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Re: La riviere de diamants
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TR: Actually, Old McNab is having a go at Guy de Maupassant (Guillaume de
Monparnasse) and his 'worst short story ever written'
True, but "Old McNab" has also in mind Dr Larivière, a character in Flaubert's Madam Bovary, and Montparnasse, a character in Hugo's Les Misérables. One also remembers Dr Poupart, a character in Flaubert's Un coeur simple. Cf. in Ada (1.21): "the mating habits of the fly Serromyia amorata Poupart. Copulation takes place with both ventral surfaces pressed together and the mouths touching. When the last throb (frisson) of intercourse is terminated the female sucks out the male's body content through the mouth of her impassioned partner. One supposes (see Pesson et al.) [another copious footnote] that the tidbits, such as the juicy leg of a bug enveloped in a webby substance, or even a mere token (the frivolous dead end or subtle beginning of an evolutionary process - qui le sait!) such as a petal carefully wrapped up and tied up with a frond of red fern, which certain male flies (but apparently not the femorata and amorata morons) bring to the female before mating, represent a prudent guarantee against the misplaced voracity of the young lady."
In my Russian article in Zembla, "Terra and Antiterra: Different Worlds, Different Truths", I suggest that the name Pesson, of the invented entomologist, hints, as also Mlle Larivière's penname does, at Maupassant.
Pesson + frivolous = frisson + peu + slovo
slovo = volos
peu - Fr., few, little
slovo - Russ., word
volos - Russ., hair
cheers,
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Monparnasse) and his 'worst short story ever written'
True, but "Old McNab" has also in mind Dr Larivière, a character in Flaubert's Madam Bovary, and Montparnasse, a character in Hugo's Les Misérables. One also remembers Dr Poupart, a character in Flaubert's Un coeur simple. Cf. in Ada (1.21): "the mating habits of the fly Serromyia amorata Poupart. Copulation takes place with both ventral surfaces pressed together and the mouths touching. When the last throb (frisson) of intercourse is terminated the female sucks out the male's body content through the mouth of her impassioned partner. One supposes (see Pesson et al.) [another copious footnote] that the tidbits, such as the juicy leg of a bug enveloped in a webby substance, or even a mere token (the frivolous dead end or subtle beginning of an evolutionary process - qui le sait!) such as a petal carefully wrapped up and tied up with a frond of red fern, which certain male flies (but apparently not the femorata and amorata morons) bring to the female before mating, represent a prudent guarantee against the misplaced voracity of the young lady."
In my Russian article in Zembla, "Terra and Antiterra: Different Worlds, Different Truths", I suggest that the name Pesson, of the invented entomologist, hints, as also Mlle Larivière's penname does, at Maupassant.
Pesson + frivolous = frisson + peu + slovo
slovo = volos
peu - Fr., few, little
slovo - Russ., word
volos - Russ., hair
cheers,
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/