Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011454, Fri, 6 May 2005 14:25:56 -0700

Subject
Re: Fw: Re: Fwd: Greece, Argus and Ulysses J-4 May
Date
Body
--- "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu> wrote:

>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
> Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 08:19:27 -0300
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> Subject: Fw: Re: Fwd: Greece, Argus and Ulysses J-4 May
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
>
> Hello, Jerry
>
> I had forgotten about the other Arguses, thank you. Still, I think that
> the last
> reference that brings up Greek yachts, fidelity and "seeing off/coming
> back"
> must refer to Ulysses and his dog ( and to the car).

Oh, definitely. But why would a car be called "Argus"?

> I tried to see if there was anything else with yachts or Yaks and had
> another
> thrilling surprise. There were two references in "Ada" that mentioned
> Greeks
> and Yaks and described a kind of barometer ( The cartesian diver,
> usually
> floating in a glass tube and a wooden-barometer in the other that
> informs about
> rainy or sunny weather).
> A third barometer appeared ( it registered the hours!) but not as close
> to the
> Yaks as the other ones but VN brought again the expression "saw off"...
>
> Google offered me an address refering to "YAK" but it can only be a
> coincidental find! There is a British company named "Yak" that offers
> yachting
> equipment, including "boyancy aids". For the fun of it, I´ll copy their
> address:
> YAK: Producers of marine safety equipment, lifejackets and buoyancy
> aids, and
> immersion suits in Great Britain. www.crewsaver.co.uk/

Since the world is full of connections of this kind, I wonder
how one can decide which of the connections in Nabokov are
important. Unless one can thrill to all of them, of course, which
may be the point.
...

> (Purpur?) /Dark-blue is a color associated with Van´s ancestors.
> Dark-blue is
> also a dream train that goes from London to the Cape.

When I mentioned "wine-dark", I was thinking of a conversation
between Alexey Sklyarenko and Brian Boyd a couple years ago that
I blundered into, in which "dark blue" was connected with the ocean
or sea in _Ada_.. Here's one of Prof. Boyd's postings:
<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0211&L=nabokv-l&P=R12290>.
Maybe all these coincidences are signs that I finally need to read
_Worlds in Regression_.

> Jansy
...



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