Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0024187, Tue, 7 May 2013 21:46:07 -0400

Subject
THOUGHTS: Kinbote's birthday
Date
Body
Jansy Mello writes:


C.Kunin:"Yes, that's what I was thinking of. Eleven, prepubescent probably.
Sadomasochistic old Maud. No, wait - this was one of his fainting spells.
This may have pre-dated John Shade's unhappy sexual initiation. But, you're
right - it must have been his eleventh birthday when his sexuality and self
were shattered. Happy Birthday to Kinbote."
Jansy Mello: No! I forgot to consider something important in relation to
your theory. Charles Kinbote notes that "are not birthdays mere
conventions? Conventions or not, but it was my birthday too — small
difference of sixteen years, that’s all." Kinbote was not born when Shade
turned 11, but 16 ( in July 5,1915?)


***
Jerry Friedman: "I understand "When I'd just turned eleven" to mean that it
was shortly after his eleventh birthday, not on it.In response to Jansy
Mello, the possible connection between "lemniscate" and the cat's bow is
not based on able topology but plodding etymology. "Lemniscate" is from
Latin "lemniscus", a ribbon, and I assume that in regard to these
figure-eight-shaped curves, it refers to a ribbon tied into a bow".

Jansy Mello: There's exact information about John Shade's actual birthday
in his poem read together with the chronology that Kinbote included in the
foreword and his in commentary *. From the lines referring to when he was
aged eleven, we can only calculate the year (1912) in which he was
traumatized by the thirsty wench. And that was C.K's question, related to
when Shade's double, CK, was born. Right? (that's as far as I can go with
numbers...)

I'm not so certain, now, that the relation between a lemniscate shape and
the etymology for "ribbon" is enough to lead us to conclude it indicates
the bow tied to Goldsworth's cat.

.................................
* Lines 181-2: "Today I’m sixty-one. Waxwings/ Are berry-pecking. A cicada
sings." (Canto Two)
C.Kinbote, Foreword: We possess in result a complete calendar of his work.
Canto One was begun in the small hours of July 2 and completed on July 4.
He started the next canto on his birthday and finished it on July 11.
Another week was devoted to Canto Three. Canto Four was begun on July 19,
and as already noted, the last third of its text (lines 949-999) is
supplied by a Corrected Draft.
C.K note to lines 17 and 29: His (Gradus) departure for Western Europe,
with a sordid purpose in his heart and a loaded gun in his pocket, took
place on the very day that an innocent poet in an innocent land was
beginning Canto Two of Pale Fire.
CK note to line 167: The poet began Canto Two (on his fourteenth card) on
July 5, his sixtieth birthday (see note to line 181, "today"). My slip —
change to sixty-first.
Note to line 181: Namely, July 5, 1959, 6th Sunday after Trinity. Shade
began writing Canto Two "early in the morning" (thus noted at the top of
Card 14). He continued (down to line 208) on and off throughout the day [
]according to my deductions, only two nights had passed since the
three-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-ninth time — but no matter [ ] I am a
very sly Zemblan. Just in case, I had brought with me...So much for John
Shade’s last birthday..

--
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L

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