JM: I selected two excerpts from your delectable
article, related to items which might (or might not) be worth inquiring
into:
1. "...and the Russian ‘zayats’ (hare) sounds like ‘Seitz’ (the German
gynecologist); there is a Latin ‘cuniculus’ in ‘Niculin’ (‘grandson of the great
rodentiologist Kunikulinov’), and a Greek ‘lagos’ in ‘Lagosse’ (the
doctor who attends Van in his old age). Note also Coniglietto, the Italian
cancer-of-the-blood specialist.”
2. "There are no flying islands in Jules
Verne (the author of The Mysterious Island, 1874), but there is Laputa, the
Flying Island, in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726). In Ada, Laputa
is a freight airplane on which Ada’s two maids fly over from America to
Europe with Ada’s trunks (Part Four). As to Swift’s hero (who is a naval
surgeon), Van mentions him, along with a fat little Russian encyclopedia and
guba, describing his and Ada’s kissing phase ..."
The questions:
'. You
conected the name Lagosse, thru V.D, to "lagos" (Greek). In French, a young
kid is "un gosse" and I wonder if this meaning was ambiguously
intended by senescent Van's doctor's
name, "La-gosse."
2. Swift's "Laputa" (and
Lilliput) might not be maliciously considered but, in Van's
mind, another meaning may have been accrued to Ada's kissing
phase in "La-puta" (in Portuguese and in Spanish,
"puta" indicates a prostitute)
Thank you for the link, your article is
extremely rich with associations, information and links to literature and
words.