Subject
Fw: IPH solution/DaVinci Code
From
Date
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EDNOTE. Mary Bellino is the Associate Editor of the journal NABOKOV STUDIES
(that you should all subscribe to). More information on VN & Martin Gardner
maybe found in my "Ambidextrous Universe in Loook at the Harlequins" in
_Critical Essays on VN_, ed. Phyllis Roth (1983) and reprinted in my WORLDS
in REGRESSION.
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (57
lines) ------------------
> From Mary Bellino (iambe@rcn.com):
>
> I read The Davinci Code during a slow spell a few weeks ago,
> and found it dreadful ( as Carolyn Kunin says) and replete
> with minor errors. It draws I believe pretty heavily on a
> book called The Codebreakers by David Kahn, first published
> in 1967 and reissued in the mid-90s. The Codebreakers is a
> good read -- although I don't think Nabokov read it. But at
> some point prior to the publication of Ada, Nabokov fell
> under the spell of the mathematician and popularizer Martin
> Gardner, whose book The Ambidextrous Universe (1964)
> mentions John Shade (Nabokov in turn mentioned Gardner in
> Ada, and the novel seems to draw on Gardner's book, which is
> subtitled "Mirror asymmetry and time-reversed worlds").
> Presumably Nabokov had not heard of Gardner prior to 1964 --
> or had he? Gardner is probably best known for his "Annotated
> Alice," first published in 1960, and Nabokov of course knew
> the Alice books well. If his attention was drawn to The
> Annotated Alice in 1960, it's possible that Nabokov read
> some of Gardner's voluminous popular writings on math,
> puzzles, codes and the like while he was composing Pale Fire.
>
> Mary
>
>
> "D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 9:36 AM
> > Subject: IPH solution?
> >
> > >
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (15
> > lines) ------------------
> > > To the List,
> > >
> > > I am reading a dreadful novel currently being pushed even on NPR
called
> > "The
> > > Da Vinci Code." The usual shlock-thriller with an intriguing twist for
> > > Nabokovians -- lots of information on de-coding (I did not know, for
> > > example, that anagrams were ever considered sacred, which the author
> > > claims).
> > >
> > > There is quite a bit about the golden mean and the Fibonacci numbers,
and
> > by
> > > chance, instead of writing the ratio 1.0821 (or whatever it is) as the
> > Greek
> > > letter Phi (as in Phi Beta Kappa), it is written PHI.
> > >
> > > I wonder iph ...
> > >
> > > Carolyn
> > ------------------------------
> > EDNOTE. "PHI" (Fie) is not a bad response to Shade's "IPH" (Institute of
> > Preparation for the Hereafter."
(that you should all subscribe to). More information on VN & Martin Gardner
maybe found in my "Ambidextrous Universe in Loook at the Harlequins" in
_Critical Essays on VN_, ed. Phyllis Roth (1983) and reprinted in my WORLDS
in REGRESSION.
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (57
lines) ------------------
> From Mary Bellino (iambe@rcn.com):
>
> I read The Davinci Code during a slow spell a few weeks ago,
> and found it dreadful ( as Carolyn Kunin says) and replete
> with minor errors. It draws I believe pretty heavily on a
> book called The Codebreakers by David Kahn, first published
> in 1967 and reissued in the mid-90s. The Codebreakers is a
> good read -- although I don't think Nabokov read it. But at
> some point prior to the publication of Ada, Nabokov fell
> under the spell of the mathematician and popularizer Martin
> Gardner, whose book The Ambidextrous Universe (1964)
> mentions John Shade (Nabokov in turn mentioned Gardner in
> Ada, and the novel seems to draw on Gardner's book, which is
> subtitled "Mirror asymmetry and time-reversed worlds").
> Presumably Nabokov had not heard of Gardner prior to 1964 --
> or had he? Gardner is probably best known for his "Annotated
> Alice," first published in 1960, and Nabokov of course knew
> the Alice books well. If his attention was drawn to The
> Annotated Alice in 1960, it's possible that Nabokov read
> some of Gardner's voluminous popular writings on math,
> puzzles, codes and the like while he was composing Pale Fire.
>
> Mary
>
>
> "D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 9:36 AM
> > Subject: IPH solution?
> >
> > >
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (15
> > lines) ------------------
> > > To the List,
> > >
> > > I am reading a dreadful novel currently being pushed even on NPR
called
> > "The
> > > Da Vinci Code." The usual shlock-thriller with an intriguing twist for
> > > Nabokovians -- lots of information on de-coding (I did not know, for
> > > example, that anagrams were ever considered sacred, which the author
> > > claims).
> > >
> > > There is quite a bit about the golden mean and the Fibonacci numbers,
and
> > by
> > > chance, instead of writing the ratio 1.0821 (or whatever it is) as the
> > Greek
> > > letter Phi (as in Phi Beta Kappa), it is written PHI.
> > >
> > > I wonder iph ...
> > >
> > > Carolyn
> > ------------------------------
> > EDNOTE. "PHI" (Fie) is not a bad response to Shade's "IPH" (Institute of
> > Preparation for the Hereafter."