-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: THOUGHTS: ADA, Van, and the "cory door"]
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 11:19:49 -0700
From: Mike Marcus <mmkcm@COMCAST.NET>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
CC: Mike Marcus <mmkcm@COMCAST.NET>

When you write that it's "not a Nabokovian kind of convolution (as I see it)", the inference is that your conclusion is entirely subjective, albeit based, no doubt, on profound knowledge of VN's work. Is there a theoretical model of VN's degrees of "convolution"? If not, your guess is as good as mine -- and vice versa! Furthermore, what's convoluted about giving the man's actual surname? On the basis of my embarrassingly limited reading of VN's works thus far, I get the impression that the overwhelming majority of allusions and covert references in his fiction has bypassed scholars, and will continue to do so indefinitely. There is no law that I'm aware of that forbade VN from tossing in a seemingly random allusion that gives the thrill of recognition to one who understands it, as well as enhancing a pre-existing skein of allusions.
Mike M.
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Jansy Mello: I formulated my point incorrectly. The best term for "cory-door" shouldn't have been "wordplay," but another one, perhaps related to phonetics, to an invented system for the notation of sounds. In this case, it wouldn't have to mean anything more complex than simply a transposition of "corridor."
The importance of the indication of William Cory's name in the context of ADA isn't totally clear yet. It's still too convoluted a way to point to Sir Philip Sydney, one that's not a Nabokovian kind of convolution (as I see it). There must be other hidden links that'll turn this hide-and-seek allusion into something less obscure. Perhaps if one searched into Speak,Memory's recollections of VN tutors, or those amusing two (Beauchamp and Campbell) in Pale Fire, following the lead of "tutors" Or references to ancient Greek?

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