Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023086, Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:47:14 +0100

Subject
Re: Pale Fire Commentary on Line 130
Date
Body
In reply to Jerry Friedman -



The more I think about it, the more interesting it becomes. All of what follows is probably misplaced effort because I am looking for rigorous consistency in the structure of PF, which assumes a flawless author. However meticulous VN might have been in structuring PF, it is conceivable that he may not have been entirely consistent. Even Homer nods, after all.



Kinbote uses American spellings (for example, "theater" - commentary to line 171 - "hospitalization", "nut-colored", "honored" - all from the commentary to line 691 - and "installment" in the commentary to line 697). And, while clearly not fully conversant with everyday Americana - the Chapman's Homer comment is a classic - he does know sufficient American idiom to use "icebox" (commentary to lines 47-48) "flashlight" and "sneakers" (Line 130) "sidewalk" (line 149) and "coed" (691). I'm sure there are many other examples.



Since Charles Xavier had a Scottish tutor (Campbell - called his "English tutor" in the commentary to line 130) one would expect his spelling and usage to be British. And if Kinbote is Charles Xavier one would expect him to use British English spellings and idiom also.



But Botkin is "an American scholar of Russian descent" (Index) so would presumably use American spellings and idiom. Support perhaps for the Botkin=Kinbote idea?



There are however possible inconsistencies. The reference to "cinema picture" (line 171 commentary) does not sound very American to me, but would have been an acceptable, if somewhat formal, usage in Britain in 1959. He uses "torch" (line 130 commentary, but perhaps to avoid repeating "flashlight") and "railway" in the commentary to line 162. Are those words ever used in America to mean "flashlight" and "railroad"?



And in any event this distinction I am drawing in language (between what I would expect Kinbote to use and what is actually used) and my suggestion that this may support the "Botkin-as-commentator" argument doesn't look consistent with the commentator's unfamiliarity with baseball ("Chapman's homer"). Perhaps Botkin is one of the few Americans with zero knowledge of and interest in sport! But if so, why make the comment about football and cricket in line 130.



By the way, I see an echo of the Chapman's homer joke in the commentary to line 691 (near Baltimore, whose oriole is not an oriole) but that is an ornithologically correct statement, I believe, so may have no relevance. American orioles are not related to the European birds of the same name - at least according to Wikipedia.





And I'm a "he", by the way.







Barrie Akin



From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Jerry Friedman
Sent: 19 July 2012 03:53
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Pale Fire Commentary on Line 130



I must admit that, though also "an obsessive reader of PF on and off", I'd never noticed what Barrie Akin points out. First, I agree that it's odd that Kinbote says he "never excelled at cricket", suggesting that he tried it many times (enough to say "never"), even that it was a constant feature of some part of his life. A number of explanations are possible. First, we can try to explain it in terms of Kinbote's story of Zembla:



Maybe Kinbote imagines cricket as being, for some reason, popular in Zembla, at least among the upper classes.



British people on the Continent played cricket during Kinbote's youth, or at least Wikipedia says, "Many cricket clubs [in France] folded after the Second World War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II> ." <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_national_cricket_team#The_modern_era> Maybe the young prince tried to play during his stay in southern Europe after his pneumonia attack, when he was 13 or 14. This can even be elaborated slightly: Maybe Mr. Campbell accompanied him--why wouldn't he?--and introduced him to British expatriates and their sport clubs.



Maybe Kinbote just never mentioned that he had spent some of his childhood in Britain or another cricket-playing country.



We can also try to explain it as Kinbote unintentionally thinking of his "real" youth as Botkin. We can only conjecture where V. Botkin spent his earlier years, but the quality of his English strikes me as consistent with some time in Britain.



Finally, we can explain it by saying it's Kinbote's imperfect English--he meant something like, "I too never excelled at soccer, and I have hardly even played cricket, so I certainly never excelled at that either."



I too enjoyed the connection between the escalier dérobé and the plot to kill the future King Charles in Hernani.



By the way, I referred to Barrie Akin in the third person above, much though I dislike doing so, because it seems to be a common custom if not the editorial policy on this list. In view of that, Barrie might like to let people know whether to use "he" or "she".



Jerry Friedman

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