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Fw: : Fw: One Letter
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----- Original Message -----
From: alex
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 2:17 AM
Subject: Re: : Fw: One Letter
A commuter myself, I do succeed in reading newspaper headlines when reflected in the window pane of my daily train.
Perhaps you can do it because you are versed in reading Arabic, from right to left. Jansy tells me that Leonardo da Vinci could even write texts in reverse that should then be read directly from a mirror.
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 2:36 AM
Subject: : Fw: One Letter
----- Original Message -----
From: A. Bouazza
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 12:28 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: Fw: One Letter
The James Jones instance is reminiscent of another instant in LOLITA:
"On the other side of the street a garage said in its sleep -genuflexion lubricity; and corrected itself to Gulflex Lubrication." p. 284 (1st Annotated ed. ), Part II, ch. 30.
I would also like to add that scabrous misreadings are not uncommon.
A. Bouazza.
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 3:36 AM
Subject: Fw: Fw: Fw: One Letter
----- Original Message -----
From: alex
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 12:48 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: One Letter
What called my attention here were the first letters of "a dream America" ( adA...)
Thank you, Jansy, for your interesting observation.
The acronymous title Ada is reversed, so to say, as if it were seen in a mirror of a newspaper article (the actually mirrored letters would yield a slightly different image though).
I suggest no special parallel, but also want to make a minor observation. In the beginning of Ada's Part Two, Van catches a mirrored glimpse of his father Demon who sits reading a newspaper that says in reversed characters: 'Crimea Capitulates.' (I wonder if anyone can read the title of a newspaper article in a mirror? I tried several times, but invariably failed.) A moment later he sees the VPL messenger James Jones glancing through 'Crime Copulates Bessaremenia.'
It is as if the first newspaper (that Demon reads) were the serious and sedate Golos ("The Voice") and the second (glanced through by J.J.), the mocking and pun-addicted Logos. But, on Antiterra, it seems to be one and the same newspaper, and a Russian-language one at that.
May be the British newspaper Daily Mirror has anything to do with all this? And, if I'm not mistaken, the boom of the London Times began during the Crimean War of 1853-1856?
best,
Alexey