Subject
THOUGHTS: Bobolinks and apophenia
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Jerry Friedman responds to Joseph Aisenberg:
I think I understand you arguments better now. Whether
Aunt Maud's ghost is literarily exciting is a matter of
taste, but she hasn't been important to my enjoyment of
the book. It's more the fact that she exists that gives
force to Shade's belief in the afterlife. (And I came
to the reading I've been advocating before I knew about
the ghostly message). However, we might appreciate it
more by remembering that Kinbote narrates all this in
facetious and patronizing style. Maybe we're supposed
to see through that style, to imagine how exciting it
was for Hazel to see this supernatural manifestation.
(It would be exciting for me.)
On "The Vane Sisters", I don't think I can disprove
your reading based on the story, but it certainly
disagrees with what Nabokov wrote to Katharine White.
I'm still not disputing your right to read the story
based on just the story.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/17/books/nabokov-s-letters-let-me-explain-a-few-things.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
The same goes for /Pale Fire/. If I understand you
correctly (and I didn't before), you're saying Kinbote
could have made up the ghostly message and then pretended
not to understand it; I suppose his "I abhor such games"
would be dust in the reader's eyes. But Nabokov really
valued facts that don't help us live Life, such as
mimicry in butterflies, and valued the conclusions he
drew from them. He really argued against "commonsense".
So if you'll admit these extratextual statements at all,
I suggest they mean your reading of /Pale Fire/ entails
seeing it as self-parody. I won't deny that's possible
for Nabokov (just as your additional layer of involution
in "The Vane Sisters" is). But subjectively, that's not
how I see it.
Also, as I always say, if Kinbote would garble his
invented ghostly warning and pretend not to understand it,
you can't trust him on anything. Then how can you infer
that he has a "need to take Shade's poem" or that he
"plunges into folly and bad behavior"? Maybe those are
also his plants.
Jerry Friedman
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I think I understand you arguments better now. Whether
Aunt Maud's ghost is literarily exciting is a matter of
taste, but she hasn't been important to my enjoyment of
the book. It's more the fact that she exists that gives
force to Shade's belief in the afterlife. (And I came
to the reading I've been advocating before I knew about
the ghostly message). However, we might appreciate it
more by remembering that Kinbote narrates all this in
facetious and patronizing style. Maybe we're supposed
to see through that style, to imagine how exciting it
was for Hazel to see this supernatural manifestation.
(It would be exciting for me.)
On "The Vane Sisters", I don't think I can disprove
your reading based on the story, but it certainly
disagrees with what Nabokov wrote to Katharine White.
I'm still not disputing your right to read the story
based on just the story.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/17/books/nabokov-s-letters-let-me-explain-a-few-things.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
The same goes for /Pale Fire/. If I understand you
correctly (and I didn't before), you're saying Kinbote
could have made up the ghostly message and then pretended
not to understand it; I suppose his "I abhor such games"
would be dust in the reader's eyes. But Nabokov really
valued facts that don't help us live Life, such as
mimicry in butterflies, and valued the conclusions he
drew from them. He really argued against "commonsense".
So if you'll admit these extratextual statements at all,
I suggest they mean your reading of /Pale Fire/ entails
seeing it as self-parody. I won't deny that's possible
for Nabokov (just as your additional layer of involution
in "The Vane Sisters" is). But subjectively, that's not
how I see it.
Also, as I always say, if Kinbote would garble his
invented ghostly warning and pretend not to understand it,
you can't trust him on anything. Then how can you infer
that he has a "need to take Shade's poem" or that he
"plunges into folly and bad behavior"? Maybe those are
also his plants.
Jerry Friedman
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/