> Some interesting comments on 1888 were made by Jasper Fidget a few
years
> back:
>[. . .]
'Twould be more historically accurate (not that the context demands such
distractions) to say that the 'infinity' symbol is '8 on its side'
rather than
the other way round: '8 is infinity upright.' The lovely infinity
symbol was
introduced by John Wallis in 1665 many convoluted centuries _after_ the
Arabic
numeral.
Interestingly, both symbols represent the LEMNISCATE which DN reminded
us many
postings ago looms large in Nabokoviana. Not only do we have the image
of a
'doubly' infinite circuit (note we loop one 'circle' clockwise then
switch to a
counter-clockwise loop of the other -- Jansy might see some symbolic
significance?), but also the more down-to-earth bow-tie, butterfly, and
L's
bikini-top.
Re-VN's use of non-metric units, some listers may need reminding that
Brits and
Yanks are _still_ reluctant to go _le tout cochon_ (the whole hog!)
with the
un-poetic, boring metric system. Kinbote &/or Shade, via VN, surely
prefer the
rich mensurational vocabulary of inches, feet, yards, miles (all
derived from
human attributes) to the plumpen meter and its multiples and
subdivisions. The
meter was based on 18/19th century measurements of the earth -- and,
ironically, they got the sums WRONG!
Long live the gallon (US and Imperial), rod, pole, perch and chain.
Likewise the
sazhen and verst of VN's boyhood?
Some of us Brits are still unhappy at having lost our
pounds/shillings/half-crowns/tanners/pence/farthings to what we called
DISMAL
currency.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
--
Stephen H. Blackwell
Associate Professor of Russian
Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures
701 McClung Tower
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996
865/ 974-4536
fax: 974-7096 sblackwe@utk.edu