Victor Fet on Triplets: "the
most revered Celtic god, identified by Caesar as a "Gaulish Mercury" and named
Lug [VERY close to Ada's Log!], who had a caduceus with a pair of snakes, also
sometimes had three faces or three phalli, or was the sole survivor of triplets;
Lugdunum (Lyons) comes from this name."
A.Sklyarenko:"To
return briefly to Gumilyov: no, it seems that Odoevtseva wasn't his mistress. In
her "On the Banks of the Neva" she writes in detail how Gumilyov composed
Заблудившийся трамвай ("The Stray Streetcar") in early spring, 1921. He did it
after a night of gambling and drinking. Hence Le Tramway ivre. By the way,
Gumilyov was one of the first Russian translators of Rimbaud's Voyelles. Re
drancunculi (thanks to Victor for his learned comments): this word also occurs
in LATH: "my grumble is repetitious, I know, but the matter
rankles - a word which comes from dracunculus, a 'baby dragon'" (Part
Two, 8)."
A.Bouazza [to AS: The episode in LATH, when
Vadim meets his last love ("you" of the book) for the first time, seems to
parody the real episode as recounted by Irina Odoevtseva...] : "The same
situation was used much earlier in The Defense, on page 86 (1st US
ed.)"
JM: Without Sklyarenko's aid the Russian veritable
connection between Gumilyov, Rimbaud and LATH (additional insertion: AR's
colored vowels) would have eluded common readers, like me. Thanks, Alexey
(I hope you'll excuse me for mentioning Gumilyov again).
Since a distracted professor losing papers
and pencils, or a lady dropping handkerchief and golden apples
is a standard situation, both in fiction and in life, the writer's talents will
show itself in the details ( Luzhin's dirty handkerchief, the reversed
perspectives...).
The two-dracunculied caduceus was first
held by the winged varicolored goddess Iris ("Irida"), before it passed
onto Mercury/Hermes: both represented the connection between the Gods and
the humans. Victor's
connections (Lug's trilingual phalli in ADA and a lot more) are
fascinating.
Perhaps one of you can explain if the link of
dracunculi in ADA and LATH should there be a wordplay at play
with "the matter rankles" ("a word which comes from
dracunculus...")