D.Zimmer about Salzman
inAda] There was a little bell I thought I heard. At first I tried Bellow, then
Philip Roth. Bingo? he wrote a series of "Zuckerman" novels.
JM: Carmenolyn, true or
not true, your idea is "bien trouvé". I'll borrow it to contest some of SK-B's
arguments against symmetries, mirrors, inversions and anagramatic
extensions.
btw: he seems to have forgotten yet
another Darkbloom, Vivian and it is a woman ( "Lolita").
The list of variations is enormous, ironical and
funny... Perhaps someone has collected them and will offer it to the List.
The only one I remember now is Baron Klim
Avidov.