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golova
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In Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf" the word голова is used idiomatically, in the sense "good brains:"
- Бриан! - говорили они с жаром. - Вот это голова! Он со своим проектом пан-Европы...
Briand!* - they [old men in the pique waistcoats] said with animation - He has good brains indeed! With his project of pan-Europe... (Chapter XIV: "The First Rendezvous")
The setting of "The Golden Calf" is Chernomorsk. The villain in Pushkin's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" is an evil dwarf Chernomor. He has a brother, Golova (the still alive gigantic head that was chopped off by Chernomor).
Chateau + Briand = Chateaubriand; Golova (head) + Veen = Golovin. Ivan Ilyich dies in Tolstoy's story, but he lives on as a pouf ("ivanilich, a kind of sighing old hassock upholstered in leather:" 1.37) and as Van Veen (whose first name needs but the initial I to become Ivan and whose family name looks as if it were the Englished last syllable of Ivan Ilyich's surname) in Ada.
*Aristide Briand, 1862-1932, a French statesman
Alexey Sklyarenko
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- Бриан! - говорили они с жаром. - Вот это голова! Он со своим проектом пан-Европы...
Briand!* - they [old men in the pique waistcoats] said with animation - He has good brains indeed! With his project of pan-Europe... (Chapter XIV: "The First Rendezvous")
The setting of "The Golden Calf" is Chernomorsk. The villain in Pushkin's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" is an evil dwarf Chernomor. He has a brother, Golova (the still alive gigantic head that was chopped off by Chernomor).
Chateau + Briand = Chateaubriand; Golova (head) + Veen = Golovin. Ivan Ilyich dies in Tolstoy's story, but he lives on as a pouf ("ivanilich, a kind of sighing old hassock upholstered in leather:" 1.37) and as Van Veen (whose first name needs but the initial I to become Ivan and whose family name looks as if it were the Englished last syllable of Ivan Ilyich's surname) in Ada.
*Aristide Briand, 1862-1932, a French statesman
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/