Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0017943, Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:16:14 -0300

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Re: OBSERVATION: Blog on Russians and Squirrels
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John Cadigan:Squirrels can be found throughout Russia, not just in Pnin: http://cellingo.blogspot.com/2009/03/squirrel-y-russkie-and-russians.html
Please pardon the unofficial style.

JM:Thanks for the fascinating link with images of enshrined squirrels and Belochka dancers. In Kubrick's movie ( I cannot remember if it also appears in the original Lolita ) there is a stuffed squirrel in Q camp. I suggest a follow up in Zembla ( A Resolved Discord (Pnin) by Gennady Barabtarlo)
In a book about "Myths of Origin" I discovered that squirrels arose from the metamorphosis of a founding-god's left-over "vair" shoes in Japan. I'll try to find the correct reference and image to post later on. In Pnin these animals are very feminine, ungrateful and cruel ( besides, they are associated with fountains!)

A.S ( to CK): Yes, the author of Dushen'ka ("Little Psyche", 1783) is Bogdanovich (1743-1803), not Batyushkov (1787-1855). In his article on the former (1939), Khodasevich says that in writing his poem Bogdanovich imitated La Fontaine rather than Apuleius whose tale he probably didn't even know. Only one line from Bogdanovich's poem is now memorable: Vo vsekh ty, Dushen'ka, naryadakh khorosha ("you are beautiful, little Psyche, in every attire")...

JM: Rich posting, Alexey. Quite a treat!
CK linked Hebe's cup to Apuleius and Psyche, but I think she was mistaken. Past postings have already dealt with that subject since Hebe's cup and Zeus is a theme that reappears in "ADA" (Zeus homosexual loves and earthy Bouteillans)

SKB: PS: "Picadillos" could also be an L Carroll 'blend,' meaning TINY sins (Greek pic[o] - replacing pec-?)
JM: If you had the advantage of speaking Portuguese your reading would be different ( Sin=pecado; Picadillos= picadinho?, ie:in shreds. Pica, in glorious isolation, is equally "in-dick-ative" and no minging wincing shreds about it )

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