Subject
empty mind
From
Date
Body
'Sure, sure,' said Demon, wrestling with a subtle question which only the ineptitude of a kindred conjecture had crowded out of Marina's mind, granted it could have entered by some back door; for ineptitude is always synonymous with multitude, and nothing is fuller than an empty mind. (Ada, 1.38)
In his memoir essay About S. A. Tolstoy (1924), written in defense of the writer's late widow, Gorky quotes an entry in Leo Tolstoy's diary:
В "Дневнике юности" Толстого есть прямые указания на его резко враждебное отношение к мысли аналитической; так, например, в 52 г. III, 22, он записал: "Мыслей особенно много может вмещаться в одно и то же время особенно в пустой голове". (An empty mind is particularly prone to be overcrowded with thoughts.)
Golova being Russian for "head," Vin (Russian spelling of the family name Veen, of Van, Ada, Lucette, Lucette's father Dan and Dan's cousin Demon, the father of Van and Ada) looks like "beheaded" Golovin (the surname of Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich*). On the other hand, pustaya golova (the phrase used by Tolstoy in his diary entry) means "empty mind."
Many a Tolstoy follower, including Chertkov (the author of Tolstoy's Departure), accused Sofia Andreevna of being her husband's "evil demon" and compared her to Xanthippe:
Теперь слышу, что скоро выйдет в свет ещё одна книжка, написанная с тем же похвальным намерением: убедить грамотных людей мира, что жена Льва
Толстого была его злым демоном, а подлинное имя её — Ксантиппа. (Gorky, ibid.)
According to Demon, his aunt Kitty was married to that dreadful old wencher Lyovka Tolstoy, the writer:
'Your dinner jacket is very nice - or, rather it's very nice recognizing one's old tailor in one's son's clothes - like catching oneself repeating an ancestral mannerism - for example, this (wagging his left forefinger three times at the height of his temple), which my mother did in casual, pacific denial; that gene missed you, but I've seen it in my hairdresser's looking-glass when refusing to have him put Cremlin on my bald spot; and you know who had it too - my aunt Kitty, who married the Banker Bolenski after divorcing that dreadful old wencher Lyovka Tolstoy, the writer.' (1.38)
The gene that missed Van was inherited by his sister and lover, Ada (officially, Dan's daughter):
'Oh, no,' said Ada, wagging her finger at the height of her temple in a way she had. 'Oh, no. That pretty word [Kremlin] does not exist in Russian. A Frenchman invented it. There is no second syllable.' (1.36)
Van, Ada and Lucette are playing a game of Flavita (Russian Scrabble). Flavita is an anagram of alfavit (Russ.,"alphabet"). Alfavit - 'Zerkalo zhizni' (Alphabet "The Mirror of Life") is a chapter in Ilf and Petrov's The Twelve Chairs (1928). On the other hand, Lev Tolstoy kak zerkalo russkoy revolyutsii (Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of Russian Revolution) is a famous article by Lenin ("the Kremlin dreamer," as H. G. Wells called him). Gorky is the author of the obituary essay Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1924).
The Flavita set was given to Marina's children by Baron Klim Avidov (anagram of Vladimir Nabokov). Baron is a character in Gorky's play Na dne (At the Bottom). On the other hand, Gorky is the author of The Life of Klim Samgin (1925-36).
Baron Klim Avidov knocked out an English tourist who remarked how clever it was to drop the first letter of one's name in order to use it as a particule at the Gritz, in Venezia Rossa (1.36). Mme Gritsatsuev ("the ardent woman, a poet's dream") is a character in The Twelve Chairs. Its sequel novel, The Golden Calf (1931), has a chapter entitled Vasisualiy Lokhankin and his Role in the Russian Revolution. Like old Funt, a character in The Golden Calf who repeats: "Brian - eto golova" ("Briand has a head indeed"), Lokhankin lives in Chernomorsk. The name of this (fictional) city reminds one of Chernomor, the sorcerer in Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Lyudmila (1820). The evil dwarf Chernomor has an elder brother, golova (the still alive head of the giant who was decapitated by Chernomor).
Pushkin's poem begins:
У лукоморья дуб зелёный;
Златая цепь на дубе том;
и днём и ночью кот учёный
всё ходит по цепи кругом.
(A green oak stands at the sea shore;
a golden chain winds around the oak;
the day and night a learned cat
walks round and round on the chain.)
The rare oak, Quercus ruslan Chat.,** with a big chain around its trunk, grows in Ardis (2.7).
On the other hand, in VN's Invitation to a Beheading, Quercus is a modernist novel that Cincinnatus C reads in the fortress. The author of Quercus is said to live on an island - perhaps, in the North Sea. Dub being Russian for "oak," the novel's Latin title seems to hint at Dublin, the home city of James Joyce, the author of Dubliners and Ulysses. One of the main characters in Ulysses (and the protagonist in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) is Stephen Dedalus.
Son of Dedalus Veen, Walter D. Veen ("Demon") is a Manhattan banker of ancient Anglo-Irish ancestry (1.1). Daedalus being the father of Icarus, Demon's death in an airplane disaster (3.7) reminds one of the Icarus myth.
*And when Van, having kissed her [Marina's] freckled hand, lowered himself on the ivanilich*** (a kind of sighing old hassock upholstered in leather): 'Van, dear, I wish to say something to you, because I know I shall never have to repeat it again. Belle, with her usual flair for the right phrase, has cited to me the cousinage-dangereux-voisinage adage - I mean "adage," I always fluff that word - and complained qu'on s'embrassait dans tous les coins. Is that true?' (1.37) Demon to Van: 'I can exert a certain pressure upon my Marina. She sighs like a hassock when you sit upon her, so to speak.' (1.38)
**chat is French for "cat;" on the other hand, "Chat." seems to hint at Chateaubriand (whom Batyushkov used to call Chateaubrilliant)
***Vivian Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): Ivanilich: a pouf plays a marvelous part in Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, where it sighs deeply under a friend of the widow's.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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In his memoir essay About S. A. Tolstoy (1924), written in defense of the writer's late widow, Gorky quotes an entry in Leo Tolstoy's diary:
В "Дневнике юности" Толстого есть прямые указания на его резко враждебное отношение к мысли аналитической; так, например, в 52 г. III, 22, он записал: "Мыслей особенно много может вмещаться в одно и то же время особенно в пустой голове". (An empty mind is particularly prone to be overcrowded with thoughts.)
Golova being Russian for "head," Vin (Russian spelling of the family name Veen, of Van, Ada, Lucette, Lucette's father Dan and Dan's cousin Demon, the father of Van and Ada) looks like "beheaded" Golovin (the surname of Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich*). On the other hand, pustaya golova (the phrase used by Tolstoy in his diary entry) means "empty mind."
Many a Tolstoy follower, including Chertkov (the author of Tolstoy's Departure), accused Sofia Andreevna of being her husband's "evil demon" and compared her to Xanthippe:
Теперь слышу, что скоро выйдет в свет ещё одна книжка, написанная с тем же похвальным намерением: убедить грамотных людей мира, что жена Льва
Толстого была его злым демоном, а подлинное имя её — Ксантиппа. (Gorky, ibid.)
According to Demon, his aunt Kitty was married to that dreadful old wencher Lyovka Tolstoy, the writer:
'Your dinner jacket is very nice - or, rather it's very nice recognizing one's old tailor in one's son's clothes - like catching oneself repeating an ancestral mannerism - for example, this (wagging his left forefinger three times at the height of his temple), which my mother did in casual, pacific denial; that gene missed you, but I've seen it in my hairdresser's looking-glass when refusing to have him put Cremlin on my bald spot; and you know who had it too - my aunt Kitty, who married the Banker Bolenski after divorcing that dreadful old wencher Lyovka Tolstoy, the writer.' (1.38)
The gene that missed Van was inherited by his sister and lover, Ada (officially, Dan's daughter):
'Oh, no,' said Ada, wagging her finger at the height of her temple in a way she had. 'Oh, no. That pretty word [Kremlin] does not exist in Russian. A Frenchman invented it. There is no second syllable.' (1.36)
Van, Ada and Lucette are playing a game of Flavita (Russian Scrabble). Flavita is an anagram of alfavit (Russ.,"alphabet"). Alfavit - 'Zerkalo zhizni' (Alphabet "The Mirror of Life") is a chapter in Ilf and Petrov's The Twelve Chairs (1928). On the other hand, Lev Tolstoy kak zerkalo russkoy revolyutsii (Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of Russian Revolution) is a famous article by Lenin ("the Kremlin dreamer," as H. G. Wells called him). Gorky is the author of the obituary essay Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1924).
The Flavita set was given to Marina's children by Baron Klim Avidov (anagram of Vladimir Nabokov). Baron is a character in Gorky's play Na dne (At the Bottom). On the other hand, Gorky is the author of The Life of Klim Samgin (1925-36).
Baron Klim Avidov knocked out an English tourist who remarked how clever it was to drop the first letter of one's name in order to use it as a particule at the Gritz, in Venezia Rossa (1.36). Mme Gritsatsuev ("the ardent woman, a poet's dream") is a character in The Twelve Chairs. Its sequel novel, The Golden Calf (1931), has a chapter entitled Vasisualiy Lokhankin and his Role in the Russian Revolution. Like old Funt, a character in The Golden Calf who repeats: "Brian - eto golova" ("Briand has a head indeed"), Lokhankin lives in Chernomorsk. The name of this (fictional) city reminds one of Chernomor, the sorcerer in Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Lyudmila (1820). The evil dwarf Chernomor has an elder brother, golova (the still alive head of the giant who was decapitated by Chernomor).
Pushkin's poem begins:
У лукоморья дуб зелёный;
Златая цепь на дубе том;
и днём и ночью кот учёный
всё ходит по цепи кругом.
(A green oak stands at the sea shore;
a golden chain winds around the oak;
the day and night a learned cat
walks round and round on the chain.)
The rare oak, Quercus ruslan Chat.,** with a big chain around its trunk, grows in Ardis (2.7).
On the other hand, in VN's Invitation to a Beheading, Quercus is a modernist novel that Cincinnatus C reads in the fortress. The author of Quercus is said to live on an island - perhaps, in the North Sea. Dub being Russian for "oak," the novel's Latin title seems to hint at Dublin, the home city of James Joyce, the author of Dubliners and Ulysses. One of the main characters in Ulysses (and the protagonist in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) is Stephen Dedalus.
Son of Dedalus Veen, Walter D. Veen ("Demon") is a Manhattan banker of ancient Anglo-Irish ancestry (1.1). Daedalus being the father of Icarus, Demon's death in an airplane disaster (3.7) reminds one of the Icarus myth.
*And when Van, having kissed her [Marina's] freckled hand, lowered himself on the ivanilich*** (a kind of sighing old hassock upholstered in leather): 'Van, dear, I wish to say something to you, because I know I shall never have to repeat it again. Belle, with her usual flair for the right phrase, has cited to me the cousinage-dangereux-voisinage adage - I mean "adage," I always fluff that word - and complained qu'on s'embrassait dans tous les coins. Is that true?' (1.37) Demon to Van: 'I can exert a certain pressure upon my Marina. She sighs like a hassock when you sit upon her, so to speak.' (1.38)
**chat is French for "cat;" on the other hand, "Chat." seems to hint at Chateaubriand (whom Batyushkov used to call Chateaubrilliant)
***Vivian Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): Ivanilich: a pouf plays a marvelous part in Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, where it sighs deeply under a friend of the widow's.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/