Subject
Hippopotamians in Ardis (Matt Brillinger's piece in The
Nabokovian)
Nabokovian)
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Dear all,
I just received the latest Nabokovian and read with interest Matt Brillinger's piece "Hippopotamians in Ardis." I didn't quite understand what MB meant by the "archetypal river," but he seems to have missed the fact that Hippo is the name of a river. Moreover, this river is mentioned in ADA: "Such a drought affected Hippo in the most productive months of Augustine's bishopric that clepsydras had to be replaced by sandglasses" (Part Four, "Texture of Time"). So the Mesopotamians/Hippopotamians word-play proves even more complex than most readers of Ada would take it to be. I wonder if another African river, Limpopo, could be involved in it?
Or may be I should add yet another anagram to my "charadoid:"
HIPPOPOTAMIANS + DEMOS - D = MESOPOTAMIANS + HIPPO?
best,
Alexey Sklyarenko
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I just received the latest Nabokovian and read with interest Matt Brillinger's piece "Hippopotamians in Ardis." I didn't quite understand what MB meant by the "archetypal river," but he seems to have missed the fact that Hippo is the name of a river. Moreover, this river is mentioned in ADA: "Such a drought affected Hippo in the most productive months of Augustine's bishopric that clepsydras had to be replaced by sandglasses" (Part Four, "Texture of Time"). So the Mesopotamians/Hippopotamians word-play proves even more complex than most readers of Ada would take it to be. I wonder if another African river, Limpopo, could be involved in it?
Or may be I should add yet another anagram to my "charadoid:"
HIPPOPOTAMIANS + DEMOS - D = MESOPOTAMIANS + HIPPO?
best,
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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