Subject
THOUGHT: revising revisited in Canto 4
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On May 4, 2010, at 9:50 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> [quoting Lipon:]
> If one accepts that Shade has lost his train of thought ... then the
> reader may well wonder why ... doesn't Shade just revise and smooth
> things out? Partly he knows his time is slipping away fast and there
> is no longer any time for editing. But partly too because he is
> changing into Kinbote. Kinbote ... never revises.
>
> Or he's working on the first draft and intends to revise later, not
> suspecting anything will prevent him.
I honestly hadn't considered the idea that the poem is still
undergoing revision. Thanks for pointing that out.
The thoughtful reader is then presented with two interpretation: Shade
was cut down, more or less, in the act of revision. Or, Shade stopped
revising out of a flagging ability to revise and a premonition of
impending doom. Pure logic wouldn't seem to favor one reading over the
other, however I would argue that if there are sufficient other signs
indicating mental instability then the reader ought to favor a reading
that is consonant with these other signs.
Also one might argue that the second reading provides more significant
content to the story line than does the simple notion that Shade was
still editing his work when he expired, although, admittedly, this
might be cited as evidence that the poem is incomplete, in its final
line; which seems to be important to some readers but not, so far,
for me.
Shade's madness in Canto 4 shouldn't seem that preposterous when one
considers that VN used madness, coupled with death, to finish off Krug
at the end of the novel Bend Sinister.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Also on May 4, 2010, at 9:50 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>
> [quoting Lipon:]
> Shade begins the final canto with great resolve, promising great
> insight. The lines are though a grotesque overstatement of resolve.
> The grandiosity is itself symptomatic of mental illness. The belief
> that one possesses insights unavailable to others is both grandiose
> and pathological.
>
> They're not unavailable to anyone else. The person I know of who
> had the most similar ideas was James Branch Cabell, who I've
> mentioned before, but doubtless there's a history of beliefs like
> Shade's, not that he seems to know it.
>
You have a point. Perhaps the sentence should be amended to read: The
belief that one possesses insights about life [and the cosmos]
unknown to others is both grandiose and pathological. (Looked up
Cabell in Wikipedia. Interesting, but not enough to comment-upon.)
Perhaps the issue here isn't the beliefs, the doctrine of plexed
artistry, I'm assuming, but the way in which they're upheld, and
subsequently go unexplained or developed in Canto 4.
Grandiosely yours (as usual),
–GSL
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> [quoting Lipon:]
> If one accepts that Shade has lost his train of thought ... then the
> reader may well wonder why ... doesn't Shade just revise and smooth
> things out? Partly he knows his time is slipping away fast and there
> is no longer any time for editing. But partly too because he is
> changing into Kinbote. Kinbote ... never revises.
>
> Or he's working on the first draft and intends to revise later, not
> suspecting anything will prevent him.
I honestly hadn't considered the idea that the poem is still
undergoing revision. Thanks for pointing that out.
The thoughtful reader is then presented with two interpretation: Shade
was cut down, more or less, in the act of revision. Or, Shade stopped
revising out of a flagging ability to revise and a premonition of
impending doom. Pure logic wouldn't seem to favor one reading over the
other, however I would argue that if there are sufficient other signs
indicating mental instability then the reader ought to favor a reading
that is consonant with these other signs.
Also one might argue that the second reading provides more significant
content to the story line than does the simple notion that Shade was
still editing his work when he expired, although, admittedly, this
might be cited as evidence that the poem is incomplete, in its final
line; which seems to be important to some readers but not, so far,
for me.
Shade's madness in Canto 4 shouldn't seem that preposterous when one
considers that VN used madness, coupled with death, to finish off Krug
at the end of the novel Bend Sinister.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Also on May 4, 2010, at 9:50 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>
> [quoting Lipon:]
> Shade begins the final canto with great resolve, promising great
> insight. The lines are though a grotesque overstatement of resolve.
> The grandiosity is itself symptomatic of mental illness. The belief
> that one possesses insights unavailable to others is both grandiose
> and pathological.
>
> They're not unavailable to anyone else. The person I know of who
> had the most similar ideas was James Branch Cabell, who I've
> mentioned before, but doubtless there's a history of beliefs like
> Shade's, not that he seems to know it.
>
You have a point. Perhaps the sentence should be amended to read: The
belief that one possesses insights about life [and the cosmos]
unknown to others is both grandiose and pathological. (Looked up
Cabell in Wikipedia. Interesting, but not enough to comment-upon.)
Perhaps the issue here isn't the beliefs, the doctrine of plexed
artistry, I'm assuming, but the way in which they're upheld, and
subsequently go unexplained or developed in Canto 4.
Grandiosely yours (as usual),
–GSL
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/