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Re: THOUGHTS: Up the Lane in PF and Kinbote's lies
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JF ( to JM'S: "Why is Kinbote lying about how he took possession of Shade's notecards (the entire set)?") How do you know he's lying? [...]Simon Rowberry asked back in April about "the place of Nabokov in this fictional narrative". That made me wonder about the boxer dog--Nabokov boxed. The horseshoe players in the same cluster of houses are probably Vladimir and Véra, as Brian Boyd's biography tells us they played horseshoes in Ithaca and connects it with these scenes. I suspect seeing the boxer dog as an emissary from the author fits with Matt Roth's reading--but I still don't believe that reading.Another possibility is whoever put the ribbon on Kinbote's cat. I still think that ribbon is a lemniscate, which comes from the Latin word for "ribbon" and means a bow shape [...] I think we can imagine that in the white space before the last verse paragraph, Shade decides to work on his last few lines down in his Nest. The comments about seeing Sybil and the windowpanes seem consistent with his being outside.(Of course, poets aren't on oath, either.)."
JM: Wasn't the Nabokov's dachshund named "Box"? There's another dog in PF, too. Aunt Maud's skye-terrier, which reminded Kinbote of "weeping willows" and its psychocinetic basket flying all over (as you'll certainly remember); there's another dog, too, on the prowl and he serves as Kinbote's alibi in his clumsy spying ( perhaps it's the same boxer.)
Kinbote unties Gerald Emerald's bow...a lemniscate, you say? Fascinating, as were most of your comments and informed replies. Your idea about the couple (VN and Vera) playing horseshoes makes a lot of sense, as your "cinematic" description of CK's and JS's steps over to Goldsworth's house. Great answers!!!
Sure, poets aren't on oath and Shade could have seen thousands of red admirals before he minutely described the one he saw in the garden, as if his spotting it had just taken place.
My assumption about this particular lie by Kinbote came from my conjecturing that it's unlikely that Shade would be carrying the entire set of notecards up and down, with or without the envelope, while he worked on "his last few lines" down in his perch. Particularly not while he sat there, head resting on his elbows, looking like "a tipsy witch."
One more question: In your map Shade's garage stands a long way off Kinbote's and his access to the street. Does it fit with: "A lane curving around the slight eminence on which my rented castle stood separated it from my neighbors’ driveway, and I was about to cross that lane when I lost my footing and sat down on the surprisingly hard snow. My fall acted as a chemical reagent on the Shades’ sedan, which forthwith budged and almost ran over me as it swung into the lane with John at the wheel strenuously grimacing and Sybil fiercely talking to him." (foreword) I'm sorry if I seem to be spurring you on into details, as if I wanted an animated representation of their moves, like in a 3D Play-Station game, instead of trying to figure things out alone.
Your replies have already rendered verbally ( also cinematically, as you said it of Kinbote's), the different angles and motions of the pair wandering from one house to the other but my spacial abilities are rather limited and I get lost all the time. I cannot fit the scene in your map...
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JM: Wasn't the Nabokov's dachshund named "Box"? There's another dog in PF, too. Aunt Maud's skye-terrier, which reminded Kinbote of "weeping willows" and its psychocinetic basket flying all over (as you'll certainly remember); there's another dog, too, on the prowl and he serves as Kinbote's alibi in his clumsy spying ( perhaps it's the same boxer.)
Kinbote unties Gerald Emerald's bow...a lemniscate, you say? Fascinating, as were most of your comments and informed replies. Your idea about the couple (VN and Vera) playing horseshoes makes a lot of sense, as your "cinematic" description of CK's and JS's steps over to Goldsworth's house. Great answers!!!
Sure, poets aren't on oath and Shade could have seen thousands of red admirals before he minutely described the one he saw in the garden, as if his spotting it had just taken place.
My assumption about this particular lie by Kinbote came from my conjecturing that it's unlikely that Shade would be carrying the entire set of notecards up and down, with or without the envelope, while he worked on "his last few lines" down in his perch. Particularly not while he sat there, head resting on his elbows, looking like "a tipsy witch."
One more question: In your map Shade's garage stands a long way off Kinbote's and his access to the street. Does it fit with: "A lane curving around the slight eminence on which my rented castle stood separated it from my neighbors’ driveway, and I was about to cross that lane when I lost my footing and sat down on the surprisingly hard snow. My fall acted as a chemical reagent on the Shades’ sedan, which forthwith budged and almost ran over me as it swung into the lane with John at the wheel strenuously grimacing and Sybil fiercely talking to him." (foreword) I'm sorry if I seem to be spurring you on into details, as if I wanted an animated representation of their moves, like in a 3D Play-Station game, instead of trying to figure things out alone.
Your replies have already rendered verbally ( also cinematically, as you said it of Kinbote's), the different angles and motions of the pair wandering from one house to the other but my spacial abilities are rather limited and I get lost all the time. I cannot fit the scene in your map...
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/