Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0020456, Wed, 4 Aug 2010 18:41:16 -0300

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Re: from Ron Rosenbaum re "Pale Fire" & EDNote
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Ron Rosenbaum addresses B.Boyd, and the List: " Is he then, elephant and starfish aside, still willing to assert that he believes the poem "Pale Fire" was meant by VN to be taken as written by the ghost of John Shade's dead daughter? I think this is an important question for the foremost Nabokov biographer to help us clear up[...] And I'd be interested to see if anyone else on the list subscribes to this theory of the poem's authorship. "

JM: There's fiction's fiction - otherwise we all know that even a perturbed Hazel has been authored by Nabokov ( so, why not her ghost?).
I think it perfectly valid to consider that, in one level (ie: of the plot, as concocted by Kinbote, namely, the novel itself) it was Hazel who inspired Shade's hand.
I don't subscribe to this theory ( actually, for me it is easier to believe in fairies and nymphets, than ethereal ghosts), but I don't see why this idea clashes with any subsequent arguments about Nabokov's authorship of the poem taken in isolation.

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