[QUERY] Umberto Eco's application of the word
"hircocervos"* to produce sphynxlike verbal entities (as in
his example about "Vladimir Ilitch Nabokov", or in "Fiodor
Tolstoievsky 'War and Punishment'"), might fit in the category of
words similar to Ada's "a great logogriph"**.
I'm familiar with Nabokov's puns and his extensive "a
posteriori anagrams," but I never tried to sort them out from their
nesting place in a novel.
1. Does anyone have an example of a
"logogriph" (beside this word in itself for its effect engenders an
actual logogriph?);
2. Is there any article that has been
specially dedicated to collecting VN's anagrams, puns and
logogriphs?
3. How could we classify "Sirin"?
Alexey, I have only with me now I.P.Pavlov's
"Conditioned Reflexes" (Dover edition from 2003, originally dated 1927), and its
index doesn't carry Sigmund Freud's name. Nevertheless I remember finding a
reference to SF, by Pavlov, in one of his books.
You wrote: "What is more
interesting, this was probably the first mention of Freud in the Russian press.
Curious that he was mentioned by the (incorrectly spelt) first
name." Perhaps, should you be interested
in dating this observation, you could check it in Pavlov's bibliography
- but I'm not really sure about my recollection: it could be the other
way round and in this case it was Freud who, somewhere, mentioned
Pavlov...
...........................................................................................................................
*unrelated to "hierogamos", as I
initially thought, but similarly applicable to bucks,
does and horned mammals - with no "divine"
signification.
** Quoting from "Ada, or Ardor": "Pedantic Ada once said that the looking up of words in a
lexicon for any other needs than those of expression — be it instruction or art
— lay somewhere between the ornamental assortment of flowers (which could be,
she conceded, mildly romantic in a maidenly headcocking way) and making
collage-pictures of disparate butterfly wings (which was always vulgar and often
criminal). Per contra, she suggested to Van that verbal circuses, ‘performing
words,’ ‘poodle-doodles,’ and so forth, might be redeemable by the quality of
the brain work required for the creation of a great logogriph or inspired pun
and should not preclude the help of a dictionary, gruff or
complacent."