CHW asked: Does Duchamp’s 1917
fountain also resemble a mountain?
JM: A fountain
into a remembered mountain?
Anyway there is a clear link of Duchamp and Nabokov in Pale Fire.
In Pale Fire (1962): lines 213/214:
" A syllogism: other men die; but I
Am not another;
therefore I'll not die."
A sentence found in Duchamp's tomb in Rouen ( he died in Oct.2, 1968)
deals with Shade's syllogism: « D’ailleurs,
c'est toujours les autres qui meurent. ».
( Duchamp was an excellent chess player! He was "Champion
de Haute-Normandie" (1924) and he also participated in various Chess
Olympics).
Duchamp's famous words probably date from much earlier. If not, how should
we credit John Shade for his syllogism?
There is an art-work with a wine-bottle and these words are
inscribed in its case. My google-information seems to be imprecise about that,
although the theme is certainly Duchamp's. Google led me to its further
uses, in the title of a novel ( François Vilar) and a S.Kühn
movie!