I explained the whole thing briefly in my post to Jerry (his lines are, in fact, from the Divine Comedy). I like your conjectures, but, if you'd like to delve further into VN's meaning, look in Nabokov's Butterflies, Beacon Press, 2000, pp 198-234. It is my translation of a projected chapter that my father decided not to include in Dar. Here it is titled "Father's Butterflies", meaning the naturalist father of Fiodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, and dealing with his fascinating personal theory of the world's development. I recommend it. I am withdrawing for a while into a potential script for a movie of Ada.

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