Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0017727, Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:41:56 -0500

Subject
PALEARCTIC - was: Sighting (celadon eyes; light of my life)
Date
Body
>>>>>On the first page discussing ecozonal distributions, the word PALEARCTIC puzzles until I realize that the PALE, pronounced PALLY [sic], is from the prefix PALEO- meaning ancient or Old-World. Do we have Friendly Pale(o)-Fire with Promethean implications?

Stan is right as always. Did anybody ever notice that?
Amazing, I use term "Palearctic" (or Palaearctic; biogeographic realm including Europe, North Africa and North Asia) almost every day for last 30 years, and I never noticed a pun on Pale Arctic.
VN knew the term well (all his European butterflies were Palearctic species); Zembla is located in Palearctic realm, as does Ultima Thule.
Note that Kinbote (or King Charles) moves from Pale Arctic to Nearctic (northern new World), or Ne Arctic (in Russian, approximately 'non-Arctic') USA : the pale Arctic of Zembla fades away.

Victor Fet

Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en

Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com

Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/








Attachment