Subject
Quality of PF, Botkin in index, CK in New Wye
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Matthew Roth says:
Andrew Brown accuses those of us
who are academics of ignoring his point about
Shade writing in "American," rather than "English." I
must confess that I hadn't remembered him making that
point before. If I *had* remembered it, I would have
agreed with him, though not with his assessment that
the poem is a failure.
It seems to me that if VN wanted us to see Shade's poem
as "miserable," much of the power of the novel is lost.
If CK is violating a bad poem by a bad man, why should
we even care? Isn't some of the tension in the novel
derived from the sense that this is an important poem?
When I asked why Botkin is in the index at all, I was
simply responding to the notion that Kinbote would, at
all costs, hide his identity. I agree with both Don
Johnson (index is VN's device) and Jerry Friedman (index
reveals conflicted CK). I would add, however, that the
index tends to reveal Kinbote's mistakes or omissions,
rather than adding to them--c.f. "K's contribution." It
seems more likely to me that the index is accurate, while
the Commentary contains errors.
JF brings up the interesting question of when exactly CK's
delusion becomes known. Is it true that it's not until May?
This sent me to what now seems more and more to be a key
passage: CK's commentary to Line 894. In this passage, which
takes place in the faculty club, we learn, or reconfirm, a
number of points of evidence which are regularly commissioned
into the service of one theory or another. I'll try to list
them, noting which ones are obviously fabrications:
1. Pictures of the King appeared in America. (False)
2. People often told CK how much he resembled King. (False)
3. German lecturer from Oxford makes same claim. (False)
4. Zembla comes not from Russian zemyla but from Semblerland.
(False, since they could not have been talking about Zembla)
5. Shade says he has seen the king in newsreels. "Resemblances
are the shadows of differences. Different people see different
similarities and similar differences. (False, at least the
part concerning the king.)
6. Netochka says king perished in prison. (False)
7. Shade says he has been said to resemble Samuel Johnson, Exton
man, the hag in the lunchroom, and, we presume, Goldsworth.
8. Pardon says he thinks Kinbote is from Russia and name is
anagram of Botkin or Botkine.
9. Shade says Kinbote is the author of book on surnames. (False
for Kinbote, could be true for Botkin?)
10. Kinbote reveals that he does speak Russian.
11. Emerald comes back with picture of Zemblan king in Encyc-
lopedia. (False)
So it seems to me that almost all of this scene is a clear
fabrication, which must beg the question of the reliability
of the few nuggets which are not demonstrably false. The scene
itself is a fiction, so we should not trust the information we
find here.
A month or two ago, I said that Kinbote claims to teach Zemblan
at Wordsmith. Someone wrote back that there was no evidence of
this. In C.691, Sylvia says, referring to CK, "I wish I could
figure out why anybody should be so keen on teaching Zemblan."
In that same post, I asked what, in fact, Nattochdag teaches,
since he obviously is not the head of the Zemblan department.
Any ideas?
Matthew Roth
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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Andrew Brown accuses those of us
who are academics of ignoring his point about
Shade writing in "American," rather than "English." I
must confess that I hadn't remembered him making that
point before. If I *had* remembered it, I would have
agreed with him, though not with his assessment that
the poem is a failure.
It seems to me that if VN wanted us to see Shade's poem
as "miserable," much of the power of the novel is lost.
If CK is violating a bad poem by a bad man, why should
we even care? Isn't some of the tension in the novel
derived from the sense that this is an important poem?
When I asked why Botkin is in the index at all, I was
simply responding to the notion that Kinbote would, at
all costs, hide his identity. I agree with both Don
Johnson (index is VN's device) and Jerry Friedman (index
reveals conflicted CK). I would add, however, that the
index tends to reveal Kinbote's mistakes or omissions,
rather than adding to them--c.f. "K's contribution." It
seems more likely to me that the index is accurate, while
the Commentary contains errors.
JF brings up the interesting question of when exactly CK's
delusion becomes known. Is it true that it's not until May?
This sent me to what now seems more and more to be a key
passage: CK's commentary to Line 894. In this passage, which
takes place in the faculty club, we learn, or reconfirm, a
number of points of evidence which are regularly commissioned
into the service of one theory or another. I'll try to list
them, noting which ones are obviously fabrications:
1. Pictures of the King appeared in America. (False)
2. People often told CK how much he resembled King. (False)
3. German lecturer from Oxford makes same claim. (False)
4. Zembla comes not from Russian zemyla but from Semblerland.
(False, since they could not have been talking about Zembla)
5. Shade says he has seen the king in newsreels. "Resemblances
are the shadows of differences. Different people see different
similarities and similar differences. (False, at least the
part concerning the king.)
6. Netochka says king perished in prison. (False)
7. Shade says he has been said to resemble Samuel Johnson, Exton
man, the hag in the lunchroom, and, we presume, Goldsworth.
8. Pardon says he thinks Kinbote is from Russia and name is
anagram of Botkin or Botkine.
9. Shade says Kinbote is the author of book on surnames. (False
for Kinbote, could be true for Botkin?)
10. Kinbote reveals that he does speak Russian.
11. Emerald comes back with picture of Zemblan king in Encyc-
lopedia. (False)
So it seems to me that almost all of this scene is a clear
fabrication, which must beg the question of the reliability
of the few nuggets which are not demonstrably false. The scene
itself is a fiction, so we should not trust the information we
find here.
A month or two ago, I said that Kinbote claims to teach Zemblan
at Wordsmith. Someone wrote back that there was no evidence of
this. In C.691, Sylvia says, referring to CK, "I wish I could
figure out why anybody should be so keen on teaching Zemblan."
In that same post, I asked what, in fact, Nattochdag teaches,
since he obviously is not the head of the Zemblan department.
Any ideas?
Matthew Roth
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm