Alexey: The word
"charadoid" must have been devised by Ilf & Petrov, who used it, along with
"arithmomoid" and "logogriph," in "The Golden Calf" (1931). It probably means "a
charade-like puzzle." I didn't notice Gerald in Ronald Oranger. Thank you for
pointing this out to me. It lead me to this: RONALD ORANGER + G = GERALD +
ORGANON + R [...] In a word, I hope that you will be able one day to read my big
charadoid piece (but you'll have to learn Russian, because it is unlikely that
my piece will ever be translated).
JM: The proximity of your
reference to Emerald/Gerald and the posting on Roland Oranger and
Violet, plus the item on the gitanes spurred me to
check VN's reference to El Cid. It is found in "Lolita", part II,
chapter 19. "As expected, poor Poet stumbled in Scene III
when arriving at the bit of French nonsense. Remember? Ne manque pas de dire à
ton amant, Chimène, comme le lac est beau car il faut qu'il t'y mène. Lucky
beau! Qu'il t'y - What a tongue-twister!" In his notes, Appel wrote ( page 415 AL) ...a
parody of the classical alexandrine verse of seventeenth-century France,
specifically of Le Cid ( 1636) by Pierre Corneille.
By coincidence on the opposite page with Appel's
notes there is a reference to Orange...and Emerald (
"The Dubliner's rainbow of children on p.221 would have been
a miningless muddying of metphors had I tried to smuggle in a Pierid of the
Southern States and a European moth. My only purpose here was to render a
prismatic effect".) Finnegans Wake,
J.Joyce. HH writes: "Two
children-colors were "exasperatingly lovely" and, to
comfort Lolita, he calls her his "own
ultraviolet darling".
Unfortunately I continue at a loss, perhaps only a "charadoid" technique
will elucidate any relation bt Orange, Emerald and Violet - should VN
have been familiar with Ilf & Petrov's work. And, also unfortunately, I'm
totally ignorant of Russian so I won't be able to enjoy your big charadoid
piece.
Ada mentions a logogriph, or a similar sounding name for her
word-concoctions and "mongrelizing", doesn't she?.
........................................................................................
Joseph Aisenberg wrote: "I
interpreted the quote slightly differently. Marina is
not doubting that Ada and Van are siblings, at least I don't think so.
She's worried others will see that they must be brother and sister and
coming up with a justification for it. I.E. of course they look so much alike,
since she and Aqua were twins."
JM: Your conjecture is very reasonable! I was almost led
astray into thinking that Marina had been even more "unfaithful" than I'd
surmised.
While perusing "Lolita" I found a "preview" of the pair (AL, page
169): " I met the unblinking eyes of two strange and
beautiful children, faunlet and nymphet, whom their identical flat dark hair and
bloodless cheeks proclaimed siblings if not twins."
I was also intrigued by the reference in ADA of Don
Juan's "Stone Guest" related to Pig Pigment (I think he was a
fondling pedophile who haunted 12 year-old Ada, not a punitive
betrayed husband or father).
Wikipedia offers a gigantic list with references to Don
Juan ( including a play by Tolstoy, a poem by Blok.- and yet, there's no
reference to Nabokov's invented work by Borges, "La Gitanilla", also mentioned
by Appel)
To complicate references, the name of the first known author of
Don Juan, Molina, means "windmill".
Lolita was born in a farm in which hogs were raised.
There are various mentions to porcine names in Lolita ( at the Enchanted
Hunter's exchanges, soon before Lolita and HH share a bed for the first
time)
A row of parked cars, like
pigs at a trough//There a bald porcine old man
— everybody was old in that old hotel — examined my features with a polite smile
//"Our double beds are really triple[...]. However — would there be a spare cot
in 49, Mr. Swine?"I think it went to the Swoons," said Swine,
the initial old clown.//Was pink pig Mr. Swoon absolutely sure
my wife had not
telephoned?