----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 5:35
PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: Red Wop
Explained
C. Kunin:I fail to
see what is the link between the apparently explosive powder/red wop and
Hazel?
JM: Once in a while I've the
feeling that Kinbote bears traits inspired in how Nabokov sees
critic E.Wilson.
By his own admission, Kinbote notices
that he has something in common with Hazel (twisting of
words).
Hazel twists T.S. Eliot into "Toilest"
and "Powder" into "Red Wop." This
practice is part of Bunny-Volodya exchanges, long before Hazel was born.
Perhaps this element shared by Hazel and Kinbote is a jest with E.Wilson and
their supreptitious envious "ban"s?
I'll quote only from page 249 (letter 192,
Feb.1949) VN addressed to Bunny:
Do you still work upon such sets
as
for example "step" and "pets,"
as
"Nazitrap" and "partizan,"
"Red
Wop" and "powder," "nab" and "ban"?
(And gosh! here we find "pets" and "powder"
exploding in the same "quadruplets"... more amusing coincidences?)
More about "amphisbaeniae" on page 241 ( VN's: stupor/Proust) and E.Wilson's comment on pg. 244
("stupor fits, not Proust, but reputes, or better, rope
Utes...")
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