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Fw: [NABOKV-L] Where is Shade writing and looking from?
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GS wrote on my "new query to Lines: 992-994 Where is Shade writing and looking from? " and said that "Shade is sitting in veranda of his house. We should take Kinbote's word on that in commentary to line 991. That is same spot where Shade composed "The Nature of Electricity" and which he described in that little poem... "
George,
I haven't yet followed Don's advice concerning JF's Timeline to Pale Fire, but I'll try to make my initial doubts more clear :
What I meant about Shade's whereabouts is that we only have CK's words that he was sitting (and, perhaps, writing or drinking) in the porch.
You said we could take Kinbote's word on that: why?
Shade himself described how, on the late evening of July 21st, he had placed a book in a shelf, yawned while watching Dr. Sutton's windows glow ( no lights on - in another verse they were, and he saw them close to the "Great Bear" constellation and mentioned cricket sounds during Fall). He then saw Sybil's shadow close to the "phantom swing" at the shagbark tree and heard Balthasar trundling a barrow.
He could have been writing from his study or bedroom, from where he first mused about slain waxwings and created a Winter scene with "chair and bed" standing in the lawn.
In his poem he recreates all the seasons ( I haven't yet checked Spring): Fall for the burning of leaves - rejected cards must have required a different bonfire. Summer. Winter...
While he is writing his other verses in "Pale Fire", but it happens in the present, he hears a cicada sing. Probably not the same that hatched from an "emerald case", but we might have hints to confirm midsummer singing species. I couldn't find the data for that, not sufficient specialized bibliography and confusing entries in the www.
Thank you for the message and the thrilling 666-999 links.
Jansy
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George,
I haven't yet followed Don's advice concerning JF's Timeline to Pale Fire, but I'll try to make my initial doubts more clear :
What I meant about Shade's whereabouts is that we only have CK's words that he was sitting (and, perhaps, writing or drinking) in the porch.
You said we could take Kinbote's word on that: why?
Shade himself described how, on the late evening of July 21st, he had placed a book in a shelf, yawned while watching Dr. Sutton's windows glow ( no lights on - in another verse they were, and he saw them close to the "Great Bear" constellation and mentioned cricket sounds during Fall). He then saw Sybil's shadow close to the "phantom swing" at the shagbark tree and heard Balthasar trundling a barrow.
He could have been writing from his study or bedroom, from where he first mused about slain waxwings and created a Winter scene with "chair and bed" standing in the lawn.
In his poem he recreates all the seasons ( I haven't yet checked Spring): Fall for the burning of leaves - rejected cards must have required a different bonfire. Summer. Winter...
While he is writing his other verses in "Pale Fire", but it happens in the present, he hears a cicada sing. Probably not the same that hatched from an "emerald case", but we might have hints to confirm midsummer singing species. I couldn't find the data for that, not sufficient specialized bibliography and confusing entries in the www.
Thank you for the message and the thrilling 666-999 links.
Jansy
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