In a message dated 12/02/2007 03:26:40 GMT Standard Time, jansy@AETERN.US
writes:
VN wrote in Strong Opinions: "I think it is so nice
that the day on which Kinbote committed suicide ( and he certainly did after
putting the last touches to his edition of the poem) happens to be both the
anniversary of Pushkin's Lyceum and that of "poor old man
Swift" 's death, which is new to me ( but see variant in note to line
231). In common with Pushkin, I am fascinated by fatidic dates"
(Vintage, pages 74/75)
Kinbote noted:Among the
names of celebrated poets, painters, philosophers, etc., known to have become
insane or to have sunk into senile imbecility, we find many suitable ones...
Dark, disturbing thoughts. We can be certain Kinbote considered the
omitted name to be his and this means he perceived he
was insane, as
already pointed out, but it also shows that he hoped he'd have
his sanity re-established in the Strange Other World, unless he should suffer
a re-incarnation*.
Still leaning towards the thought that the rejected variants were composed
by Kinbote himself, in order to draw further attention to himself in his
edition, it strikes me that inserting these variants would lengthen the verse
narrative beyond its 999 lines. Of course, Shade might have excised the variants
for this very reason. The return of the ending of the verse to its beginning
does actually echo Finnegans Wake. In the days when I still watched TV,
pre-1980, I once saw Evelyn Waugh remark in an interview that James
Joyce spent his life slowly going completely mad, and that you can see this
quite clearly in his writing; ie Finnegans Wake is the work of a madman, nearing
his end.
Charles