Difference between revisions of "Chapter 6"

Revision as of 09:45, 25 July 2024

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

If your edition has 183 pages, follow the pages marked a:

If your edition has 152 pages, follow b:

a: ???, b: 120 - Humbert Humbert
Humbert Humbert is the narrator and main character in Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" (1955)[1]

15 cent Columbian Exposition Issue, 1893

3 cent Mothers of America Issue, 1934

Postage Stamp Centenary Issue, 1947

3 cent Statue of Liberty, 1954

3 cent Brussels Exhibition Issue, 1958

b: 121 - eight-year-old
Why does Serge choose eight? Anything below 13 would probably be equally shocking. Numerology might give clues. For instance there are 8 Jungian cognitive functions; Timothy Leary identified 8 levels of consciousness; a byte is 8 bits; V8 is an automobile engine with 8 cilanders and also a vegetable juice drink.[2]

b: 123 - riparian
Relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse.[3]

b: 124 - Bowdlerized
Thomas Bowdler published a version of Shakespeare that removed profanity and sexual references in an effort to be more appropriate for audiences of his time. Since then, the term 'bowdlerize' generally refers to censorship of offensive material from artistic works.[4]

a: 151, b: 124 - K. da chingado
Chingado is Spanish slang meaning "fucker."[5]

b: 126 - taken a Brody
Steve Brodie [sic] was a New York City bookie who claimed to have survived the 135 foot jump from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886. The notoriety surrounding this story is the source of phrases such as "pull a Brodie" or "take a Brodie." As Driblette's walk into the Pacific was fatal and did not include a fall from a great height, Oedipa's appropriation of the expression is forced at best.

b: 127 - poetaster
An inferior poet; a writer of insignificant or shoddy poetry.