Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0020086, Sat, 22 May 2010 11:36:17 -0700

Subject
Idle note on Sebastian (Knight)
Date
Body
Food for (s)peculation.

"I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we are both someone neither of us knows"

None of the historical persons or places evoked by the name
seem to be obviously connected to VN's novel (see www below). In an idle moment it ocurred to me that the first syllable of the name echoes the Russian pronoun SEBYA meaning "one's self ." Given the tangled relationship between the narrating half -brother and his brother Sebastain, I wonder if this pseudo-etymology sheds any light on the novel.

Tennis, anyone?




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevastopol#Etymology_of_the_name

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