Nabokov and Pynchon

[Andrew Dinn]

Jeoffrey Bull writes:

> My first encounter with ADA and its author's love for the letter V
> (not unexpected in one named Vladimir Vladmirovich) has me interested
> in connections between Mr. Nabokov and his famous student, TRP.  Does
> anyone know of--or can anyone recommend--any scholarly discussions of
> connections between their novels?

The 1990-91 (or 1991-92?) edition of Pynchon Notes commences with a
limited biography of Pynchon which mentions connections between their
lives - Pynchon was at Cornell when Nabokov was lecturing. Name and
author escape me just now but I will endeavour to look them up.

I thought that Vivian Bloodmark was actually Dimitriovich, not
Vladirimovich, so VV is merely Van Veen, not VD (though Van *is*
either Danielovitch or Dementiovitch...). And again, the choice of Ada
and Van as hero(in)es manifests a twinned passion for both V and A,
not just V alone. Nabokov's Terra/Anti-Terra is both America and
Anti-America as well as Europe and Anti-Europe. Perhaps one could
consider the intercontinental paths linking Old and New Worlds as
geodesics which Pynchon and Nabokov both travel, each from their
opposite starting point.


Andrew Dinn
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there is no map / and a compass / wouldn't help at all