Subject
Re: mesmertie
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Date
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Alexey Sklyarenko suggests a neologism derived from Mesmer ("mesmertie") defined as "sham immortality, a state into which charlatans are plunged after death"
I always knew that good Americans end up in Paris,* but I never before considered the fate of a good charlatan.
Speaking about Nabokovian neologisms Kinbote attributed the "iridule" to Shade (Line 109) when he noted that it's: "An iridescent cloudlet, Zemblan muderperlwelk. The term "iridule" is, I believe, Shade's own invention. Above it, in the Fair Copy (card 9, July 4) he has written in pencil "peacock-herl." The peacock-herl is the body of a certain sort of artificial fly also called "alder." So the owner of this motor court, an ardent fisherman, tells me. (See also the "strange nacreous gleams" in line 634.)"
Since Kinbote descends from conchologists his preference for "mother-of-pearl" is to be expected. Nabokov enjoyed a vast range of options for he could even admire "a rainbow of oil, with the purple predominant and a plumelike twist. Asphalt's parakeet" (The Gift)". Nevertheless, whenever I consider this kind of oily parakeet, it's the word "iridulent" that comes to my mind, not "iridescent"!
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* - "To these must certainly be added that other saying of one of the wittiest of men [Thomas Gold Appleton]: 'Good Americans, when they die, go to Paris.'
[1858 O. W. Holmes Autocrat of Breakfast-Table vi.] "
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