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Re: Lolita, Lolitas, Osberg, Lichberg : suppositions (fwd) (fwd)
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------------------ Zut alors!
There seems to be a missed allusion taken literally here--as with Sebastian
Knight's reference to a fat student who comes home to find his mother
married to his uncle, an ear specialist.
Nabokov's Lolita is continually identified with a very specific Andalusian
Gypsy--a good example of a REAL Nabokov allusion--functional, systematic,
suggestive.
Prosper Mérimée's Novella, Carmen:
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/merimee.html
Bizet's Opera:
http://opera.stanford.edu/Bizet/Carmen/libretto.html
Cheers,
Tom
"D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Date: Monday, August 02, 2004 8:36 AM -1000
> From: Alain Andreu <AAndreu@ilm.pf>
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>, "D. Barton
> Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> Subject: Re: Lolita, Lolitas, Osberg, Lichberg : suppositions (fwd)
>
> I share your strange feeling !
>
> Kindest Regards from another French nabokophile.
>
> Alain ANDREU-
> ---------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004 09:42:21 -0700
> Subject: Lolita, Lolitas, Osberg, Lichberg : suppositions (fwd)
>
> > ------------------ Hello,
> >
> > I am a french nabokophile (so please forgive my akward english) and I
> > am
> > re-reading “Ada or Ador”. The first sentence of chapter 13 struck me in
> > a
> > strange way that I will try to explain .
> >
> > 1. Nabokov writes that for the big picnic organised on her twelfth
> > birthday, “the child was permitted to wear her lolita (thus dubbed
> > after
> > the little Andulasian gipsy of that name in OsbergÂ’s novel and
> > pronounced,
> > incidentally, with a Spanish ‘t’, not a thick english one)”.
> > 2. I know “Osberg” is an anagram for “Borges” (cf. infra 3), and I do
> > not know if there is an “Andulasian gispy” in Borges’ works... But does
> > not “Osberg” sound a little like “Lichberg” ? Is “Osberg” not only an
> > anagram, but also a sort of pun ? The question is at stake.
> > 3. Lolita, in LichbergÂ’s tale, is a Spanish girl. She lives in
> > Alicante, which is not located in the actuel Andulasia county stricto
> > sensu, but is nevertheless located in south Spain, just above
> > Andulasia.
> > 4. Vivian Darkbloom’s note specifies : “Osberg : an another good-
> > natured anagram, scrambling the name of a writer with whom the author
> > of
> > Lolita has been rather comically compared”. I guess this “author of
> > Lolita” hints to Nabokov himself and not to Lichberg... But when I read
> > these phrase and note, I had a strange feeling : it was as if Nabokov
> > had
> > foreseen what happened last April in the international press after the
> > discover of LichbergÂ’s tale, and if, many years in advance, he had
> > given
> > us an ironic answer in his own specific way...
> >
> > Sincerely yours,
> >
> > Olivia Cham
> >
> > ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
> >
> >
> >
> > D. Barton Johnson
> > NABOKV-L
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
There seems to be a missed allusion taken literally here--as with Sebastian
Knight's reference to a fat student who comes home to find his mother
married to his uncle, an ear specialist.
Nabokov's Lolita is continually identified with a very specific Andalusian
Gypsy--a good example of a REAL Nabokov allusion--functional, systematic,
suggestive.
Prosper Mérimée's Novella, Carmen:
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/merimee.html
Bizet's Opera:
http://opera.stanford.edu/Bizet/Carmen/libretto.html
Cheers,
Tom
"D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Date: Monday, August 02, 2004 8:36 AM -1000
> From: Alain Andreu <AAndreu@ilm.pf>
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>, "D. Barton
> Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> Subject: Re: Lolita, Lolitas, Osberg, Lichberg : suppositions (fwd)
>
> I share your strange feeling !
>
> Kindest Regards from another French nabokophile.
>
> Alain ANDREU-
> ---------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004 09:42:21 -0700
> Subject: Lolita, Lolitas, Osberg, Lichberg : suppositions (fwd)
>
> > ------------------ Hello,
> >
> > I am a french nabokophile (so please forgive my akward english) and I
> > am
> > re-reading “Ada or Ador”. The first sentence of chapter 13 struck me in
> > a
> > strange way that I will try to explain .
> >
> > 1. Nabokov writes that for the big picnic organised on her twelfth
> > birthday, “the child was permitted to wear her lolita (thus dubbed
> > after
> > the little Andulasian gipsy of that name in OsbergÂ’s novel and
> > pronounced,
> > incidentally, with a Spanish ‘t’, not a thick english one)”.
> > 2. I know “Osberg” is an anagram for “Borges” (cf. infra 3), and I do
> > not know if there is an “Andulasian gispy” in Borges’ works... But does
> > not “Osberg” sound a little like “Lichberg” ? Is “Osberg” not only an
> > anagram, but also a sort of pun ? The question is at stake.
> > 3. Lolita, in LichbergÂ’s tale, is a Spanish girl. She lives in
> > Alicante, which is not located in the actuel Andulasia county stricto
> > sensu, but is nevertheless located in south Spain, just above
> > Andulasia.
> > 4. Vivian Darkbloom’s note specifies : “Osberg : an another good-
> > natured anagram, scrambling the name of a writer with whom the author
> > of
> > Lolita has been rather comically compared”. I guess this “author of
> > Lolita” hints to Nabokov himself and not to Lichberg... But when I read
> > these phrase and note, I had a strange feeling : it was as if Nabokov
> > had
> > foreseen what happened last April in the international press after the
> > discover of LichbergÂ’s tale, and if, many years in advance, he had
> > given
> > us an ironic answer in his own specific way...
> >
> > Sincerely yours,
> >
> > Olivia Cham
> >
> > ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
> >
> >
> >
> > D. Barton Johnson
> > NABOKV-L
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L