Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0020088, Sat, 22 May 2010 18:02:23 -0400

Subject
Anticlimactic afterthoughts on Canto 4
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Kerri Pierce's observation of the "missing" line as Kinbote's "way in" neatly compensates the added escape square which affords Kinbote a "way out": King Alfin's old flame Iris Acht (d. 1888), may be seen as translating to Iris Eight, i.e., i8 (or eye-8), in chess notation referring to a square just off the 8x8 board (which only goes up to h8); her irisated photograph hangs above the trapdoor escape that King Charles/Kinbote ("a king-in-the-corner waiter of the solus rex type") uses to evade capture.



Simon Rowberry's observation vis-avis "The Nature of Electricity" provides another clue, though possibly a dead end: This friend numbered 999 may appear in the same-numbered line; not the neighbor's gardener (prior line), but, perhaps, so much depends upon an empty barrow ... (sufficit huic tumulus, cui non suffecerit orbis.)



Best, Dave Haan



[Simon Rowberry sends the following. -- SES]



Kerri Pierce said:

'I believe you also have to look at the function the missing last line fulfills in the novel as a whole. Namely, it allows Kinbote a "way in."'



Doesn't the commentary as a whole, misrepresenting the poem, allow Kinbote a "way in", rather than his suggestion of a final line?

[snip]

As far as Shade's intentions for conclusions, the couplet, 'Man's life as commentary to

abstruse/Unfinished poem. Note for further use' and the mention of 999 as a friend in Shade's poem 'The Nature of Electricity' suggest that, as some people have argued, the poem is intentionally left incomplete.



Best,

Simon

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