One last remark concerning Chose, Van's University, and Khan
Sosso, the ruler of the Golden Horde:
The names of two University Professors mentioned in Ada
(1.3), Paar of Chose and Zapater* of Aardvark, bring to
mind Akakiy Akakievich Bashmachkin, the pathetic hero of Gogol's story
Shinel' (The Overcoat, 1842): "His family name was
Bashmachkin. This name is evidently derived from "bashmak"** (shoe); but when,
at what time, and in what manner, is not known." Bashmachkin's first name could have been Sossiy: "They [the child's
god-parents] offered the mother her choice of three names, Mokiy, Sossiy, or
that the child should be called after the martyr Khozdazat."
Note that Van wears shinel' as
he meets his father at the Goodson Airport (2.1):
'Why gray?' asked Demon, alluding to Van's
overcoat. 'Why that military cut? It's too late to enlist.'
'I couldn't - my draft board would turn me
down anyway.'
It is Percy de Prey, Van's rival, who goes to the war and gets
killed by an old Tartar (1.42). Percy is described as a
stoutish, foppish, baldish young man (1.31).
Now, Gogol's Akakiy is neskol'ko
ryabovat, neskol'ko ryzhevat, neskol'ko na vid dazhe podslepovat, s nebol'shoy
lysinoy na lbu (somewhat pock-marked,
red-haired, and short-sighted, with a bald
forehead).
Akakiy Akakievich and veshchi (things; les
choses) are paired in VN's poem Slava (Fame,
1942):
Есть вещи, вещи,
которые... даже... (Акакий Акакиевич
любил,
если помните, "плевелы речи",
и он как Наречье, мой гость
восковой)***
re plevely rechi (the weeds of speech)
and Narech'e (adverb): "It must be known that Akakiy Akakievich
expressed himself chiefly by prepositions, adverbs, and scraps of phrases which
had no meaning whatever."
*zapatero - Sp., shoemaker
**like bashka (head), bashmak is a
Tatar word
***for translation see Poems and
Problems
Alexey Sklyarenko