Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000741, Thu, 5 Oct 1995 08:55:52 -0700

Subject
Re: anagram program (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITORIAL NOTE. Gene Barabtarlo's information on a new anagram program
elicited several responses beginning with Mr. Gann's below. I am
including Barabtarlo's original posting togetther with Gann's answer. A
couple of other responses shall follow as separate postings. AT the risk
of seeming facetious, I would point out that these programs present a new
hypertext option. Any Nabokovian can rewrite any VN text word-for-word
(or perhaps better sentence by sentence) in
anagrammatized form. Cf. my earlier note that, according to my Word 6
Spellchecker, an otherwordly VN may have translated Pushkin's _EUGENE
ONEGIN_ as Pushpin's _Eugene Oregon_. DBJ
-------------------------------------------
>EDITORIAL NOTE. As many of you know, VN inserted anagrams in many of his
>texts. Gene Barabtarlo, who has solved several of VN's key anagrams,
>provides the following useful information. Since he has not seen the
>program itself, a "hands-on" report (and copy) would be appreciated.
>Especially for DOS or Windows environments.
>----------------------------------------
>> I note that in the latest MacWorld (November, p.166) there is a glowing
>> report on a shareware program called Anagram 1.2, which apparently cracks
>> any English anagram in more ways than ten. This is precisely what a Nabokov
>> scholar of a certain type needs. It's available in Macworld's eWorld and
>> AMerica Online -- and must exist in an IBM format as well.
>
>> Gennady Barabtarlo
>> 451 GCB University of Missouri
>> Columbia, MO 65211
>> 314-882-9454 Fax 314-882-3404
--------------------------------

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 10:54:22 -0500
From: rbgann <Richard_Gann@brown.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu>
Subject: Re: anagram program

I have the program in question, but only for the Mac. It's shareware and
I'd be happy to send it via e-mail to any list member who wants it. As to
the existence of a DOS/Windows version, I cannot be certain. The creators
of the program are Andrew Trevorrow and Nick Spencer. Their e-mail
addresses are akt@kagi.com and nspencer@cssip.edu.au, respectively.

It really is quite stunning. It isn't perfect though, when appropriately
queried it failed to emit Vivian Darkbloom, settling for "bloom dark viva
in". It does that sort of thing quite a bit, requiring a certain level of
interactivity to obtain the truly marvelous. It does allow proper names and
the dictionary can be edited.

Sincerely,
Richard Gann