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ADa & the Addams family: a more serious response to Raya Seem
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a more serious response to Raya Seem
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 8:41 PM
Subject: a more serious response to Raya Seem
Dear Raya Seem,
Your original question, "Is there any hidden allusion in Ada to the Addam's Family series," was answered by the information about the time problem. The question of whether Ada makes any reference to the New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams and his characters (never called by him "the Addams Family" so far as I know) is another question, and one perhaps deserving of a more thoughtful response than my facetious one.
The cartoons are collected in books, but I haven't seen one in years. I do recall a favorite pair, however. In both Uncle Fester (as he was called in the TV program) is in a crowded movie theater which we see from the screen's point of view. In the first the audience is having a hilariously good time and "Uncle Fester" is in tears; in the second the audience is weeping and he is the one having the laughs.
Nabokov's humor, like Charles Addams's, has it's dark side, and there certainly are references to cartoons in Nabokov's works so the question is a good one. Apparently no one else has written on this question, so you might pursue it a bit yourself. The place to start would be to locate some of the the original cartoons and see what you can find.
Happy hunting!
Carolyn
p.s. A search of the Internet revealed that Charles Addams's estate has requested that none of his cartoons appear on the Internet. But books of his cartoons are still available -- 264 copies of various books are for sale at this web site (some in Europe):
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookSearch
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 8:41 PM
Subject: a more serious response to Raya Seem
Dear Raya Seem,
Your original question, "Is there any hidden allusion in Ada to the Addam's Family series," was answered by the information about the time problem. The question of whether Ada makes any reference to the New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams and his characters (never called by him "the Addams Family" so far as I know) is another question, and one perhaps deserving of a more thoughtful response than my facetious one.
The cartoons are collected in books, but I haven't seen one in years. I do recall a favorite pair, however. In both Uncle Fester (as he was called in the TV program) is in a crowded movie theater which we see from the screen's point of view. In the first the audience is having a hilariously good time and "Uncle Fester" is in tears; in the second the audience is weeping and he is the one having the laughs.
Nabokov's humor, like Charles Addams's, has it's dark side, and there certainly are references to cartoons in Nabokov's works so the question is a good one. Apparently no one else has written on this question, so you might pursue it a bit yourself. The place to start would be to locate some of the the original cartoons and see what you can find.
Happy hunting!
Carolyn
p.s. A search of the Internet revealed that Charles Addams's estate has requested that none of his cartoons appear on the Internet. But books of his cartoons are still available -- 264 copies of various books are for sale at this web site (some in Europe):
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookSearch