this is Kurt Johnson-- for online Attacus Moth pictures do this:

go to www.search.com

search "Attacus Moth"

Under the initial Web Pages cited you'll see one entitled Attacus Moth...online gallery.šš Click on it.

that is more reliable than the direct URL which is www.comnet.ca/~defayette/13.htm

which sometimes don't work.

Also, at www.search.com use any other link under Attacus Moth search that may work for you.

The one I cite above has a glorious color painting of one species... pretty typical of them all.š The can be huge, like up to 8 or 10 inches across and also in vertical dimension (forewing tip to hindwing tip).

KJ

-----Original Message-----
From: D. Barton Johnson [ mailto:chtodel@gte.net ]
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 7:44 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: QUERY re Attacus moth and chess in "Christmas"

stanislaw milkowsky wrote:

> Thisš message wasš originallyš submitted byš stan_milkowsky@HOTMAIL.COM toš the
> NABOKV-L list at LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU. ----------------- Message requiring your
> approval (46 lines) ------------------
> Dear list,
>
> Ive got a couple of questions that require your expertise as well as
> condescension to my ignorance.
>
> Both concern VNs short story called (Christmas and Im referring to the
> Vintage paperback (The Stories of VN. NY: Vintage International, 1997, which
> is paralleled by a Penguin edition in England, if Im not mistaken). Page
> numbers are 131-36 (n646).
>
> # 1:
>
> (+on the wall, instead of a little lump of life, instead of a dark mouse,
> was great *Attacus* moth like those that fly, birdlike, around lamps in the
> Indian dusk (p. 136)
>
> Could anyone refer me to an accessible illustrated guide that would have a
> good depiction of the beast (badly needed) and a little something about its
> ways and habits (optional)? I would greatly appreciate if you could point
> out a Nabokovian scholarly article (if there is one) that discusses the
> moths significance and all that.
>
> # 2:
>
> Theres a gaping whole in my knowledge of VNs work and thats a very
> superfluous idea of how chess work. In a note to the same story VNs says:
> (it oddly resembles the type of chess problem called (selfmate (n647). Ive
> got a brief explanation of the type all right, but is there any way to find
> a chessboard layout with a problem that would fall under the (selmate
> category? And what is the trick again? ((1: checkmate forced by the side
> that is checkmated v called also suimate 2: a chess problem in which suimate
> is required v Websters Third Unabriged, 1976 v not a particularly helpful
> article somehow, at least in my case).
>
> And that is it. I would be exceedingly grateful if you could share with me
> your information or refer me to appropiate books/sites.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Stan. Milkowsky,
> Nizhny-Novgorod
>
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