Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014129, Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:09:51 -0500

Subject
JF on Botkin in PF index and as Wordsmith faculty member
From
Date
Body
I asked on alt.usage.english whether "American of Russian
descent" could refer to an immigrant. Two of seven people
thought that someone who had arrived recently enough to say
"You are telling me!" (n. 385-386; the idiomatic form, for
anyone here not comfortable with American idioms, is "You're
telling me!") could be called an "American scholar of Russian
descent". Two people thought he could have arrived in America
while an infant. Three thought he couldn't have been born in
Russia, one of whom said even his parents couldn't have been
born in Russia; the immigrants had to be his grandparents or
earlier ancestors. So generally people agreed with Matt (as I
do) that "of Russian descent" doesn't refer to an adult
immigrant. On the other hand, the distinction is subtle and
could be one of Kinbote's false notes in English, like "quipped
I."

Why would Kinbote list Botkin but then try to hide the connection?
We might ask why he invents variants and then lists them as "K.'s
contribution". He seems to have some conflicts between secrecy
and boasting (conveniently for the author and readers, since
neither undetectable schemes nor obvious ones are any fun).

This may also be connected with his denial that Botkin was in
the Russian department (though I suspect he was in that
department at least at one time because he almost shows some
sympathy for its "underlings", though sympathy for groups that
don't include himself is out of his character). Kinbote may be
trying to misdirect us away from Botkin's (his own) Russian origin.
I just read an interesting article by W. W. Rowe on Nabokov and his
characters saying things that are literally true but misleading.

I was thinking about another question that Matt Roth and others
(including me) have raised about Kinbote as Botkin, namely, how
does he keep his job? I finally realized it's quite possible
that no one knows about his delusions until May, when he starts
talking to Shade about them. The student skit on him doesn't
touch on delusions, and the clubwoman's insult doesn't come till
July (both in the forward). Maybe all anyone knows is that he
changed his name from Botkin to Kinbote, which is eccentric but
not grounds for dismissal. Kinbote says in the forward that
two trustees and the college president knew he was King Charles,
but that looks like part of the Zembla story--how the king became
Kinbote--so I don't think we have to take it seriously.

(By the way, Kinbote mentions faculty privileges such as going to
the Faculty Club and the swimming pool, but I don't think he ever
once mentions teaching.)

Jerry Friedman

Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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