JM: The reference to the recondidte Freud anedocte
still looks preposterous to me. However there's a line (during Van's
encounter with Rack) in which the poor dribling musician addresses Van
Veen as "Baron von Wien." (when we get to a
link bt, "Ada's" Irish Barons and the execrated Viennese doctor) : " ‘Have they all gone to Hollywood already? Please, tell
me, Baron von Wien’. "
Like Van Veen, Nabokov was ein unverbesserlicher Witzbold, but, Rack
being a Mozart-like figure, "Baron von Wien" seems to hint at several
characters in Pushkin's "Little Tragedies" (the two Barons in "The
Covetous Knight," Mozart's "man in black" in "Mozart &
Salieri") rather than Freud. One also remembers Baron van Heeckeren
(d'Anthes' adoptive father, who had the same sexual orientation as
Tapper, Van's adversary in his duel) who served in Vienna after he
had left his post (the Dutch minister) in St. Petersburg. Vena
(Russian name of Vienna) is an anagram of Neva.