-------- Original Message --------
Jerry,
You asked whether or not VN's parodies ever employ "bad writing" in
something the length of "PF." I say yes...and no. You could argue that
Despair is a whole novel of "bad writing." Hermann thinks he is a
masterful storyteller, but his narrative is constantly escaping his
control. So we could say that the book as a whole is a parody of the
solipsistic artist, or the artist who can't tell art from life, as some
have put it. Likewise, Kinbote's commentary is "bad writing" in the
sense that, like Hermann's tale, it has escaped his own intentions, as
well as our readerly expectations for scholarly work. In both cases,
however, this "bad writing" is brilliantly written! It's VN's greatest
trick, in my opinion. But if "PF" is a parody (I don't think it is)
then it is of a different order. Instead of the wildly entertaining
parodies we get in the works of Hermann and Kinbote, we get a 999-line
poem that is...what exactly? Plodding? Mildly dull? Clunky? VN loves to
show us bad writi!
ng, but he never does so without making us laugh. If, as BB argues, VN
was in competition with Eliot's Four Quartets, I think he lost the
fight, but I think the poem is still a great accomplishment on its own,
and it's even more brilliant in the context of the whole novel.
Those who wonder whether VN contemplated publishing the poem separately
should know that he did try to sell it to Esquire, prior to the
publication of the novel. Esquire turned him down, saying that they
didn't publish poetry.
Best,
Matt