Magic Words & Symbols Spotted in the Wild

Fiction / Magic

Vladimir Nabokov's word for fiction was magic, and he called the library "that citadel of illusion" (New York Times).

Kzspygv

Kzspygv is the word for rainbow in Vladimir Nabokov's private language of synesthesia (as discussed in Speak: Memory, revised edition, 1967).

(Strange rainbow photo by ZeePack.)

The Power, the Magic, and the Mystery of the Word

"Opening it entirely at random -- to any page, any paragraph, any sentence -- I feel at once in the presence of the miraculous, awakened once again to the power, the magic and the mystery of the word." —Jonathan Yardley, describing Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory.