Subject
Re: from Ron Rosenbaum re VN's own words about the <Pale Fire>
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In a message dated 8/10/2010 2:52:14 PM Central Daylight Time,
nabokv-l@UTK.EDU writes:
>
> Concerning Nabokov's own words on Pale Fire, I think it is important to
> consider the fact he made
> (at least) three statements on his intentions:
>
> 1. Mentioning 'the day on which Kinbote committed suicide (and he
> certainly did after putting the
> last touches to his edition to the poem)' to Alfred Appel Jr. in Wisconsin
> Studies in Contemporary
> Literature (1967)
>
> As well as the two other statements discussed previously:
>
> 2. ‘I wonder if any reader will notice... that the nasty commentator is
> not an ex-king and not even
> Dr. Kinbote, but Prof. Vseslav Botkin, a Russian and a madman’ from his
> diary in 1962
>
> 3. The insertion, and subsequent deletion, of poetry attributed to John
> Shade in Nabokov's draft of
> his revised Speak, Memory, which has used as evidence for the Shadean
> school of interpretation,
> from a similar time period.
>
> These statements contradict each other, if Kinbote indeed is real enough
> to be 'the nasty
> commentator' and commit suicide, John Shade could not have constructed
> him, which would be
> the logical conclusion if Shade has constructed the index, as indiciated
> by the Nabokov's insertion
> to Speak, Memory. Thus, we are left with two main options as to the
> meaning of this shift in
> interpretation (interpretation, I would stress, is the key word here.
> There is no correct 'solution' to
> the novel, as it is not an empirical problem but a work of art, only
> interpretations).
>
> Firstly, Nabokov may have had a Boydian change of mind about the
> intricacies of Pale Fire, and
> decided to join the emerging Shadeans. I believe the dates do not match up
> for this, which leads
> me to a second conclusion: Nabokov had intended for the novel to be
> re-read and scanned for
> clues (hence the hypertextual format of the text), and probably had a few
> psuedo-solutions for
> the reader to find (most likely that Kinbote was Botkin), but then the
> novel showed hidden depths
> that Nabokov had not considered, which led to these contradictory
> statements.
>
> The fact that Pale Fire veered out of Nabokov's control is not
> undesirable, however, as it has
> allowed the novel to remain exciting and relevant to this day, with new
> theories being developed
> regularly, even if one will inevitably disagree with at least half of
> them.
>
> Thus, I would advise with taking Nabokov's words on 'solutions' to Pale
> Fire with a pinch of salt,
> since the novel has arguably developed into a more organic novel, than the
> sterile artifact it would
> have become if Nabokov's statements would have become canon.
>
> Best,
> Simon Rowberry
>
Nabokov was capable of making mistakes, like any other writer. Some
possibilities relating to your three points.
1. VN said that Kinbote committed suicide after completing the Foreword.
But the Index (which is clearly the work of CK) refers to events in the
Foreword and seems to have been completed last.
2. This has caused lots of problems, but I find none here. VN's textual
clues (both in the Commentary and Index) point us toward V. Botkin.
3. Is it possible that VN planned an Index (with similarly intriguing
"clues") for the revised edition of S,M but didn't follow through? Could he
have put on the persona of Shade to say this in his diary? Or could the
(posthumously speaking, in VN's impersonation) Shade have been referring to "my"
in the sense that, after all, the so-called publication of Pale Fire was
supposed to be an edition of the poem (with Foreword, Commentary, and Index)
by JS, with CK serving as editor. Let's suppose say that Eliot had allowed a
scholarly edition on Four Quartets, with the same kind of scholarly
"apparatus" as Pale Fire, to be published, and then had referred to a section of
that work as "my" Index. That is, the index to my poem. The deletion of this
by VN may have been a belated acknowledgment that he'd made an error.
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nabokv-l@UTK.EDU writes:
>
> Concerning Nabokov's own words on Pale Fire, I think it is important to
> consider the fact he made
> (at least) three statements on his intentions:
>
> 1. Mentioning 'the day on which Kinbote committed suicide (and he
> certainly did after putting the
> last touches to his edition to the poem)' to Alfred Appel Jr. in Wisconsin
> Studies in Contemporary
> Literature (1967)
>
> As well as the two other statements discussed previously:
>
> 2. ‘I wonder if any reader will notice... that the nasty commentator is
> not an ex-king and not even
> Dr. Kinbote, but Prof. Vseslav Botkin, a Russian and a madman’ from his
> diary in 1962
>
> 3. The insertion, and subsequent deletion, of poetry attributed to John
> Shade in Nabokov's draft of
> his revised Speak, Memory, which has used as evidence for the Shadean
> school of interpretation,
> from a similar time period.
>
> These statements contradict each other, if Kinbote indeed is real enough
> to be 'the nasty
> commentator' and commit suicide, John Shade could not have constructed
> him, which would be
> the logical conclusion if Shade has constructed the index, as indiciated
> by the Nabokov's insertion
> to Speak, Memory. Thus, we are left with two main options as to the
> meaning of this shift in
> interpretation (interpretation, I would stress, is the key word here.
> There is no correct 'solution' to
> the novel, as it is not an empirical problem but a work of art, only
> interpretations).
>
> Firstly, Nabokov may have had a Boydian change of mind about the
> intricacies of Pale Fire, and
> decided to join the emerging Shadeans. I believe the dates do not match up
> for this, which leads
> me to a second conclusion: Nabokov had intended for the novel to be
> re-read and scanned for
> clues (hence the hypertextual format of the text), and probably had a few
> psuedo-solutions for
> the reader to find (most likely that Kinbote was Botkin), but then the
> novel showed hidden depths
> that Nabokov had not considered, which led to these contradictory
> statements.
>
> The fact that Pale Fire veered out of Nabokov's control is not
> undesirable, however, as it has
> allowed the novel to remain exciting and relevant to this day, with new
> theories being developed
> regularly, even if one will inevitably disagree with at least half of
> them.
>
> Thus, I would advise with taking Nabokov's words on 'solutions' to Pale
> Fire with a pinch of salt,
> since the novel has arguably developed into a more organic novel, than the
> sterile artifact it would
> have become if Nabokov's statements would have become canon.
>
> Best,
> Simon Rowberry
>
Nabokov was capable of making mistakes, like any other writer. Some
possibilities relating to your three points.
1. VN said that Kinbote committed suicide after completing the Foreword.
But the Index (which is clearly the work of CK) refers to events in the
Foreword and seems to have been completed last.
2. This has caused lots of problems, but I find none here. VN's textual
clues (both in the Commentary and Index) point us toward V. Botkin.
3. Is it possible that VN planned an Index (with similarly intriguing
"clues") for the revised edition of S,M but didn't follow through? Could he
have put on the persona of Shade to say this in his diary? Or could the
(posthumously speaking, in VN's impersonation) Shade have been referring to "my"
in the sense that, after all, the so-called publication of Pale Fire was
supposed to be an edition of the poem (with Foreword, Commentary, and Index)
by JS, with CK serving as editor. Let's suppose say that Eliot had allowed a
scholarly edition on Four Quartets, with the same kind of scholarly
"apparatus" as Pale Fire, to be published, and then had referred to a section of
that work as "my" Index. That is, the index to my poem. The deletion of this
by VN may have been a belated acknowledgment that he'd made an error.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/