Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0022104, Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:37:48 -0200

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Re: QUERY: Orgitrons in ADA?
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Alexey Sklyarenko: I encountered orgitron (organ + neuron + negatron?) only in Ada and suspect the word is either VN's or Amfiteatrov's invention: "had our organs and orgitrons not been asymmetrical, our view of Time might have been amphitheatric and altogether grand."

JM: Alexey, you translated "Ada or Ardor" to the Russian, did you not? What words did you use for "organs and orgitrons"?
(I understand "amphitheatric" as indicative of a kind of "dolby-surround" effect when we hear the sound of an organ being played inside a cathedral.)

A.Bouazza: ...let it be understood that I believe "orgitron" is a Nabokovian neologism morphologically analogous to magnetron, cosmotron etc. - see the following...
The Felix, Student Newspaper of Imperial College, Friday 7th February, 1997, Issue 1078: In a move which is sure to make die hard scientists slap their forehead with a Homer Simpson like "Doh" our Roy EXCLUSIVELY reveals the existence of the smallest particle in the Universe: the orgitron. Unfortunately for scientists, they will never be able to see it because "it is unlikely that any electron microscope will ever be able to see it because it is so tiny as to be virtually undetectable; in fact it is so tiny, it practically doesn't exist at all." He also shows how "matter is simply pressurised 'crystallised' pre-time force flowing now in what has become a river of time"

JM: What an amazing discovery (or invention) by Mr.Roy, the orgitron, which he connects to a crystallised pre-time force that flows in a river of time. An almost invisble very minute time!?
I wonder who chose to designate this item as an orgitron - would it have been Mr. Roy himself?
Can you ferret out more about that great find of yours?

I fully agree with you that "orgitron" must be a Nabokovian neologism. The only thing that speaks against this is Nabokov's silence for he usually emphatically calls the reader's attention to his other coinages such as nymphet, lolita, racemosa, iridule.

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