Dear Alexey,

Couldn't this be among the several references in Ada to the ancient near east? Armina, Van, Eden, Ararat ("Arrowroot"), and that odd shaped lake? I have no idea what it all adds up to, perhaps you have a suggestion?

Carolyn


On Dec 1, 2007, at 4:34 PM, Alexey Sklyarenko wrote:

Dear all,
 
I just received the latest Nabokovian and read with interest Matt Brillinger's piece "Hippopotamians in Ardis." I didn't quite understand what MB meant by the "archetypal river," but he seems to have missed the fact that Hippo is the name of a river. Moreover, this river is mentioned in ADA: "Such a drought affected Hippo in the most productive months of Augustine's bishopric that clepsydras had to be replaced by sandglasses" (Part Four, "Texture of Time"). So the Mesopotamians/Hippopotamians word-play proves even more complex than most readers of Ada would take it to be. I wonder if another African river, Limpopo, could be involved in it?
Or may be I should add yet another anagram to my "charadoid:"
 
HIPPOPOTAMIANS + DEMOS - D = MESOPOTAMIANS + HIPPO?
 
best,
Alexey Sklyarenko

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