Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0015340, Sat, 30 Jun 2007 12:20:31 -0700

Subject
Re: VN SIGHTING: Treuer PF
Date
Body
It cannot possibly be the Walrus from that Lewis Carroll poem, can it? The
Walrus is, after all, all about the cabbages and kings. While the Kinbote
reference is clear, the possibility of the cabbage one being Carroll seems
like far too much free-association (Walrus for wall) to hold any water-or
cabbages.



_____

From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2007 12:09 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] VN SIGHTING: Treuer PF



FROM: Don Johnson



l have been doing a lot of desultory reading lately. By chance I ran across
a novel, "The Translation of Dr Appeles," by David Treuer who teaches in
the English Department at the U. of Minnesota. Its hero (like Treuer) is
an Ojibwe with a PHD but (unlike Treuer) works in a NYC library archive
and translates Indian legend manuscripts. The book interweaves the life of
the translator and the 19th century Indian tale he is translating. All in
all, a good literary novel playing with the metaphor of texts (and lives)
interbreeding (and interbleeding).



Among the things that caught my eye was a passage describing a disjointed
dream based presumably upon scenes from the books that pass through his
hands. Among them, we find:



"To his left was a man throwing cabbages over a stone wall and to his
right a bearded professor played table tennis in his basement with a pair
of twins" (77)





Doctor Kinbote, I presume? I see from Treuer's University CV that he
teaches a course called "The Layering of Modern Narrative, Looking for
Treasure in Nabokov's Pale Fire."



P.S. But (rhetorically) who is that man throwing cabbages over the wall?

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