Subject
Zembla in Space?
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Dear List,
In America we are again awaiting with excitement a new launch of the
Space Shuttle, which will run a supply mission to the International
Space Station. The "ISS", as it is known, has no proper name (its
modules have names like "Destiny" and "Zaria [sunrise/set]". I have
long felt that the whole station should be named "Zembla", for the
following reasons:
1. Fictional World invented by trilingual Russian-American author, with
German and Tatar heritage, who lived and wrote in Russia, England,
Germany, France, the US, and Switzerland
2. Derives linguistically from "Zemlya", Earth, and thus represents a
new imaginary world
3. Derives geographically from Nova Zembla (or Novaya Zemlya), an
arctic-Russian peninsula frequented by great explorers, including
Ammundsen and others who used it as a staging area for attempts to reach
the North Pole;
Nabokov claimed that his ancestors helped explore and map Nova
Zembla (this has been challenged or disproved, I think?)
4. Nabokov was fascinated by space travel and the distant universe;
wrote one story--"Lance"--about space exploration.
5. Represents one of the world's supreme achievements of the
imagination, by a literary artist who was also a distinguished and
ground-breaking scientist.
6. Zembla's King Alfin was an aeronautical enthusiast (careful with that
one!!!)
Can you add to this list? Does anyone have alternate suggestions from
VN's works? There seem to be no plans to name the station; can we
initiate an International Whisper Campaign (for whatever name we might
choose)?
Stephen Blackwell
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
In America we are again awaiting with excitement a new launch of the
Space Shuttle, which will run a supply mission to the International
Space Station. The "ISS", as it is known, has no proper name (its
modules have names like "Destiny" and "Zaria [sunrise/set]". I have
long felt that the whole station should be named "Zembla", for the
following reasons:
1. Fictional World invented by trilingual Russian-American author, with
German and Tatar heritage, who lived and wrote in Russia, England,
Germany, France, the US, and Switzerland
2. Derives linguistically from "Zemlya", Earth, and thus represents a
new imaginary world
3. Derives geographically from Nova Zembla (or Novaya Zemlya), an
arctic-Russian peninsula frequented by great explorers, including
Ammundsen and others who used it as a staging area for attempts to reach
the North Pole;
Nabokov claimed that his ancestors helped explore and map Nova
Zembla (this has been challenged or disproved, I think?)
4. Nabokov was fascinated by space travel and the distant universe;
wrote one story--"Lance"--about space exploration.
5. Represents one of the world's supreme achievements of the
imagination, by a literary artist who was also a distinguished and
ground-breaking scientist.
6. Zembla's King Alfin was an aeronautical enthusiast (careful with that
one!!!)
Can you add to this list? Does anyone have alternate suggestions from
VN's works? There seem to be no plans to name the station; can we
initiate an International Whisper Campaign (for whatever name we might
choose)?
Stephen Blackwell
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm