Subject
FW: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Where is Shade writing and looking
from?
from?
From
Date
Body
> You said we could take Kinbote's word on that: why?
By questioning everything that Kinbote says we make out of PF what it is
not: grandeur puzzle of who wrote this or that part instead of what VN
wanted to convey to reader (to me). If it were all about authorship then the
game of whom we should believe and whom we should question could be played.
My problem is that when I play it in honest with pursuers of authorship
theory, my impression of PF quickly becomes fragmented and looses wings. And
that I can't accept.
If we stop taking authorship game for granted then everything changes.
Certain things that Kinbote says can be questioned but only when
contradicted by novel's text directly, without imposing this or that reader
into inference. Burden of proof then is on a questioner of Kinbote/Botkin's
word. And until the convincing proof from the novel is presented we should
stop downgrading that Russian scholar - an easy target, isn't he? After all,
in that novel, in that New Wye, it is Vseslav who invented Zembla.
- George
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of jansymello
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 6:04 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Where is Shade writing and looking from?
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
Search <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html> the Nabokv-L
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By questioning everything that Kinbote says we make out of PF what it is
not: grandeur puzzle of who wrote this or that part instead of what VN
wanted to convey to reader (to me). If it were all about authorship then the
game of whom we should believe and whom we should question could be played.
My problem is that when I play it in honest with pursuers of authorship
theory, my impression of PF quickly becomes fragmented and looses wings. And
that I can't accept.
If we stop taking authorship game for granted then everything changes.
Certain things that Kinbote says can be questioned but only when
contradicted by novel's text directly, without imposing this or that reader
into inference. Burden of proof then is on a questioner of Kinbote/Botkin's
word. And until the convincing proof from the novel is presented we should
stop downgrading that Russian scholar - an easy target, isn't he? After all,
in that novel, in that New Wye, it is Vseslav who invented Zembla.
- George
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of jansymello
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 6:04 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Where is Shade writing and looking from?
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
Search <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html> the Nabokv-L
archive at UCSB
Contact <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> the Editors
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
Visit Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
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