Subject
Re: Beheading query (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jake_pultorak@bge.com
Perhaps the reason that Nabokov retains the Russian forms 'Tit'
and 'Pud' in "the three merry wayfarers, Tit, Pud, and the
Wandering Jew" at the end of chapter eleven lies in that both Russian forms
coincidentally provide puns on American sexual slang. 'Tit' is common
slang for breast, and 'Pud' is a slang term for genitals, short for
pudendum.
Would VN have resisted such a merry coincidence, given the relentless
sexual punning that occurs in Transparent Things and Ada?
-Jake Pultorak
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2. According to Dolinin (p. 510) Tit was an associate of the apostle Paul
and addressee of one of his Epistles. Pud is one of the first Christians,
mentioned in Paul's second Epistle to Timothy 4,21. I (DBJ) am a bit
dubious about these IDs for two reasons. Why would VN leave the names in
their Russian forms "Tit" & "Pud" rather than use the English Bible forms
Titus and Pudens. Further, neither name has obvious (to me) relevance to
what is going on the VN's novel or scene. (These characters, along with
the Wandering Jew, are bit-players in QUERCUS, the literary masterpiece
that Cin. is reading while waiting for the axe to fall.)
----------------------------
D. Barton Johnson, Editor
NABOKV-L
From: jake_pultorak@bge.com
Perhaps the reason that Nabokov retains the Russian forms 'Tit'
and 'Pud' in "the three merry wayfarers, Tit, Pud, and the
Wandering Jew" at the end of chapter eleven lies in that both Russian forms
coincidentally provide puns on American sexual slang. 'Tit' is common
slang for breast, and 'Pud' is a slang term for genitals, short for
pudendum.
Would VN have resisted such a merry coincidence, given the relentless
sexual punning that occurs in Transparent Things and Ada?
-Jake Pultorak
----------------------------------------
2. According to Dolinin (p. 510) Tit was an associate of the apostle Paul
and addressee of one of his Epistles. Pud is one of the first Christians,
mentioned in Paul's second Epistle to Timothy 4,21. I (DBJ) am a bit
dubious about these IDs for two reasons. Why would VN leave the names in
their Russian forms "Tit" & "Pud" rather than use the English Bible forms
Titus and Pudens. Further, neither name has obvious (to me) relevance to
what is going on the VN's novel or scene. (These characters, along with
the Wandering Jew, are bit-players in QUERCUS, the literary masterpiece
that Cin. is reading while waiting for the axe to fall.)
----------------------------
D. Barton Johnson, Editor
NABOKV-L