D.B.Johnson
wrote:"Although no explicit mention is made of a butterfly, astute
commentators such as Dieter Zimmer correctly identify the tie pattern &
colors as those of the ill-omened Red Admiral. What belatedly struck me today is
that the Russian word for butterfly is "bAbochka" which in Russian (as in
English) is the word for a "bow tie" which, of course, nicely resembles a
butterfly. The implicit word play is not quite ideal since Gradus' tie is
clearly not a bow tie since it is tucked into his shirt
front.)".
Jansy:Last
year, unaware that D.Zimmer had already made this point clear, I
brought the same point up at the list, including images of ties, I
later found out were unnessary since my supposition found its
confirmation right at PF's index, under Vanessa, the Red Admirable (sumpsimus):
...caricatured, 949.
In
January 1, 2007 another question about Gradus' tie arose in a posting:
"At the end of PF we find Gradus wearing a "red admirable" tie (its
dark underside wing and its red bend sinister stripe), beside the actual
butterfly. Multiple butterflies: real, unreal, imaginary, allegorical? Why would
Gradus be wearing such a tie? What
is his relation to Kinbote and...Hazel?"
Nobody answered it but the mistery remains, at least for me: why would
Gradus wear a Red Vanessa tie?