lepidoptera dreams

I have often dreamt of a long and exciting career as an obscure curator of lepidoptera in a great museum.

Vladimir Nabokov in an interview in 1964, referring to his scientific passion for butterflies, and quoted today in a story about «The Nabokov Code», an exhibition in St. Petersburg that looks at Nabakov's work in the context of his entymological pursuits.

Should I take comfort -- or despair -- in the thought that even Nabokov wanted to be something else when he grew up?

For what's its worth -- according to the article -- Nabokov worked in his desired capacity at Harvard for awhile, reclassifying the Lycaeides genus, which earned him a mention in the 1951 «Field Guide to the Butterflies of North America».

(Here's a link to the St. Petersburg show -- but heaven knows I wasn't able to get it to load.)