JM: Nabokovian issues have
been carrollianly spinning and backbending round and I cannot wait to hear more about these
exciting developments, always keeping in mind maniambulator Van's
project to turn metaphors upside down ( "the
rapture young Mascodagama derived from overcoming gravity was akin to that of
artistic revelation.") After all, what does the name Alexander Luzhin indicate to
lead one away from Dostoevski's puddles?
If one imagines Nabokov's characters interventions, how would
their explanation come out concerning, say, some of the motives why Luzhin
couldn't step over a poodle? (in the past Walter Miale sent the most
amusing answers, in a parody of Lolita, HH, Kinbote, Knight and others,
explaining why "the chicken crossed the street") At least, we could
take this sinister bend into our own hands?
........................................................................................................................................
J.Aisenberg puzzles over
puddles and etymology, following A.Sklyarenko's information: " ...you
say the two names of the characters have different etymologies[ ] Do you mean
that [ ] Dostoyevsky plucked the word from one root of Russian and Nabokov got
his from an entirely separate unrelated one, like from a whole different branch
of the language, and which also means "puddle"?[ ] I know that in English
etymolgies are always iffy things[ ] the language has so many overlays. Does
Russian as well as have these parallel
developments?"
Sandy Klein sends news from "Above and
Beyond"
[
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/above/2009/05/25/090525goab_GOAT_above]
"The Universal Record Database, a Web site that is to
the Guinness World Records as Wikipedia is to the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
bills itself as the “definitive site for human achievement.” This means there’s
finally a place, at least online, for people who aspire to achieve such
distinctions as “Longest Suspension of Tape Measure While Standing on One Foot”
and “Slowest Consumption of a Bowl of Cereal.” ...On May 20...attempts will be
made to knit the longest scarf in two hours, to deliver the most knock-knock
jokes in one minute, and to perform the fastest recital of the first
paragraph of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” while doing a backbend."