Sklyarenko’s choice, in his latest posting, to refer to “Terra” as “Land”
[quote: “ Terra is Latin for “land.” Aqua (Marina’s poor mad twin sister)
passionately believed in the existence of Terra (Demonia’s twin planet”…]
was inspiring - since I was longing for a pretext to return to the corpus
of Nabokov’s novels at the VN-List, to “Ada or Ardor” in particular, with
its inventions: jiggers, dorophones, telegas, teleseats and a retake of B.
Boyd’s notes.# The indirect highlight on “ Terra (land)/Earth” reminded me
of the ancient philosophers’ solid element, accompanied by liquid, gas and
plasma (water, air, fire).



In fact, although Van Veen himself mentions the “four elements,” the
connections he establishes for these are quite surprising because, unlike
the widespread theories related to them, he chooses to avoid considerations
about space and instead he sets into focus human mortality [ “Numbers and
rows and series — the nightmare and malediction harrowing pure thought and
pure time — seemed bent on mechanizing his mind. Three elements, fire,
water, and air, destroyed, in that sequence, Marina, Lucette, and Demon.
Terra waited.” 2,1 ]. I had never before tried to search for any specific
references to them and already my first look into the Wikipedia brought up
an illustration in which the name of one of the Durmanov sisters, Aqua in
“Ada or Ardor,” was shown in close proximity to “Terra” - an interesting
coincidence.



<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element



Aqua’s conversations with gurgling fountains and even her twin sister’s twin
name, Marina, suggest the “Water” element.
Earth/Terra´s (and anti-Terra) spread can be felt all the time as
inescapable as gravity’s pull.
With the exception of “aerograms” and Dedalus’s myth-like invention of
flying jiggers, perhaps also Van Veen’s maniambulations, until now I found
no other important indication of “Air,” though.
“Fire” is present in the title “Ada or Ardor” and extended to the ardent
passions at Ardis or the obsession of “ignicologists”*. Forest fires are not
uncommon but here the most important one is lovingly described and mentioned
with capital letters: the baronial “Burning Barn” ( “zdravstvuyte: apofeoz,
the Night of the Burning Barn.” Cf. p.92/ I,18)



Two slightly diverging examples:

“A sort of hoary riddle: [ ] did the Burning Barn come before the Cockloft
or the Cockloft come first. Oh, first! We had long been kissing cousins when
the fire started. In fact, I was getting some Château Baignet cold cream
from Ladore for my poor chapped lips. And we both were roused in our
separate rooms by her crying au feu! July 28? August 4?//Who cried? Stopchin
cried? Larivière cried? Larivière? Answer! Crying that the barn
flambait?//Oh, of course! But not Marina’s poor French — it was our little
goose Blanche. Yes, she rushed down the corridor and lost a miniver-trimmed
slipper on the grand staircase, like Ashette in the English version.”
(I,19)

Cf. Darkbloom: p.92. au feu!: fire! p.92. flambait: was in flames. p.92.
Ashette: ‘Cendrillon’ in the French original.” Note a curious link between
passion, fire and ashes/cinder in Cinderella’s (not Ada’s) close to midnight
flight down palatial stairs.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“The tumult in the house and the maid’s shriek interrupted a rare,
brilliant, dramatic dream, whose subject he was unable to recollect later,
although he still held it in a saved jewel box. [ ] Van gleaned from
subsiding cries that the so-called ‘baronial barn,’ a huge beloved structure
three miles away, was on fire[ ] Placing a bare knee on the shaggy divan
under the window, Van drew back the heavy red curtains. [ ] The entire
domestic staff seemed to be taking off to enjoy the fire (an infrequent
event in our damp windless region), using every contraption available or
imaginable: telegas, teleseats, roadboats, tandem bicycles [ ] That
multiple departure really presented a marvelous sight against the pale
star-dusted firmament of practically subtropical Ardis, tinted between the
black trees with a distant flamingo flush at the spot where the Barn was
Burning. [ ] Van was delighted and shocked to distinguish, right there in
the inky shrubbery, Ada in her long nightgown passing by with a lighted
candle in one hand and a shoe in the other as if stealing after the belated
ignicolists. It was only her reflection in the glass.” (I,19)

Thoughts?

............................................................................
............................................................................
..............................................................

#Brian Boyd -AdaOnline (the numbering of the pages in the digital below and
in the printed editions are distinct. The overall reference is to Part I,
ch. 19)
115.31: <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ada119.htm#115.31> telegas,
teleseats: A trap for the Anglophone reader, since in the context of the
invented teleseats (Nabokov’s aptly bumpy translation of the French
télésiege, “chairlift”), telegas suggests tele-gas but is in fact the
English plural of the Russian
<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/11531telega.htm> telega (W2), “[Russ.] A
rude four-wheeled, springless wagon, used among the Russians.”115.31:
<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ada119.htm#115.31> roadboats: A comic
nonce-word, invented on the model of the genuine but shortlived roadcar,
roadwagon? Amphibian vehicles? Boats for a roadstead (W2, “A protected place
where ships may ride at anchor”), since some at least reach the barn by
crossing the reservoir, 116.13-17...And a lot more.

* “Poor Aqua, whose fancies were apt to fall for all the fangles of cranks
and Christians… saw giant flying sharks with lateral eyes taking barely one
night to carry pilgrims through black ether across an entire continent from
dark to shining sea, before booming back to Seattle or Wark” I,3. Perhaps
it’s not a coincidence in this novel that “Aqua” and the word “ether” appear
in proximity ( “ether” is the fifth element, related to conflicting views by
Marat, indirectly referred to in the novel, and Lavoisier), or as B.Boyd
notes: 21.17 <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ada13.htm#21.17> : through black
ether: a concept of nineteenth-century physics in the midst of these visions
of twentieth-century technology.


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