On 29/6/06 13:32, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:

Jansy: you write

We can be almost sure that no "Auto de [da — nyet?! -- skb] Fé" awaits these authors. I also fear that books, like "Ada, or Ardor" or Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" would prove rather difficult to memorize ( if  we had to rely on a solution like the one proposed by Ray Bradbury...)

Many of us can indeed rattle off teems and tonnes of Finnegans Wake — for all its encrypted excesses (as noted by VN), FW does have a melodic, memorable flow for the gaelic ear and gob. One might note the same  ‘formulaic’ patterns that helped the ‘preliterate’ Homeric bards.

I would agree, though, that Ulysses and Ada offer similar challenges to memorizers.

Stan Kelly-Bootle

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies