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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Nabokov the Butterfly Man.

I know that my interests are infuriatingly esoteric in nature, but that can't be helped. My brain is a beehive of useless information which isn't, I suppose, strictly useless, if it enriches your life in some way. For instance, this morning I was enthralled by this piece in the NY Times about author Vladimir Nabokov's interest in all things lepidoptrous. Most especially his specialty, the Polyommatus Blues, a gorgeous pale blue butterfly. It appears that a scientific theory which he held way back when in the 1970's (a theory that was scoffed at) has finally been vindicated.

I didn't know that the author of LOLITA and PALE FIRE and other literary classics was the Curator of Lepitoptera at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Did you?

2 comments:

  1. What a life the russian Reveloution, and then
    the nazi's >> Look what he became. very interesting..
    He doesn't sound like a man that could write Lolita.

    yvonne

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, it's so interesting to read about some authors' lives. He must have been a very brilliant man. Science on the one side and creative invention on the other.

    ReplyDelete

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