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Re: Amorandola
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from ck to Jansy - mandorla & rose Resend:
Googling for Amorandola, which I always considered a portmanteau of amor
and mandolin in a gondola-shaped straitjacket, yielded the following links:
1) A review of Bend Sinister:
http://www.tedmills.com/2004/08/bend_sinister_vladimir_nabokov.html
Stone Cold Pimpin'
« How the Irish Save Civilization - Thomas Cahill | Main | But it was just
a boulevard of broken dreams... »
Bend Sinister - Vladimir Nabokov
Time Reading Program, 1947
Not just the name of one of my favorite Fall albums, but Nabokov's first
novel in English. I had only read one other Nabokov before this (Lolita, of
course, in 1995) and reading Bend Sinister reminded me of his mastery of
language. The novel follows the philosopher and instructor Krug, having just
lost his wife to illness, and living with his precious son in a society that
is slowly growing into a Soviet-style totalitarian state, run by none other
than a former schoolmate from childhood they used to call the Toad.
Obstinate, Krug believes his intellect and position will keep him from harm,
even as friends and family are disappeared around him. By the time reality
intrudes and his child is threatened, it is too late. The Soviet state (how
familiar is this system after reading (some of) Solzhenitsyn!) is presented
in all its banal but surreal glory, yet this is in no way a realist novel,
as Krug disappears in a landscape of dreams, ideas, thoughts, as does the
novel itself, with Nabokov's wordplay (in English, so incredibly developed)
making a kaleidoscope of sentences. The supporting characters often seem to
be half-anagrams of Krug's name, or variations on a set of letters at least.
One chapter is devoted to a intriguing, but ultimately facile re-thinking of
"Hamlet". Nabokov appears on and off as a godlike character, toying with his
characters, and Krug starts to become aware of this. For some reason, the
overlapping realities reminded me of "The Singing Detective," though Nabokov
came first, obviously. There's even a section that reminds me of Dennis
Potter in interview in which Potter talked about past and present running
simultaneously together, like sprinters on a track. Here's Nabokov:
Do all people have that? A face, a phrase, a landscape, an air bubble
from the past suddenly floating up as if released by the head warden's child
from a cell in the brain while the mind is at work on some totally different
matter? Something of the sort also occurs just before falling asleep when
what you think you are thinking is not at all what you think. Or two
parallel passenger trains of thought, overtaking the other.
There's plenty to read about Nabokov and this novel on the web--Zembla is
the main repository of scholarly work. I discovered that there was even a
film version made of the novel, though unless someone like Peter Greenaway
was making it, I can't imagine how true to the story it could be.
Note: Again, for a first novel in English, the vocabulary stretched my
brain to its limit. Check out this list of words I had to look up:
megrim, triskelion, selenographer, amorandola, Keeweenawatin, mnemogenic,
velvetina, ruelle, pauldron, salix, cardiarium, dolichocephalic,
decorpitation, noumenon, eidolon, kurorts, deoculation, yarovization.
(The problem with Googling unknown words: every fifth word turns out to
the name of a literary journal.)
Posted by Ted Mills on August 13, 2004 11:29 AM
2) Forsooth, a veritable instrument, with a gloss in parenthesis, albeit
in Czech:
http://www.rudekostry.cz/index.php?page=kapela
PRIMÁRNÍ SCHOPNOSTI: kytara, skládání, kapelník, amorandola (amorální
mandolína)
A. Bouazza.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
Googling for Amorandola, which I always considered a portmanteau of amor
and mandolin in a gondola-shaped straitjacket, yielded the following links:
1) A review of Bend Sinister:
http://www.tedmills.com/2004/08/bend_sinister_vladimir_nabokov.html
Stone Cold Pimpin'
« How the Irish Save Civilization - Thomas Cahill | Main | But it was just
a boulevard of broken dreams... »
Bend Sinister - Vladimir Nabokov
Time Reading Program, 1947
Not just the name of one of my favorite Fall albums, but Nabokov's first
novel in English. I had only read one other Nabokov before this (Lolita, of
course, in 1995) and reading Bend Sinister reminded me of his mastery of
language. The novel follows the philosopher and instructor Krug, having just
lost his wife to illness, and living with his precious son in a society that
is slowly growing into a Soviet-style totalitarian state, run by none other
than a former schoolmate from childhood they used to call the Toad.
Obstinate, Krug believes his intellect and position will keep him from harm,
even as friends and family are disappeared around him. By the time reality
intrudes and his child is threatened, it is too late. The Soviet state (how
familiar is this system after reading (some of) Solzhenitsyn!) is presented
in all its banal but surreal glory, yet this is in no way a realist novel,
as Krug disappears in a landscape of dreams, ideas, thoughts, as does the
novel itself, with Nabokov's wordplay (in English, so incredibly developed)
making a kaleidoscope of sentences. The supporting characters often seem to
be half-anagrams of Krug's name, or variations on a set of letters at least.
One chapter is devoted to a intriguing, but ultimately facile re-thinking of
"Hamlet". Nabokov appears on and off as a godlike character, toying with his
characters, and Krug starts to become aware of this. For some reason, the
overlapping realities reminded me of "The Singing Detective," though Nabokov
came first, obviously. There's even a section that reminds me of Dennis
Potter in interview in which Potter talked about past and present running
simultaneously together, like sprinters on a track. Here's Nabokov:
Do all people have that? A face, a phrase, a landscape, an air bubble
from the past suddenly floating up as if released by the head warden's child
from a cell in the brain while the mind is at work on some totally different
matter? Something of the sort also occurs just before falling asleep when
what you think you are thinking is not at all what you think. Or two
parallel passenger trains of thought, overtaking the other.
There's plenty to read about Nabokov and this novel on the web--Zembla is
the main repository of scholarly work. I discovered that there was even a
film version made of the novel, though unless someone like Peter Greenaway
was making it, I can't imagine how true to the story it could be.
Note: Again, for a first novel in English, the vocabulary stretched my
brain to its limit. Check out this list of words I had to look up:
megrim, triskelion, selenographer, amorandola, Keeweenawatin, mnemogenic,
velvetina, ruelle, pauldron, salix, cardiarium, dolichocephalic,
decorpitation, noumenon, eidolon, kurorts, deoculation, yarovization.
(The problem with Googling unknown words: every fifth word turns out to
the name of a literary journal.)
Posted by Ted Mills on August 13, 2004 11:29 AM
2) Forsooth, a veritable instrument, with a gloss in parenthesis, albeit
in Czech:
http://www.rudekostry.cz/index.php?page=kapela
PRIMÁRNÍ SCHOPNOSTI: kytara, skládání, kapelník, amorandola (amorální
mandolína)
A. Bouazza.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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