Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0022973, Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:01:12 -0300

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Re: Swinburne quotes and James Joyce's in Lolita and Ada
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JM wrote: I was curious about Swinburne in "Lolita" and "Ada"...Another entry on Swinburne brought up by google is by Brian Boyd and it connects "Algy" to James Joyce. In "Colors and shades: the Temnosiniy and Proust allusions," (Nov.16, 2002) B.B posted to the VN-L[ ]Brian Boyd explains how this reference relates to the Veen Family Tree ["Prince Vseslav Zemski and Princess Sofia Temnosiniy...First, Russian Zemski ("earthly") derives from the root zem, "earth, land" (as in zemlya, "earth, land,"; zemskiy, zemnoy "earthly") and Temnosiniy, "dark blue," is the "traditional epithet for the sky" (Johnson 1985:129).

Jansy Mello: Although the connection to James Joyce relates to a snotgreen sea derives from Van's exclamation: "the sea, his dark-blue great-grandmother," in his argumentation Brian Boyd moves on to the mythological incestuous relation between Terra and Coelus (Earth and Sky), based on Johnson's explanation to "dark blue." However, the watery elements and mermaids are very important in ADA.
I cannot help but wonder why pick dark-blue for "sky" and not the "sea". Of course, there's Demon hustling down from heaven in the environs of Haiti (Gavaille?) and I remember the celestial eyes of Lady Erminin watching over a picnic in Ardis. But what about Aqua and Marina and Oceanus Nox? After all Temnosiniy as a surname corresponds to one of Van's great-grandmothers: couldn't he have been merely literal and not convolutedly allusive, then? I hope there's an explanation for it in DBJ's "Worlds in Regression"... I always doubted the validity of the Veen family tree, with all the antlered noblemen and their sprightly young wives: is there any article about the Tree's genealogical or biological implications?
Thinking about trees, there's a lot about them in ADA that refers to the Biblical pentateuch. How about Yggdrasil, besides the Druidic Oak?

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