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Re: [NABOKOV-L] Errata & Query
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... Shade is clearly not intended as the sort of poet who seriously strives to "reach the essence of poetry...to enter into communication with supreme Reality"
...Shade's "Two methods of composing*: A, the kind/ Which goes on solely in the poet's mind,/ and B,../ when/ He's in his study writing with a pen. // is the process deeper with no desk/ To prop the false and hoist the poetesque**?/"
JM (counterarguments): 1. SO (119) "John Shade in Pale Fire leads an intense inner existence, far removed from what you call a joke"; SO (18)"some of my more responsible characters are given some of my own ideas. There is John Shade in Pale Fire, the poet. He does borrow some of my own opinions."
Inspite of Nabokov's words, about certain traces shared between him and his character John Shade, we know that "poetry is a tall story" and that Pale Fire is a "good combination" (ie, it contains deception). We also know that Nabokov used the term "double" to indicate that which serves two contrasting uses (bathroom & studio) or else, that Shade was his own cancellation and his own mask..
In my opinion, at certain times, instead of merely considering Kinbote and Shade as representing a single person (or the author) like in the Jekyl&Hyde split, we could admit that Shade, himself, is equally split into an obvious character (provincial poet with a dead daughter and an enterprising wife) and a hidden essential voice (Nabokov's?), whose expression is to be found in combinatorial delights, plexed artistry and styllistic voids or gaps.#
Yesterday I watched a "bizarre fable", dated 1953: "Lili" directed by Charles Walters, with Mel Ferrer and Leslie Caron. (written by Helen Deutsch and Paul Gallico), a puppeteer's various puppets representing various facets of his own personality.
Helen Deutsch (one of the script-writers) has apparently split Dr. Samuel Johnson into "body" and "mystery" (perhaps, as I'm now suggesting, that we could proceed with fictional John Shade himself - but I haven't yet read her 2005 "Loving Dr. Johnson").
...............................
*- RLSK "the heroes of the book are what can be loosely called 'methos of composition'." (distinct from "composing")..."their harmonious fusion will disclose the landscape as I intend you to see it."
** - poetesque/picturesque Cf. SO (311) 'no desk to prop the false and hoist the picturesque'
# - additional elements: poetry as deception; serial selves; "double".. ( found while trying, in vain, to locate the sentence about the audience wearing masks that reproduce VN's face):
1. SO (11-12) "poetry - the tall story had been born in the tall grass" "deception is chess, as in art, is only part of the fame; it's part of the combination... a good combination
should always contain a certain element of deception."
2. SO (24) "People underestimate the power of my imagination and my capacity of evolving serial selves in my writings." Cp. serial selves and Appel's (AL xii/xiii) arguments concerning Lolita and a parody of R.L.Stevenson's Jekyl & Hyde leading to the annotator's conclusion that "The 'serial selves' of Pale Fire 'oustrip' Stevenson and a good many other writers..."
Cf. also xxvi on "all reality is a mask" and the gaps and holes in the narrative, related to Kinbote's words about Shade: "His whole being constituted a mask." or "he was his own cancellation." (suggesting an essence lurking behind the physical world);
3.related to readers: SO (37) "one also needs some reverberation, if not response, and a moderate multiplication of one's self throughout a country or countries"
4. on "doubles": SO (89) "the bathroom doubled as my study. Here is the Doppelgänger theme for you."
5. SO (114) "I write for myself in multiplicate, a not unfamiliar phenomenon on the horizons of shimmering deserts."
6.. Inspiration and two methods of composing: SO (310)"one sees inspiration accompanying the author (...a nubile muse)..One and the same person can compose parts of one and the same story or poem, either in his head or on paper, pencil in hand...Some prefer the bathutub...the place does not matter much, it is the relationship between the brain and the hand that poses some odd problems..." ..."by some mute command the right word flutes and perches on my hand." This is, of course, where inspiration comes in..."
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...Shade's "Two methods of composing*: A, the kind/ Which goes on solely in the poet's mind,/ and B,../ when/ He's in his study writing with a pen. // is the process deeper with no desk/ To prop the false and hoist the poetesque**?/"
JM (counterarguments): 1. SO (119) "John Shade in Pale Fire leads an intense inner existence, far removed from what you call a joke"; SO (18)"some of my more responsible characters are given some of my own ideas. There is John Shade in Pale Fire, the poet. He does borrow some of my own opinions."
Inspite of Nabokov's words, about certain traces shared between him and his character John Shade, we know that "poetry is a tall story" and that Pale Fire is a "good combination" (ie, it contains deception). We also know that Nabokov used the term "double" to indicate that which serves two contrasting uses (bathroom & studio) or else, that Shade was his own cancellation and his own mask..
In my opinion, at certain times, instead of merely considering Kinbote and Shade as representing a single person (or the author) like in the Jekyl&Hyde split, we could admit that Shade, himself, is equally split into an obvious character (provincial poet with a dead daughter and an enterprising wife) and a hidden essential voice (Nabokov's?), whose expression is to be found in combinatorial delights, plexed artistry and styllistic voids or gaps.#
Yesterday I watched a "bizarre fable", dated 1953: "Lili" directed by Charles Walters, with Mel Ferrer and Leslie Caron. (written by Helen Deutsch and Paul Gallico), a puppeteer's various puppets representing various facets of his own personality.
Helen Deutsch (one of the script-writers) has apparently split Dr. Samuel Johnson into "body" and "mystery" (perhaps, as I'm now suggesting, that we could proceed with fictional John Shade himself - but I haven't yet read her 2005 "Loving Dr. Johnson").
...............................
*- RLSK "the heroes of the book are what can be loosely called 'methos of composition'." (distinct from "composing")..."their harmonious fusion will disclose the landscape as I intend you to see it."
** - poetesque/picturesque Cf. SO (311) 'no desk to prop the false and hoist the picturesque'
# - additional elements: poetry as deception; serial selves; "double".. ( found while trying, in vain, to locate the sentence about the audience wearing masks that reproduce VN's face):
1. SO (11-12) "poetry - the tall story had been born in the tall grass" "deception is chess, as in art, is only part of the fame; it's part of the combination... a good combination
should always contain a certain element of deception."
2. SO (24) "People underestimate the power of my imagination and my capacity of evolving serial selves in my writings." Cp. serial selves and Appel's (AL xii/xiii) arguments concerning Lolita and a parody of R.L.Stevenson's Jekyl & Hyde leading to the annotator's conclusion that "The 'serial selves' of Pale Fire 'oustrip' Stevenson and a good many other writers..."
Cf. also xxvi on "all reality is a mask" and the gaps and holes in the narrative, related to Kinbote's words about Shade: "His whole being constituted a mask." or "he was his own cancellation." (suggesting an essence lurking behind the physical world);
3.related to readers: SO (37) "one also needs some reverberation, if not response, and a moderate multiplication of one's self throughout a country or countries"
4. on "doubles": SO (89) "the bathroom doubled as my study. Here is the Doppelgänger theme for you."
5. SO (114) "I write for myself in multiplicate, a not unfamiliar phenomenon on the horizons of shimmering deserts."
6.. Inspiration and two methods of composing: SO (310)"one sees inspiration accompanying the author (...a nubile muse)..One and the same person can compose parts of one and the same story or poem, either in his head or on paper, pencil in hand...Some prefer the bathutub...the place does not matter much, it is the relationship between the brain and the hand that poses some odd problems..." ..."by some mute command the right word flutes and perches on my hand." This is, of course, where inspiration comes in..."
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/