Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0016164, Wed, 9 Apr 2008 01:22:31 -0300

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Fw: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS / BIB: Cosmology in PF...Shade's birthday
and Atlantic seaboard time.
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[ "Might Nabokov have somehow indicated his authorial place ( at the zenith?) by a peculiar geometrical arrangement of sun, moon and orbiting planet?"]
MR: I believe that Gerard deVries has made this precise argument--that the three main characters are represented by Earth, Sun, and Moon, and together they become Nabokov. This occurs on the evening of Shade's assassination, which deVries has shown was a full moon (but alas, not an eclipse).


Jansy: Matt, thanks for considering my hypothesis and, unfortunately I cannot lay my hands on the De Vries text.
Btw, my answer to your message was a bit hurried and imprecise. You didn't compare the earthshine/ashen-glow with an eclipse.
You simply mentioned the convergence of the three elements ( sun, moon and earth) and an unblemished full moon at the night of the murder.
But why should we believe there are three characters writing Pale Fire together( inspite of what is stated in the Index)?
Gradus is a product of Kinbote's imagination and if Shade really dies we only need two writer-characters.

The moment when Shade started to set down the poem then linked to his fate was after Canto II , when Gradus started to move towards him.
Gradus' movements in synchronization with Shade's poem only started on July 5th, 1959, the 6th Sunday after Trinity (?).
Did anything untoward happen at Shade's birthday party that sealed his destiny? Uninvited Kinbote was frustrated and angry. Was Sybil also offended by something her husband said or did?

Shade began Canto II in the early hours of July 5, in New Wye and Gradus left the "other hemisphere" at noon (Atlantic seabord time...?).
Why would Shade meet Gradus "three weeks later". From July 5 to July 21 we count 16 days. What three weeks are those Kinbote refers to?
What is "ATLANTIC SEABOARD TIME"?
(I'm sorry if my questions have already been answered somewhere else. I could not access the necessary bibliography.)

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