Subject
Response to Matthew Roth: against split personalities (Americans,
Russian emigrants, and traps) in PF
Russian emigrants, and traps) in PF
From
Date
Body
Dear Matthew,
I am also late to this list (I participate just several days).
To develop my argumentation, I need to make many semi-personal
and subjective remarks concerning myself, and speak not only about
Pale Fire.
I am russian from St. Petersburg, but I am living and working abroad
since
~ 1992, though I still visit relatively regularly my country.
I knew Nabokov's English novels already when I've been in
Soviet Union, but only when I moved to the West I truly felt
the layer concerning the emigrant life, which is, I assure
you, very important. I've been to the US, but mostly I live in
Europe - in fact, I've been for some years in Denmark, in the UK,
and since 1998 I am settled in France. I know very well
the academic life, and since I am employed as a mathematician,
I can afford to look from some distance at the life
of humanities departments. Maybe his enthomology gave Nabokov
similar feeling of detachment.
When I moved to the West I started to understand how precise
is Nabokov in his descriptions of various aspects of emigrant
life and of possible situations (in most concentrated form
in "Pnin" maybe). Also how good he is in playing with different
viewpoints. You may notice that in "Pnin" there is no
description, no slightest hint concerning the inner spiritual
life of american colleagues of Pnin, but how they may have
seen Pnin is presented fairly well.
In "Pale Fire" this, I would say, artistic understanding of
the american life, including to some extent its spiritual
side, is advanced in comparison with "Pnin", but even a genius
cannot develop this understanding instantaneously, and
Nabokov is very cautious not to replace his acquired vision
by myopic approximations (not to say about wild fantasies).
There are hints concerning the spiritual life of Shade, but
very cautious and indirect - actually, via the narration
of Kinbote AND the text of the poem. It is Kinbote in his own remarks
who is
quite brisk and arrogant, a trait quite common among russian
emigrants speaking about their respective adopted countries.
To me, the fact that the point of view in PF remains always
exterior to Shade, and his character is shown in very cautious
way, is one of important arguments in favor of that Nabokov intended
to show him as an american in his "americanishness" different
from Kinbote with his russian roots. The possibility of
some russian roots in Shade's past does not to my opinion
contradict that he is essentially "american" - the difference
between the first, second etc generations of emigrants
is very well known (cf., by the way, the meeting of Pnin
and his son in "Pnin").
I think that for Nabokov (in spite of his own personality,
far from ordinary) this was an important problem, and he
was very carefully experimenting with his understanding
of american life, also, spiritual life,
as a "side" or a "facet" of universal spiritual
principle (whatever it could mean for him - say, in
its purest and most abstract form it is presented
in "Priglashenie na kazn" (Invitation to a beheading) -
and its russian facet can be found in "The Gift" and "The Luzhin
Defence". While, as my american friends assure, there is
no discernible mistakes or misinterpretations of
american ways of life in his writing, he takes care
not to go to the areas he doesn't understand well enough.
All strong opinions are expressed by "marginal" narrators
(with respect to "americanishness"),
like Humbert or Kinbote.
The difference between Shade and Kinbote lies
not in the dimension of psychology and personality but in
the style and cultural references (Shade representing, to my opnion, one
of
most sympathetic types of american spirituality, nothing
to do with Kinbote -also to some extent spiritual in his own mad ways).
The
whole life span is needed to acquire this,
and no psychotic split can provide a convincing substitute.
By the way, I knew personally an old professor in Chicago
who (for me) is an example of a type similar to Shade.
When I read "Zenda" (after "Pale Fire") I had immediately the
feeling that it is one of the main sources of "Zembla" story,
I started to look in the Internet and discovered the Boyd/Hornick
correspondence, which contains very convincing arguments
that some parts of his story are borrowed by Kinbote from
there (it is accessible in this list archive). Since
my own attention was already turned to this connection,
I found some other elements of the story borrowed from
"The prisoner of Zenda". Moreover, these parts were,
so to say, developed by Kinbote (the relation of the king
of Zembla and his queen looks as a logical development
of the relations of the king of Zenda and his fiancee
after the dynastic marriage - in Zenda story, she loves
another person, and the king may be homesexual, nothing
contradicts this; he uses the same play on the theme
of growing/shaving beard in the scene with german lecturer
who almost recognizes Kinbote as the king of Zembla).
It means that it is one of his principal cultural references -
at the same level with Shakespeare, the chaos very alien
(not "suppressed") to Shade.
I've seen russian emigrants slowly going crazy, I've known
a couple of old homosexuals (not russians), one was very
refined and another looked much like Shade, still it was
possible that the first
was obviously in love with the second - and I know how
he would suffer if the second would NOT be a homsexual
and behave like Shade.
So, to summarize, essentially my argument is that
the conjecture of the unique split personality doesn't
fit with the process of artistic discovery of America by
Nabokov, which, to my opinion, can be seen in the
sequence of his novels, and if that conjecture
would be true, most of the colours and
shades that make so beautiful this novel
would annihilate each other.
As an afterthought, I would mention also the Nabokov's
passion for chess problems. In a good problem, there
must be a lot of promising ideas, that should trap and
lure somebody trying to solve it. They should
look very convincingly, before you try to check
the details, and then something doesn't work.
I think the conjecture of Shade's split personality
it is just such a trap - you need very artificial
interpretations (bad blood circulation in
a limb - quite natural at 61 - to be interpreted as
a stroke) to push it through. There should be some
details that almost work - only in this case it is a
good trap - but not quite. We should remember
also that it is all Kinbote's narration - even the
name Shade may be invented. Kinbote, maybe, would
like the idea that he is just a part of Shade.
Best regards,
Sergei Soloviev
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
I am also late to this list (I participate just several days).
To develop my argumentation, I need to make many semi-personal
and subjective remarks concerning myself, and speak not only about
Pale Fire.
I am russian from St. Petersburg, but I am living and working abroad
since
~ 1992, though I still visit relatively regularly my country.
I knew Nabokov's English novels already when I've been in
Soviet Union, but only when I moved to the West I truly felt
the layer concerning the emigrant life, which is, I assure
you, very important. I've been to the US, but mostly I live in
Europe - in fact, I've been for some years in Denmark, in the UK,
and since 1998 I am settled in France. I know very well
the academic life, and since I am employed as a mathematician,
I can afford to look from some distance at the life
of humanities departments. Maybe his enthomology gave Nabokov
similar feeling of detachment.
When I moved to the West I started to understand how precise
is Nabokov in his descriptions of various aspects of emigrant
life and of possible situations (in most concentrated form
in "Pnin" maybe). Also how good he is in playing with different
viewpoints. You may notice that in "Pnin" there is no
description, no slightest hint concerning the inner spiritual
life of american colleagues of Pnin, but how they may have
seen Pnin is presented fairly well.
In "Pale Fire" this, I would say, artistic understanding of
the american life, including to some extent its spiritual
side, is advanced in comparison with "Pnin", but even a genius
cannot develop this understanding instantaneously, and
Nabokov is very cautious not to replace his acquired vision
by myopic approximations (not to say about wild fantasies).
There are hints concerning the spiritual life of Shade, but
very cautious and indirect - actually, via the narration
of Kinbote AND the text of the poem. It is Kinbote in his own remarks
who is
quite brisk and arrogant, a trait quite common among russian
emigrants speaking about their respective adopted countries.
To me, the fact that the point of view in PF remains always
exterior to Shade, and his character is shown in very cautious
way, is one of important arguments in favor of that Nabokov intended
to show him as an american in his "americanishness" different
from Kinbote with his russian roots. The possibility of
some russian roots in Shade's past does not to my opinion
contradict that he is essentially "american" - the difference
between the first, second etc generations of emigrants
is very well known (cf., by the way, the meeting of Pnin
and his son in "Pnin").
I think that for Nabokov (in spite of his own personality,
far from ordinary) this was an important problem, and he
was very carefully experimenting with his understanding
of american life, also, spiritual life,
as a "side" or a "facet" of universal spiritual
principle (whatever it could mean for him - say, in
its purest and most abstract form it is presented
in "Priglashenie na kazn" (Invitation to a beheading) -
and its russian facet can be found in "The Gift" and "The Luzhin
Defence". While, as my american friends assure, there is
no discernible mistakes or misinterpretations of
american ways of life in his writing, he takes care
not to go to the areas he doesn't understand well enough.
All strong opinions are expressed by "marginal" narrators
(with respect to "americanishness"),
like Humbert or Kinbote.
The difference between Shade and Kinbote lies
not in the dimension of psychology and personality but in
the style and cultural references (Shade representing, to my opnion, one
of
most sympathetic types of american spirituality, nothing
to do with Kinbote -also to some extent spiritual in his own mad ways).
The
whole life span is needed to acquire this,
and no psychotic split can provide a convincing substitute.
By the way, I knew personally an old professor in Chicago
who (for me) is an example of a type similar to Shade.
When I read "Zenda" (after "Pale Fire") I had immediately the
feeling that it is one of the main sources of "Zembla" story,
I started to look in the Internet and discovered the Boyd/Hornick
correspondence, which contains very convincing arguments
that some parts of his story are borrowed by Kinbote from
there (it is accessible in this list archive). Since
my own attention was already turned to this connection,
I found some other elements of the story borrowed from
"The prisoner of Zenda". Moreover, these parts were,
so to say, developed by Kinbote (the relation of the king
of Zembla and his queen looks as a logical development
of the relations of the king of Zenda and his fiancee
after the dynastic marriage - in Zenda story, she loves
another person, and the king may be homesexual, nothing
contradicts this; he uses the same play on the theme
of growing/shaving beard in the scene with german lecturer
who almost recognizes Kinbote as the king of Zembla).
It means that it is one of his principal cultural references -
at the same level with Shakespeare, the chaos very alien
(not "suppressed") to Shade.
I've seen russian emigrants slowly going crazy, I've known
a couple of old homosexuals (not russians), one was very
refined and another looked much like Shade, still it was
possible that the first
was obviously in love with the second - and I know how
he would suffer if the second would NOT be a homsexual
and behave like Shade.
So, to summarize, essentially my argument is that
the conjecture of the unique split personality doesn't
fit with the process of artistic discovery of America by
Nabokov, which, to my opinion, can be seen in the
sequence of his novels, and if that conjecture
would be true, most of the colours and
shades that make so beautiful this novel
would annihilate each other.
As an afterthought, I would mention also the Nabokov's
passion for chess problems. In a good problem, there
must be a lot of promising ideas, that should trap and
lure somebody trying to solve it. They should
look very convincingly, before you try to check
the details, and then something doesn't work.
I think the conjecture of Shade's split personality
it is just such a trap - you need very artificial
interpretations (bad blood circulation in
a limb - quite natural at 61 - to be interpreted as
a stroke) to push it through. There should be some
details that almost work - only in this case it is a
good trap - but not quite. We should remember
also that it is all Kinbote's narration - even the
name Shade may be invented. Kinbote, maybe, would
like the idea that he is just a part of Shade.
Best regards,
Sergei Soloviev
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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