Stan Kelly-Bootle: Thanks, HB. Google finds a Vincenzo Consolo novel called
Retablo, which seems to be the Italian and Spanish for the German ...The not
uncommon theme of an author/narrator being obsessed with the sounds/spelling of
his inamorata’s name is indeed of interest to Nabokovians. If, like James
Joyce, you fall for a Nora Barnacle, your phonetic and allusional adorations are
sorely taxed.
JM: There's a
satirical play of words in poet and composer Chico Buarque de Holanda's
most recent CD, when he finds himself too old for his most tender
new love (she doesn't fall into Lolita's age group, though).
He
blames his forgetfulness on the ravages of old age - for he
is unsure of his first love's name, was it Aurora? Aurelia?
Amora?Ariela? Inspite
of an auroral rumble (ToOL's most ungainly sounds)
and a rhyme-play with Teodora and Flora with her fulvious
"abóbora," - ie pumpkin-colored - hair, or the loving "Amora" (another Nabokovian vegetable:
the mulberry), his list never reaches the borders of the
former's "mille e tre."*
......................................................................
*but there's hope for JJ's Nora with those
equally euphonius amoras and
floras!!!