Subject
Demon Veen, son of Dedalus
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Date
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Demon Veen, Van's and Ada's father, perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific (Ada: 3.7). Demon is the son of Dedalus Veen (1799-1883) whom Van recalls in his account of the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday (July 21, 1884) when he shows his ability to walk on his hands: "The pleasure of suddnly discovering the right knack of topsy turvy locomotion was rather like learning to man, after many a painful and ignominious fall, those delightful gliders called Magicarpets (or 'jikkers') that were given a boy on his twelfth birthday in the adventurous days before the Great Reaction - and then what a breathtaking long neural caress when one became airborne for the first time and managed to skim over a haystack, a tree, a burn, a barn, while Grandfather Dedalus Veen, running with upturned face, flourished a flag and fell into the horsepond." (1.13)
It was King Wing, Demon's wrestling master, who taught Van to walk on his hands warning him that Vekchelo, a Yukon professional, lost the effortlessness of his stance by the time he was twenty two. Van's hand-walking is over after he was wounded in a pistol duel with Tapper (1.42), but earlier he performs as Mascodagama in Chose and London theatres (1.30). While Van's stage name is a play on Vasco da Gama (a Portuguese navigator), Vekchelo is an anagram of chelovek ("man").
Bryusov's poem Khvala cheloveku ("A Praise to Man") collected in his book Vse napevy ("All Melodies," 1909) begins: Molodoy moryak vselennoy ("The young sailor of the Universe..."). Other poems of this collection include Nash demon ("Our demon"), Dedal i Ikar ("Daedalus and Icarus") and Komu-to ("To Someone"), in which Daedalus* is also mentioned and which begins: "Farman or Wright** or whoever you might be!" Also, [Prince Dmitri] Donskoy (cf. Baron d'Onsky with whom Demon Veen had a sword duel: 1.2) appears in "Our demon."
D'Onsky's name suggests that he is a horse (Onegin's Don stallion). There is some evidence that Demon is a horse, too (one also remembers konskie deti, children of the Sun Horse: 3.5). The author of Kon' Bled ("Pale Horse"), Bryusov was keenly interested in horse-races, betting and even contributed articles on the subject.
Demon and his son are both wenchers. So was Bryusov (who began to frequent brothels at thirteen and tastelessly entitled his long Don Juan list "My Fair Ladies").
Van's and Ada's half-sister Lucette commits suicide because of her unrequited love for Van (3.5). Bryusov gave Nadezhda L'vov, a young poetess who was in love with him, a revolver and she shot herself dead. Bryusov's last love was another young poetess: Adalis.
According to Van, Vrubel made a portrait of his father. The last painting of Vrubel, the author of Demon poverzhennyi ("Demon Thrown Down"), was a portrait of Bryusov.
Valeriy Bryusov (1873-1924) is a namesake of Gaius Valerius Catulus, a Roman poet (84?-54? B.C.). In one of his epigrams V. Solov'yov complains that we have many Lesbians but not a single Catulus (Katullov net u nas, ey-ey, / No Lesbiy, batyushki, kak mnogo!). Cf. He had the terrifying, albeit illusionary, feeling that his left arm was now shorter than his right, and Van wondered wrily if he ever would be able to dance on his hands again. King Wing had warned him that two or three months without practice might result in an irretrivable loss of the rare art. On the same day (the two nasty little incidents thus remained linked up in his mind forever) Van happened to answer 'phone - a deep hollow voice which he thought was a man's wanted Cordula, but the caller turned up to be an old schoolmate, and Cordula feigned limpid delight, while making big eyes at Van over the receiver, an invented a number of unconvincing engagements.
'It's a gruesome girl!' she cried after the melodious adieux. 'Her name is Vanda Broom, and I learned only recently what I never suspected at school - she's a regular tribadka - poor Grace Erminin tells me Vanda used to make constant passes at her and at - at another girl.' (1.43) "Another girl" is certainly Ada (who had known Vanda even before Van first came to Ardis and who later has a liaison with Lucette). As to Vanda Broom, Ada tells Van (2.7) that she had been shot dead by the girlfriend of a girlfriend.
Bryusov was an urbanist. One of the poems in Vse napevy is entitled Gorodu ("To the City," a dithyramb). Gorod (city) = gordo (proudly). Satin, a character in Gorky's play Na dne ("At the Bottom"), famously says: Chelovek - eto zvuchit gordo (Man - this is a proud word). Btw., Gorky called New York (known on Antiterra as Man) Gorod zhyoltogo d'yavola (City of the Yellow Devil). Zhyoltyi d'yavol is gold. Gold = dolg (duty). Satin + gold/dolg = Stalin + dog/God (god is also Russian for "year," while dog means "Great Dane").
Bryusov is the author of Stikhi Nelli ("Nelly's Poems" or "Poems Addressed to Nelly") published anonymously. Nelli + N = Lenin + L (Btw., in the old Russian alphabet the Cyrillic counterpart of Roman N was called nash, "our," and the Cyrillic counterpart of Roman L, lyudi, "men.")
*Daedalus was a legendary Athenian architect who built the labyrinth for Minos (Ada's husband, Andrey Vinelander, used to call his father-in-law "Dementiy Labirintovich:" 3.8) and made wings of wax and feathers for himself and his son Icarus to escape from Cretes. But Icarus flew so high that his wings melted from the heat of the sun, and he plunged to his death in the sea.
**Farman and the brothers Wright, famous pioneer aviators; cf. "the farmannikin (a special kind of box kite, untraceble now even in the greatest museums housing the toys of the past)" (1.5)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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It was King Wing, Demon's wrestling master, who taught Van to walk on his hands warning him that Vekchelo, a Yukon professional, lost the effortlessness of his stance by the time he was twenty two. Van's hand-walking is over after he was wounded in a pistol duel with Tapper (1.42), but earlier he performs as Mascodagama in Chose and London theatres (1.30). While Van's stage name is a play on Vasco da Gama (a Portuguese navigator), Vekchelo is an anagram of chelovek ("man").
Bryusov's poem Khvala cheloveku ("A Praise to Man") collected in his book Vse napevy ("All Melodies," 1909) begins: Molodoy moryak vselennoy ("The young sailor of the Universe..."). Other poems of this collection include Nash demon ("Our demon"), Dedal i Ikar ("Daedalus and Icarus") and Komu-to ("To Someone"), in which Daedalus* is also mentioned and which begins: "Farman or Wright** or whoever you might be!" Also, [Prince Dmitri] Donskoy (cf. Baron d'Onsky with whom Demon Veen had a sword duel: 1.2) appears in "Our demon."
D'Onsky's name suggests that he is a horse (Onegin's Don stallion). There is some evidence that Demon is a horse, too (one also remembers konskie deti, children of the Sun Horse: 3.5). The author of Kon' Bled ("Pale Horse"), Bryusov was keenly interested in horse-races, betting and even contributed articles on the subject.
Demon and his son are both wenchers. So was Bryusov (who began to frequent brothels at thirteen and tastelessly entitled his long Don Juan list "My Fair Ladies").
Van's and Ada's half-sister Lucette commits suicide because of her unrequited love for Van (3.5). Bryusov gave Nadezhda L'vov, a young poetess who was in love with him, a revolver and she shot herself dead. Bryusov's last love was another young poetess: Adalis.
According to Van, Vrubel made a portrait of his father. The last painting of Vrubel, the author of Demon poverzhennyi ("Demon Thrown Down"), was a portrait of Bryusov.
Valeriy Bryusov (1873-1924) is a namesake of Gaius Valerius Catulus, a Roman poet (84?-54? B.C.). In one of his epigrams V. Solov'yov complains that we have many Lesbians but not a single Catulus (Katullov net u nas, ey-ey, / No Lesbiy, batyushki, kak mnogo!). Cf. He had the terrifying, albeit illusionary, feeling that his left arm was now shorter than his right, and Van wondered wrily if he ever would be able to dance on his hands again. King Wing had warned him that two or three months without practice might result in an irretrivable loss of the rare art. On the same day (the two nasty little incidents thus remained linked up in his mind forever) Van happened to answer 'phone - a deep hollow voice which he thought was a man's wanted Cordula, but the caller turned up to be an old schoolmate, and Cordula feigned limpid delight, while making big eyes at Van over the receiver, an invented a number of unconvincing engagements.
'It's a gruesome girl!' she cried after the melodious adieux. 'Her name is Vanda Broom, and I learned only recently what I never suspected at school - she's a regular tribadka - poor Grace Erminin tells me Vanda used to make constant passes at her and at - at another girl.' (1.43) "Another girl" is certainly Ada (who had known Vanda even before Van first came to Ardis and who later has a liaison with Lucette). As to Vanda Broom, Ada tells Van (2.7) that she had been shot dead by the girlfriend of a girlfriend.
Bryusov was an urbanist. One of the poems in Vse napevy is entitled Gorodu ("To the City," a dithyramb). Gorod (city) = gordo (proudly). Satin, a character in Gorky's play Na dne ("At the Bottom"), famously says: Chelovek - eto zvuchit gordo (Man - this is a proud word). Btw., Gorky called New York (known on Antiterra as Man) Gorod zhyoltogo d'yavola (City of the Yellow Devil). Zhyoltyi d'yavol is gold. Gold = dolg (duty). Satin + gold/dolg = Stalin + dog/God (god is also Russian for "year," while dog means "Great Dane").
Bryusov is the author of Stikhi Nelli ("Nelly's Poems" or "Poems Addressed to Nelly") published anonymously. Nelli + N = Lenin + L (Btw., in the old Russian alphabet the Cyrillic counterpart of Roman N was called nash, "our," and the Cyrillic counterpart of Roman L, lyudi, "men.")
*Daedalus was a legendary Athenian architect who built the labyrinth for Minos (Ada's husband, Andrey Vinelander, used to call his father-in-law "Dementiy Labirintovich:" 3.8) and made wings of wax and feathers for himself and his son Icarus to escape from Cretes. But Icarus flew so high that his wings melted from the heat of the sun, and he plunged to his death in the sea.
**Farman and the brothers Wright, famous pioneer aviators; cf. "the farmannikin (a special kind of box kite, untraceble now even in the greatest museums housing the toys of the past)" (1.5)
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/