I am done with my Pale Fire frenzy, officially. I had intended to post this last little smidgen over the weekend, but the location of my book (locked in my office, next to my keys) precluded it. Read on below the fold and you will see the how deliciously apropos that is of the subject matter.
Alfin the Vague (1873-1918; regnal dates 1900-1918, but 1900-1919 in most biographical dictionaries, a fumble due to the coincident calendar change from Old Style to New) was given his cognomen by Amphitheatricus, a not unkindly writer of fugitive poetry in the liberal gazettes. King Alfin’s absent-mindedness knew no bounds. He was a wretched linguist having at his disposal only a few phrases of French and Danish, but every time he had to make a speech to his subjects — to a group of gaping Zemblan locals in some remote valley where he had crash landed — some uncontrollable switch went into action in his mind, and he reverted to those phrases, flavoring them for topical sense with a little Latin. Most of the anecdotes relating to his naïve fits of abstraction are too silly and indecent to sully these pages, but one of them that I do not think especially funny induced such guffaws from Shade (and returned to me, via the Common Room, with such obscene accretions) that I feel inclined to give here as a sample (and as a corrective). One summer before the first world war, when the emperor of a great foreign realm, (I realize how few there are to choose from) was paying an extremely unusual and flattering visit to our little hard country, my father took him and a young Zemblan interpreter (whose sex I leave open) in a newly purchased custom-built car on a jaunt in the countryside. As usual, King Alfin traveled without a vestige of escort, and this, and his brisk driving, seemed to trouble his guest. On their way back, some twenty miles from Onhava, King Alfin decided to stop for repairs. While he tinkered with the motor, the emperor and the interpreter sought the shade of some pines by the highway, and only when King Alfin was back in Onhava, did he gradually realize from a reiteration of rather frantic questions that he had left somebody behind (”What emperor?” has remained his only memorable mot). Generally speaking, in respect to any of my contributions (or what I thought to be contributions) I repeatedly enjoined my poet to record them in writing, by all means, but not to spread them in idle speech; even poets, however, are human.
–C. Kinbote, 1959
Given VN’s penchant for anagrams, is “Alfin” Zemblan for Anglo-Saxon “final”? Or for Italian “al fin”? Perhaps its true etymon is, in fact, ”laughing”, as in “laffin’ “?
Oh, I see we’ve changed the Fregean description that identified the mistress of this blog. What happened to the hellish verbing of our nouns?
I thought it was similar to elfin: atually, the Zemblans have a word for the pathological fear of elves: alfear.
As for the hellish verbing, I needed a break. And a cigarette. One always needs a cigarette after a good verbing. The new phrase up there? I wonder if anyone will get it.
Now I am going to get thousands of google hits from people looking for “pathological fear of elves.”
I feel you, people, I really do.
vague: Tiddlywinks!
DesArgues: I’m not finished with you yet! :) However, I need some time as I have become busy with some other pressing work at the moment…
Anti-Brain: as the retarded quarterback extraordinaire from Crawford, TX used to say, “Bring it on!”
We’re all swamped by pressing work; but take your time, my patience could rival a Zen master’s.
Tiddlywinks?
Yes, in reference to “keep at it or wink it”. To “wink it” refers to the game of tiddlywinks.
Clearly I did not understand…
Crud.
Oh, huh. I don’t remember much about that game. Needless to say, that’s not it. It might help saying it aloud. It’s kind of a trick.
ok. i’ve been saying it out loud over and over. and i still don’t get it, dammit.
As in “Keypad it or ink it”?
My office mates are beginning to stare at me wondering why I am repeating this strange phrase…
Oh, I’ll put the answer up later…like next week-ish. Hee hee.