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Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] M. Maar's "Speak, Nabokov"
Philip
Klop:Die Schöne Böse Welt refers
to the German expression Die große böse Welt which means
something akin to "The big and dangerous world" or "The big and evil
world". The expression stems from children's literature and is used
when a small child is exposed to the overwhelmingly big outside world;
thus stressing some sort of clash between the small, good child in his
safe home and the big, evil and dangerous world awaiting him outside.
Anthony Stadlen: Surely, in
ordinary English, "the big bad world"
JM: I don't think
this is the meaning Maar intended for he indicated that it was not the
dangerous external world but the world (or worlds) engendered by
Nabokov. I doubt that there are "small, good readers in their safe
homes" left to confront Nabokovian "beauteous and evil dangers"!
Koen Vanhervegen:
"HH and Lolita visit his log cabin in one of the three first chapters
of part 2."
JM: Thank you for
the indication, it made it easier to locate the direct references (a) "A granite obelisk commemorating the Battle of Blue
Licks, with old bones and Indian pottery in the museum nearby, Lo a
dime, very reasonable. The present log cabin boldly simulating the past
log cabin where Lincoln
was born..."; (b) "A motel whose ventilator pipe passed under the city
sewer. Lincoln's
home, largely spurious, with parlor books and period furniture that
most visitors reverently accepted as personal belongings." Concerning
the Gettysburg address which I associated to some specific Nabokovian
mention, I wonder if anyone can provide more information about the
date in which Nabokov translated his speech into the Russian and where
was it published.
Wiki
stresses that "In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of
human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and
redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as
'a new birth of freedom' that would bring true equality to all of its
citizens, and that would also create a unified nation in which states'
rights were no longer dominant.... to exhort the listeners to ensure
the survival of America's representative democracy, that the
'government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth'."
The date ( November 19, 1863) antecedes of a hundred years, almost to
the day, JFK"s assassination in Dallas (Nov.22,1963), something Nabokov
would have ignored at the time he wrote Lolita and Pale Fire but not
when writing ADA.