Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002208, Wed, 2 Jul 1997 10:28:44 -0700

Subject
Re: And the Charles Kinbote Award for Literary Explication Goes
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 10:52:07 +0100
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu>
Subject: Re: And the Charles Kinbote Award for Literary Explication Goes To..

From: Ben Walsh <benw@mktg-mail.dublin.iona.ie>

I don't think this is the first time that a Bowdlerised version of "Ulysses"
has been published. Part of the problem is that there do exist what Rose
calls, in his tortured metaphor, cobwebs in the rooms of "Ulysses". Joyce
was never entirely happy with it, there were too many revisions, changes,
misinterpretations of bad handwriting. Similar is the fashion in which his
compatriot Myles na gCopaleen would include deliberate mis-spellings and
puns in his daily newspaper column to have them excised by an overdiligent
but uncomprehending subeditor.

I think Rodney is right, though. If "cobwebs" exist, they do not need
cleaning out by Rose. Trying to correct various typographical errors, or
trying to reconcile different drafts, would now be impossible and an editor
who tries to do so merely wants to stamp his own authority on the book.

I'd say "snot-green" is more correct when used as an adjective "the
snot-green sea", but given the lookingglass Dodgsonia of the book, I always
thought these were portmanteau words of a sort.

ben
"The only real number is one, | ben walsh
the rest are mere repetition" -- VN | benw@iona.com