Subject
Re: new in Zembla
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Dear Jansy,
Thanks. I'm sorry there are so many hare/kangoroo leaps of thought in this article. I would have tried to avoid them, had my English been less primitive.
re Lagosse, old Van's doctor, and French la gosse: "I lay supine and felt twice the size I had ever been (senescent nonsense, says science!) when finally six gentle hands attempted to ease la gosse, trembling Adada, upon the terrible tool." (2.3)
re "puta": in the 1990s Russian prostitutes were often called "putanas" and "night butterflies". Back to Antiterra, I would link Laputa not to "puta" but to Russian words with the same consonants: lopata, palata, poputal, etc. (see the anagram in my post of 03.07.2010).
best,
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 12:34 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] new in Zembla
Alexey Sklyarenko sends: "Nabokov's Anthropomorphic Zoo: The Leporine Family of Doctors in Ada" is now available in Zembla (in Word format): http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/krolik.doc
JM: I selected two excerpts from your delectable article, related to items which might (or might not) be worth inquiring into:
1. "...and the Russian 'zayats' (hare) sounds like 'Seitz' (the German gynecologist); there is a Latin 'cuniculus' in 'Niculin' ('grandson of the great rodentiologist Kunikulinov'), and a Greek 'lagos' in 'Lagosse' (the doctor who attends Van in his old age). Note also Coniglietto, the Italian cancer-of-the-blood specialist."
2. "There are no flying islands in Jules Verne (the author of The Mysterious Island, 1874), but there is Laputa, the Flying Island, in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). In Ada, Laputa is a freight airplane on which Ada's two maids fly over from America to Europe with Ada's trunks (Part Four). As to Swift's hero (who is a naval surgeon), Van mentions him, along with a fat little Russian encyclopedia and guba, describing his and Ada's kissing phase ..."
The questions:
'. You conected the name Lagosse, thru V.D, to "lagos" (Greek). In French, a young kid is "un gosse" and I wonder if this meaning was ambiguously intended by senescent Van's doctor's name, "La-gosse."
2. Swift's "Laputa" (and Lilliput) might not be maliciously considered but, in Van's mind, another meaning may have been accrued to Ada's kissing phase in "La-puta" (in Portuguese and in Spanish, "puta" indicates a prostitute)
Thank you for the link, your article is extremely rich with associations, information and links to literature and words.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
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/
Thanks. I'm sorry there are so many hare/kangoroo leaps of thought in this article. I would have tried to avoid them, had my English been less primitive.
re Lagosse, old Van's doctor, and French la gosse: "I lay supine and felt twice the size I had ever been (senescent nonsense, says science!) when finally six gentle hands attempted to ease la gosse, trembling Adada, upon the terrible tool." (2.3)
re "puta": in the 1990s Russian prostitutes were often called "putanas" and "night butterflies". Back to Antiterra, I would link Laputa not to "puta" but to Russian words with the same consonants: lopata, palata, poputal, etc. (see the anagram in my post of 03.07.2010).
best,
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 12:34 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] new in Zembla
Alexey Sklyarenko sends: "Nabokov's Anthropomorphic Zoo: The Leporine Family of Doctors in Ada" is now available in Zembla (in Word format): http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/krolik.doc
JM: I selected two excerpts from your delectable article, related to items which might (or might not) be worth inquiring into:
1. "...and the Russian 'zayats' (hare) sounds like 'Seitz' (the German gynecologist); there is a Latin 'cuniculus' in 'Niculin' ('grandson of the great rodentiologist Kunikulinov'), and a Greek 'lagos' in 'Lagosse' (the doctor who attends Van in his old age). Note also Coniglietto, the Italian cancer-of-the-blood specialist."
2. "There are no flying islands in Jules Verne (the author of The Mysterious Island, 1874), but there is Laputa, the Flying Island, in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). In Ada, Laputa is a freight airplane on which Ada's two maids fly over from America to Europe with Ada's trunks (Part Four). As to Swift's hero (who is a naval surgeon), Van mentions him, along with a fat little Russian encyclopedia and guba, describing his and Ada's kissing phase ..."
The questions:
'. You conected the name Lagosse, thru V.D, to "lagos" (Greek). In French, a young kid is "un gosse" and I wonder if this meaning was ambiguously intended by senescent Van's doctor's name, "La-gosse."
2. Swift's "Laputa" (and Lilliput) might not be maliciously considered but, in Van's mind, another meaning may have been accrued to Ada's kissing phase in "La-puta" (in Portuguese and in Spanish, "puta" indicates a prostitute)
Thank you for the link, your article is extremely rich with associations, information and links to literature and words.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
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/