Subject
A Lewis Carroll Note on Ada
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "John A. Rea" <jarea@uky.campuscwix.net>
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On page 547, Van recalls being brought, "_Alice in the Camera Obscura_
for my eighth birthday...
This nice bit of play melds, of course, Nabokov's _Camera Obscura_ with
Dodgson's _Alice in Wonderland_, which Nabokov had earlier translated
into Russian. But, as so often, there may be another box concealed
within the first one.
And then we recall that the term "camera obscura" means literally,
"dark room". A bit more thought reminds us of Dodgson's hobby,
photography, with an importand use of the "Darkroom" (no not Darkbloom!)
Alice Liddell has passed on piquing information of her visits to
that "dark room", saying, "the dark room [sic] was so mysterious, and
we felt that any adventures might happen then! There were all the joys
of preparation, anticipation, and realization, besides the feeling that
we were assisting at some secret rite usually reserved for grown ups!"
I'll wait while you reread that nicely ambivalent bit.
(The curious can find this on page 164 of Morton N. Cohen's fine
biography _Lewis Carroll_. The passage had appeared in both the _New
York Times_ and in _Cornhill Magazine_ in 1932, where it would have
been readily available.
John
From: "John A. Rea" <jarea@uky.campuscwix.net>
---------------------------
On page 547, Van recalls being brought, "_Alice in the Camera Obscura_
for my eighth birthday...
This nice bit of play melds, of course, Nabokov's _Camera Obscura_ with
Dodgson's _Alice in Wonderland_, which Nabokov had earlier translated
into Russian. But, as so often, there may be another box concealed
within the first one.
And then we recall that the term "camera obscura" means literally,
"dark room". A bit more thought reminds us of Dodgson's hobby,
photography, with an importand use of the "Darkroom" (no not Darkbloom!)
Alice Liddell has passed on piquing information of her visits to
that "dark room", saying, "the dark room [sic] was so mysterious, and
we felt that any adventures might happen then! There were all the joys
of preparation, anticipation, and realization, besides the feeling that
we were assisting at some secret rite usually reserved for grown ups!"
I'll wait while you reread that nicely ambivalent bit.
(The curious can find this on page 164 of Morton N. Cohen's fine
biography _Lewis Carroll_. The passage had appeared in both the _New
York Times_ and in _Cornhill Magazine_ in 1932, where it would have
been readily available.
John