While reading some sections of Dieter Zimmer's indescribably valuable
"Guide to Nabokov's Butterflies and Moths 2001," I chanced across the
following continuation of our series of coincidences between "Broken
Flowers" and Lolita. At a certain point, approximately this
one, one begins to feel like one is leading oneself by the nose, but
then most of us are probably Gogol fans so it seems worthwhile to tread
on.
I noted in an earlier post that Lolita in "Broken Flowers" is Lolita
Miller. It surely has been noted before--and the fact is inescapable
if one follows the page references from Zimmer's "miller, miller moth"
entry--that "miller" moths appear in Lolita exactly twice (the
first time covertly, but with Appel's VN-approved annotation; the
second time unmarked by Appel): first, at the Enchanted Hunters,
immediately preceding HH's brief encounter with Quilty on the "pillared
porch"--the night he first climbs into bed with Dolly, the very day he
ensnares her; and, second, on the last day of her captivity, after HH
drops her off at the hospital, back at the Silver Spur Court in
Elphinstone, CO. (pp. 126 & 241).
Lest anyone think I actually believe that Jarmusch was aware of Lo's
link to millers, I offer the following observation: my library's copy
of The Entomologist, the journal where VN first published on
butterflies, includes several old volumes marked with the address of a
previous owner, who lived on Elphinstone Rd. somewhere in the UK.
-Stephen Blackwell