Your hypothesis sounds like a very interesting interpretation, Carolyn. Do you have a link to it somewhere?

Regards,
Mary Ross

On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 7:52 AM Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@att.net> wrote:
Dear List Members,

I was thrilled to read the following in yesterday's Wall St Journal:

                            
                               NEW SKILLS BUILD NEW BRAIN ARCHITECTURE              
Susan Pinker

    "The latest tools of neuroscience allow us to witness, as never before, the electrical flares, chemical land-slides and sluicing of water from zone to zone that alter the geography of the brain as it changes.
   
 "Evidence of the ways neural tisssue is partially destroyed after a strok or the onset of dementia has been around for decades. But proof that missing or miswired human brains connections can grow again -- what neuroscientists call plasticity -- has so far been thin on the ground. In 2014 a study showed that for mice, novel experiences prompt almost immediate changes in white matter -- the brain's connective tissue, or highway system." [the italics are mine]

The rest of the article is worth reading, but it is in these first two paragraphs that I found confirmation of my hypothesis that in describing King Charles's escape from Zembla, Nabokov was actually describing a cerebral episode of some kind, most likely a stroke. The author of this article uses similar metaphors for brain activity and disruption as did VN lo these many years ago.

with regards from Pasadena and
Carolyn

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Google Search
the archive
Contact
the Editors
NOJ
___

Zembla
Nabokov Studies (Journal)
Policies
___
Options
Chercheurs Enchantés (French VN Society)
AdaOnline
___
Dieter Zimmer's Site
NSJ Ada Annotations L-Soft Search the archive VN Bibliography Blog

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.