Subject
VAn & ADA: true siblings?
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----- Forwarded message from penmc@BTCONNECT.COM -----
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 08:15:32 -0700
From: Penny McCarthy <penmc@BTCONNECT.COM>
Reply-To: Penny McCarthy <penmc@BTCONNECT.COM>
Subject: true siblings?
To:
Dear List,
Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello raises an interesting question about Ada and
Van's relatedness. In my MLR 2004 (vol. 99.1) article 'Nabokov's Ada and
Sidney's Arcadia'- noted with approval by Barbara Wyllie and Donald
Johnson on 11 Feb. 2005, for which many thanks - I suggested that early in
the novel Ada (p. 28 of the Penguin) Nabokov obfuscates Van's parentage.
G.A. Vronsky had an affair with Marina just before Demon became her lover.
Demon threw her out for some unexplained misdemeanour - had he discovered
she was pregnant by Vronsky? As the two G.A.'s (G.A. Vronsky and Grigoriy
Akimovich) merge into each other, so the Erminin family and the Aqua Veen
branch of the Veens merge. So the harping on triplets from this very point
in the story becomes suspect: perhaps Van, Greg and Grace are triplet
children of Aqua. It is not that we are not meant to read the whole novel
as a story of sibling incest; rather that we are reading a 'quantum
physics' sort of novel, in which atoms (people) can pass through two
incompatible histories simultaneously. Van and Ada are and are not true
siblings.
Feed-back on the notion of Philip Sidney as Nabokov's inspiration for his
life and work would be welcome. Surely there is more to add to my
findings. Penny McC.
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 08:15:32 -0700
From: Penny McCarthy <penmc@BTCONNECT.COM>
Reply-To: Penny McCarthy <penmc@BTCONNECT.COM>
Subject: true siblings?
To:
Dear List,
Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello raises an interesting question about Ada and
Van's relatedness. In my MLR 2004 (vol. 99.1) article 'Nabokov's Ada and
Sidney's Arcadia'- noted with approval by Barbara Wyllie and Donald
Johnson on 11 Feb. 2005, for which many thanks - I suggested that early in
the novel Ada (p. 28 of the Penguin) Nabokov obfuscates Van's parentage.
G.A. Vronsky had an affair with Marina just before Demon became her lover.
Demon threw her out for some unexplained misdemeanour - had he discovered
she was pregnant by Vronsky? As the two G.A.'s (G.A. Vronsky and Grigoriy
Akimovich) merge into each other, so the Erminin family and the Aqua Veen
branch of the Veens merge. So the harping on triplets from this very point
in the story becomes suspect: perhaps Van, Greg and Grace are triplet
children of Aqua. It is not that we are not meant to read the whole novel
as a story of sibling incest; rather that we are reading a 'quantum
physics' sort of novel, in which atoms (people) can pass through two
incompatible histories simultaneously. Van and Ada are and are not true
siblings.
Feed-back on the notion of Philip Sidney as Nabokov's inspiration for his
life and work would be welcome. Surely there is more to add to my
findings. Penny McC.
----- End forwarded message -----