J.Aisenberg [ on
A.S's "I doubt that one can grasp my
method if one hasn't read the entire "the-truth-is-in-wine" piece
(which is in Russian and can not be read by the majority of
non-Russian list members). I suggest you stop trying. I also doubt that my
method has anything in common with Boyd's (if he has a method at all;
at least, his method, provided he has one, doesn't allow him to see the whole
picture in Ada and to experience one thousandth part of the unprecedented
mental orgasm - you will pardon me the metaphor - that I have
experienced ejaculating ever new
inexpected anagrams] While I can be down with anything leading up to any kind
of orgasmic meltdown, I take all this to mean that your anagramatism
relates to the tapestry you subjectively have constructed out of N.'s novel
rather any "intentional" type of reading? ... are you saying that I didn't
miss your having glossed the precise origin of the phrase "Gory Mary"? Cause I'd
really like to know what that does derive from.
JM: Like J.Aisenberg, I suppose
that A.S proliferating anagrams are mainly "related to the tapestry subjectively
constructed out of N's novela", an almost independent work that often
throws light on VN's particularly complex Russian allusions.
In relation to "Gory Mary": (a) "Demon [...]
overtook the Baron (looking very fit) in Nice[...] back-slapped the astonished
Baron across the face[...]The challenge was accepted; two native seconds were
chosen; the Baron plumped for swords; and after a certain amount of good blood
(Polish and Irish — a kind of American ‘Gory Mary’ in barroom
parlance) had bespattered two hairy torsoes, the whitewashed terrace,
the flight of steps leading backward to the walled garden in an amusing Douglas
d’Artagnan arrangement, the apron of a quite accidental milkmaid, and the
shirtsleeves of both seconds[...] (VN's
ADA);
(b) "To
return to 'gory Mary': If I didn't knew that this phrase was coined by Nabokov,
I would have looked for it not in Joyce..." (A.S's
explanation)
A. Sklyarenko:..."bars in Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" is not a snow leopard
...Thanks to Victor for his correction!"[...] bras
is French for "arm;" cf. Bras d'Or, the
Northeast American province ...
JM: Bras d'Or is also
delicious French cognac, and a reference to Napoleon ( Hennessy Napoleon Bras
D'or). I wonder if
VN ever read about Napoleon and the Portuguese Royals. There are
various suggestive indications in ADA that he did. I don't doubt
that these curious historical developments* would have appealed
to him.
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* a very short-cut obtained from
an internet site: "When the French Emperor
Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Portugal in 1807, the prince regent decided
to the transfer of the Portuguese court to Brasil. Upon the arrival of the
royal family, the overseas colony became headquarters of the Portuguese
empire.With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Brazil became a kingdom...The former
colony became the seat of the United Kingdom of Portugal and Algarves, with the
offices of public administration located in Rio de
Janeiro.
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