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WIP: Hodge shall not be shot
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WIP From "Art, Alchemy and Failed Transcendence" Jungian Influences in Nabokov's Pale Fire
The epigram for Pale Fire is a quote from Boswell's Life of Johnson:
This reminds me of the ludicrous account he have Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a young gentleman of good family. “Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats.” And then in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favorite cat, and said, “But Hodge shan’t be shot: no, no, Hodge shall not be shot.” James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
The meaning of this could be said, “Others may, but I shall not be touched by death”.
John Shade iterates this sentiment in his syllogism:
"A syllogism: other men die, but I am not another, therefore I’ll not die. "
When an author has an epigram at the beginning of a work, you can be sure it is because it represents a distillation of the main theme. And what is the common theme? "The ego does not want to die". This is the central issue that Shade is dealing with. Ultimately it is the issue Kinbote has been running from. It is also, clearly, Nabokov’s major concern.
“…the dreadful pitfalls of eternity, the unknowledgeable beyond the unknown, the helplessness, the cold, the sickening involutions and interpenetrations of space and time.” (Speak Memory, P.297)
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The epigram for Pale Fire is a quote from Boswell's Life of Johnson:
This reminds me of the ludicrous account he have Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a young gentleman of good family. “Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats.” And then in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favorite cat, and said, “But Hodge shan’t be shot: no, no, Hodge shall not be shot.” James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
The meaning of this could be said, “Others may, but I shall not be touched by death”.
John Shade iterates this sentiment in his syllogism:
"A syllogism: other men die, but I am not another, therefore I’ll not die. "
When an author has an epigram at the beginning of a work, you can be sure it is because it represents a distillation of the main theme. And what is the common theme? "The ego does not want to die". This is the central issue that Shade is dealing with. Ultimately it is the issue Kinbote has been running from. It is also, clearly, Nabokov’s major concern.
“…the dreadful pitfalls of eternity, the unknowledgeable beyond the unknown, the helplessness, the cold, the sickening involutions and interpenetrations of space and time.” (Speak Memory, P.297)
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,dana.dragunoiu@gmail.com,shvabrin@humnet.ucla.edu
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L