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JF replies back to CF
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Dear Carolyn
I wrote:
>> Yes, but I think he has to pile on too many inventions. It's one
>> thing to expect readers to infer what a delusional character's
>> real name is, and another thing to expect us to infer something
>> with one unprecedented feature after another. The latter would
>> need much stronger evidence, in my opinion.
>
> I don't have any problem with this. What are the Alice books, beloved
> by Nabokov, if not one invention after another? And Pale Fire is
hardly
> as fanciful as that. Or perhaps it is? Either way, I accept fiction as
> fictional.
Indeed, but puzzles have to be fair. The Alice books are
overtly fantasy, but in your reading of /Pale Fire/ we have to
figure out an extremely inventive (non-verisimilar) explanation
of what looks like a realistic story with a ghost or three,
in the face of very strong evidence against that explanation.
Every invention feature of the solution that you impute to
Nabokov--do alter egos really say they are so different in age
and appearance from their real selves, by the way?--makes the
puzzle less fair.
>> My feeling is that, to have a complete theory, you need to say
>> more on this "indicating". Is Kinbote indicating such impacts
>> purposely or by accident?
>
> By a complete theory I assume you mean one that can explain everything
> in Pale Fire? I have never claimed to be able to do that. There are
at
> least two books whose only subject is Pale Fire, and I don't think
> either of them claims to be able to explain everything in it. Perhaps
> you expect too much from me?
I think a complete MPD theory has to account for the obvious
evidence against it. In particular, I think it needs a fairly
specific explanation of what is "really" going on in Kinbote's
interactions with the Shades. Of course, you might differ.
Jerry Friedman
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I wrote:
>> Yes, but I think he has to pile on too many inventions. It's one
>> thing to expect readers to infer what a delusional character's
>> real name is, and another thing to expect us to infer something
>> with one unprecedented feature after another. The latter would
>> need much stronger evidence, in my opinion.
>
> I don't have any problem with this. What are the Alice books, beloved
> by Nabokov, if not one invention after another? And Pale Fire is
hardly
> as fanciful as that. Or perhaps it is? Either way, I accept fiction as
> fictional.
Indeed, but puzzles have to be fair. The Alice books are
overtly fantasy, but in your reading of /Pale Fire/ we have to
figure out an extremely inventive (non-verisimilar) explanation
of what looks like a realistic story with a ghost or three,
in the face of very strong evidence against that explanation.
Every invention feature of the solution that you impute to
Nabokov--do alter egos really say they are so different in age
and appearance from their real selves, by the way?--makes the
puzzle less fair.
>> My feeling is that, to have a complete theory, you need to say
>> more on this "indicating". Is Kinbote indicating such impacts
>> purposely or by accident?
>
> By a complete theory I assume you mean one that can explain everything
> in Pale Fire? I have never claimed to be able to do that. There are
at
> least two books whose only subject is Pale Fire, and I don't think
> either of them claims to be able to explain everything in it. Perhaps
> you expect too much from me?
I think a complete MPD theory has to account for the obvious
evidence against it. In particular, I think it needs a fairly
specific explanation of what is "really" going on in Kinbote's
interactions with the Shades. Of course, you might differ.
Jerry Friedman
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