OK, now we are in my in my neck of the woods. Gamaliel is actually associated with a verra verra minor Jewish holiday - wikipedia can probably provide the details. He was an actual rabbi from the period of the Talmud I believe.

The 'Western hemisphere' may refer to the human brain (there are many instances of such imagery in Pale Fire). Search for "brain imagery" in the archives.

Now  VN may have been aware that Maxwell House, or the company that owns it I suppose, produces the most commonly used haggadah in American households at Passover. There is probably a story behind this, but I don't know it.

There are many other religious references, mostly Christian, in Ada, again check the archives children. I believe Alexey has adumbrated most if not all of them. There's one on page one, if memory serves - Mt I-forgot-which is possibly a New Testament reference. Or, maybe not New Testament - it might be someplace like Mt Athos where masculine silence and celibacy reign, or are supposed to. I think it is also the name of a publishing house - which might link up with the final pages of Ada - where our old friends Ronald and inViolet Oranger are preparing a ms for publication. Again - R.O. and V.O - in the archives.

No time for more - you're on your own,
Carolyn


On Jul 29, 2012, at 1:58 PM, Nabokv-L wrote:



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Ada: indestructible Gamaliel
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:34:02 -0700
From: Mike Marcus <mmkcm@COMCAST.NET>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
CC: Mike Marcus <mmkcm@COMCAST.NET>


Mike M writes:

Gamaliel appears five times, I believe, in Ada. Known in the New Testament for his wait-and-see approach, he ought to epitomize the prudent politician, but such expectations are confounded if Gamaliel does represent one real-life individual only.

First of all, Demon Veen wants to duel with Baron d'Onsky in Europe: "(decrepit but indestructible Gamaliel was said to be doing his best to forbid duels in the Western Hemisphere - a canard or an idealistic President's instant-coffee caprice, for nothing was to come of it at all)". Is Nabokov getting at something neurological? Gamaliel suggests Harding at first blush, but nothing else fits, so he's a red herring, a proxy for poxy politicians. "Idealistic President": Wilsonian idealism springs to mind, but so does Theodore Roosevelt, as both were advised by Herbert Croly, devotee of German idealism. The instant-coffee caprice certainly applies to Roosevelt, since the Maxwell House slogan -- "Good to the last drop" -- was attributed to Roosevelt when he complimented the beverage when visiting the Maxwell House Hotel. Can Roosevelt be brought into alignment with a duel? I do believe that on one occasion he was challenged to a duel by a French emigre to the wild west (perhaps t!
hat's the meaning of western hemisphere), something to do with cattle rustling; the belligerent Frenchman said or wrote something like "you know where to find me", and Roosevelt replied that "you know where to find me too, any time" or something like that. I'm afraid I'm fuzzy on the details, but it fizzled out, and in this, Ada is consistent: "nothing was to come of it at all''. Perhaps the use of a word of French origin - canard - is not irrelevant, though the canard may apply to the Maxwell House attribution, which has been challenged as apocryphal.

Second, "(old Gamaliel was by now pretty gaga)". Roosevelt was never gaga.

Third: "Gamaliel (then a stout young senator)". That will do nicely.

Fourth: "Gamaliel, on his (no longer frequent, alas) trip to Paris". Anyone?

Fifth: "(recently abdicated upon Gamaliel's suggestion in favor of a republican regime..)". Roosevelt was a Republican, and one imagines a republican.

Gamaliel is usually parenthetical. On the other hand, he is indestructible.



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