This is clearly a part of the plot to tangle me in my own and BB's words. I have said
elsewhere that our author treats language as a game with secret rules: and on top of
that he cheats. I shall therefore reveal what I have to reveal. If you have any desire
for clarity and truth, logoff (note my clever use of Russian!) immediately. There
are at least two approaches to answering the question as stated above, the first
being the political side. The country was named for the nuts, not the other way
around, and it will pay us all to re-read what we learned about Borromeo when
we did our nice close reading of Transparent Things, as this will let us make use of
what we learned there of Gabriele d"Annunzio (especially as a military activist) and
of word play (as suspicions of D'A's relations with his sister probably don't apply
to the two works under discussion here). Ready?

Thus, the word "fiume" is the basic italian word for "river". This is what makes the
consenting reader equate it in meaning with Spanish "rio": and he will have quickly
followed this line of logic by associating "alto" = "tall" with Spanish "grande" ,
etymologically equivalent of French "grand" meaning 'large', especally "tall"
("O, qu'il est grand!" meaning essentially, "My, how tall he is." This leads the
reader quickly to associaate, "rio grande" with "ri'alto", incorporating the [fi]
of "fiume' in this fluminous and fulminous brew. These word associations are
at the basis of a game called by linguists,"folk etymology" that knows radishes
are so named from being "reddish" , and that asparagus has something to do
to do with sparrows. But "rialto" (which word supplies Venetian place name
nothing to do with rivers, being named "raised place" from the architectural
aspect of this shopping district, from the Italian verb, "rialzare", "to lift" or "raise"
(actually the Latin term "perfect passive participle" appeals to me more)

So how did d'Annunzio get his admission ticket here?

It was he who (besides having concocted a gaudy residence on the northern
Italian (sort of) lake, where he evidently was visited by Goethe (who also sus
pected of illicit sexual relations (and who formed a sort of mutual admiration
society with Lort Byron) organized a military expedition that (temporarily)
united the Croatian town of Fiumi withits "rightful" mother country, Italy. An
Anschluss that still appeals to Italian of the MSI persuasion. But then they
still lust for Nice.

I assume that covers most of the questions that have been raised (!) here.

And it's all true, I tell you, all true. Although I have little hope that that aspect
of my disquisition will prevail. If my words perish on line, please send a
copy to Don Johnson and one to DVN. And of course to any Dutch
Brazilians, an ethnic group with which I claim an affiliation based on a
German preacher who ended up in Flatbush.

John

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Nabokv-L wrote:

Subject:
Fw: [NABOKV-L] EDITORIAL and DN re Blog on R. Rosenbaum; pun from J Rea

From:
"jansymello" <jansy@aetern.us>

Date:
Sun, 2 Mar 2008 02:49:49 -0300

To:
"Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>

SB wrote:In an attempt to limit mailbox clutter... I do not particularly encourage further submissions on this topic (R.R's).

I would like to praise John Rea's puns, though... when from speck he carried us to the French lard [as the French might put it, "L'ard pour l'ard" ], thereby recommending the avoidance of "tit for tat" - if I understood the meaning of his French concoction.

In the outline of the plot of TOOL purpotedly presented by Lara Delage-Toriel I found a reference to a blending of Flora and Laura into "Flaura".
Boyd on "Spring in Fialta" informs of a similar sounding construction. Fialta, a fictive place, is compounded by Adriatic "Fiume" and Crimean "Yalta", ie, Fi+Alta.

I wondered about the choice of Fiume (close to Abbazia, where the Nabokov's spent the summer in 1904, in the Dalmatian Riviera). Perhaps John Rea's linguistic talents can be called in again:

Is there any link between the words Fiume, Riviera and the latin "flumine" ( river)? If his answer is affirmative perhaps Fiume, in Fialta, might doubly stress the relation bt. Yalta and the French Riviera.

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