NPPF - Incest theme

[David Morris]

--- The Great Quail <quail at libyrinth.com> wrote:
> Keith's observation:
> 
> >>                       Espied on a pine's bark.
> >>   As we were walking home the day she died,
> >>   An empty emerald case, squat and frog-eyed,
> >>   Hugging the trunk; and its companion piece,
> >>   A gum-logged ant. (235-40)
> >> 
> >>   Aunt Maud = a 'gum'-logged aunt.
> >> 
> >>   Ant = insect
> >>   Aunt = incest
> 
> This recalls "Finnegans Wake," as well, with the "insectuous longing" felt
> by HCE for his daughter, Issy. And of course, even though Kinbote mangles
> the spelling, the book is referenced by Nabokov in the text. (Though IFRC,
> Nabokov disliked the Wake...?)

And as Ms. Kunin has already noted, the insect/incest word play is explicitly
used by Van Veen in "Ada" because his lover/sister is an avid insect
collector/scholar.

DM

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