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Re: puzzle for nabokovians
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In a message dated 20/01/2008 21:50:25 GMT Standard Time, chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET (C.Kunin) writes:What is interesting in a Nabokovian sort of way about the following words? banana dresser grammar potato revive uneven
A.Stadlen observes:Each is a palindrome preceded by a single letter. And so...?
In a similar vein we have: "Well, when you remove the first letter of each word, what remains is a palindrome. But I'm stumped on what's especially "Nabokovian" about that. Invitation to a beheading?" (J. Morris) and "I don't see what is Nabokovian about those six words other than that they involve an odd bit of wordplay: Drop the first letter of each word and you have a palindrome." (Michael Juliar).
Personally, I enjoyed C.Kunin's light-hearted puzzle in a sort of Nabokovian way. They reveal the difference bt. mere wordplay and THE master's stroke that unfolds level upon level of "poliseminal" discoveries, only latent and almost as dead as nails in their simple palindromic shape, puns, or onomatopaic linkages.
Take, for example, Ashette, as in Brian Boyd's additional annotations to ADAonline, at http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ - duly visited and which led me at first to ADA 1.19, with their reference to the "Hachette" editors, and VN's transformation of the firm into "ashette"...
We find in Hachette-Ashette a sort of Nabokovian "Invitation to a Beheading" indeed - with hatchet and all - as playfully indicated by J. Morris. But not simply that, when we realize that Ashette might also apply to Cinderella ( as VN lets us conclude quite easily by his comments about Blanche).
Now the puzzle can grow into: what is the link bt. the editorial firm, beheading, Blanche or metamorphosis? Is there any intended additional meaning anyway?
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A.Stadlen observes:Each is a palindrome preceded by a single letter. And so...?
In a similar vein we have: "Well, when you remove the first letter of each word, what remains is a palindrome. But I'm stumped on what's especially "Nabokovian" about that. Invitation to a beheading?" (J. Morris) and "I don't see what is Nabokovian about those six words other than that they involve an odd bit of wordplay: Drop the first letter of each word and you have a palindrome." (Michael Juliar).
Personally, I enjoyed C.Kunin's light-hearted puzzle in a sort of Nabokovian way. They reveal the difference bt. mere wordplay and THE master's stroke that unfolds level upon level of "poliseminal" discoveries, only latent and almost as dead as nails in their simple palindromic shape, puns, or onomatopaic linkages.
Take, for example, Ashette, as in Brian Boyd's additional annotations to ADAonline, at http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ - duly visited and which led me at first to ADA 1.19, with their reference to the "Hachette" editors, and VN's transformation of the firm into "ashette"...
We find in Hachette-Ashette a sort of Nabokovian "Invitation to a Beheading" indeed - with hatchet and all - as playfully indicated by J. Morris. But not simply that, when we realize that Ashette might also apply to Cinderella ( as VN lets us conclude quite easily by his comments about Blanche).
Now the puzzle can grow into: what is the link bt. the editorial firm, beheading, Blanche or metamorphosis? Is there any intended additional meaning anyway?
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