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Re: Dr Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu
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Alexey Sklyarenko: On Antiterra (the planet on which Ada is set), Sigmund Freud is represented by the Dr Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu in the Ardennes and his emigre brother (who may be the same man) with a passport-changed name, a Dr Froid (1.3). As I pointed out before, "Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu" seems to refer to Ostap Bender's words in Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf" (1931)....
JM: Perhaps Nabokov was also indicating that he read Freud's book on "Jokes and their relation to the Unconscious,"* by using this specific wordplay with his name in a context where there are babies and crazed Aqua. It seems to be a rather far-fetched joke-inside-a-joke but, in Freud's report, we encounter an anedocte related to a Baroness who was in labor. The criteria employed by her obstetrician to determine when the time was ripe for him to intervene were simple. The doctor remained undisturbed after hearing her first cries in fashionable French: "Ah, mon Dieu, que je souffre!" or, soon afterwards, when she switched to German: "Mein Gott, mein Gott, was fur Schmerzen!," he still remained calm. Finally, after he heard: "Ai, waih, waih" (yelling in her mother tongue), he rushed in to attend to the Baroness.
Did Fraud explain it well enough?
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* Cf. Freud, S. [ "Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten", in Gesammelte Werke, Frankfurt am Main, S. Ficher, 1969, v. VI, p. 86; English Standard Edition, translated by L.Strachey, vol.VIII (1905) Introduction, ch.11 ].
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JM: Perhaps Nabokov was also indicating that he read Freud's book on "Jokes and their relation to the Unconscious,"* by using this specific wordplay with his name in a context where there are babies and crazed Aqua. It seems to be a rather far-fetched joke-inside-a-joke but, in Freud's report, we encounter an anedocte related to a Baroness who was in labor. The criteria employed by her obstetrician to determine when the time was ripe for him to intervene were simple. The doctor remained undisturbed after hearing her first cries in fashionable French: "Ah, mon Dieu, que je souffre!" or, soon afterwards, when she switched to German: "Mein Gott, mein Gott, was fur Schmerzen!," he still remained calm. Finally, after he heard: "Ai, waih, waih" (yelling in her mother tongue), he rushed in to attend to the Baroness.
Did Fraud explain it well enough?
...................................................
* Cf. Freud, S. [ "Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten", in Gesammelte Werke, Frankfurt am Main, S. Ficher, 1969, v. VI, p. 86; English Standard Edition, translated by L.Strachey, vol.VIII (1905) Introduction, ch.11 ].
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/