venus febriculosa

First, perhaps, a word about the name of this blog, which appears in the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.  Alfred Appel, Jr. , in his indispensible The Annotated Lolita  defines it simply as Latin for “slightly feverish Venus.” It refers, of course, to Lolita herself, at this point in the book sick in bed, quite literally with a fever. Later, Humbert tells us, “I definitely realized…how much she looked – had always looked – like Botticelli’s Venus – the same soft nose, the same blurred beauty.”  Beyond the pseudo-scientific terminology, there is something thrilling about the notion of a slightly feverish Venus, a disruption of the placidity in Botticelli’s painting, a hint of an unraveling, a loss control.

I like reading. I enjoy Nabokov. I savor interesting words.