For readers of this blog (and there are now over 1,000/day according to Webalizer) who might appreciate some linguistic byplay from Y-H-B’s novel, here is an excerpt:
“2. Why Did I Say Devilishly And Not Fiendishly?
Why did I say devilishly and not fiendishly, or demonically or diabolically? Why tricky, not intricate or difficult? Why does Nabokov write phocine instead of seal-like? Knee-jerk predilection for the highfalutin Graeco-Roman, avoidance of the geminately hinged Germanic? Parading his command of English, reaching sideways for recondite vocabulary like the wall-eyed Harvard professor who instructs the fair-haired grad student on how to get buzzed into his aerie on Mass Ave with his aporetic “Ring the bell, I open, and you penetrate.” The Russian exiles who war with each other in their prerevolutionary idiolects but know their adopted language better than the aborigenes.”
I trust this snippet will impel some of you to delve into the entire fiction for other exempla of language used playfully.
MICHAEL SHAPIRO
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