Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0013661, Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:16:03 -0400

Subject
CK replies re: palindromes and doubles
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I coined the word 'aibohphobia' (fear of palindromes). Napoleon was
aibohphobic.


Dear SKB,

Fortunately VN had no such fear!

Carolyn
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Yes, but that is because of his own relationship to her, which he is
hiding from the reader. Doesn't Shade make some reference to a brother
he has to protect? This "brother" would have to be Kinbote, who shares
the same parents and probably got Shade into some trouble on occasion..
ck

I don't remember anything like that from Shade. Protecting a brother
shows up in one of Kinbote's similes: "... he, my sweet awkward old
John, kept clawing at me and pulling me after him, back to the
protection of his laurels, with the solemn fussiness
of a poor lame boy trying to get his spastic brother out of the range
of the stones hurled at them by schoolchildren, once a familiar sight in
all countries." [n. 1000] jf

Dear Jerry,

That's the reference I had in mind. The "poor lame boy" is John Shade.
Similarly in his poem Shade refers to "some pure lad" made to quench
with his tongue the lust of a wench (in rough approximation) - - this
too is himself.

One of these days I'll go through the book again and pull all the
references to brothers and twins.

Carolyn

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