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Fwd: Why did Pale Fire's Disa laugh?
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----- Forwarded message from chaiselongue@earthlink.net -----
Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 08:07:03 -0800
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Subject: Why did Disa laugh?
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
To Michael Donohue and his students,
At first reading I thought your solution had some things going for it, so I
returned to Pale Fire to see if your reading would "fit." I am glad I did.
Since I last read PF, I (and we collectively) have been more or less taken
up with Ada, that difficult bitch. How lovely to read again the VN of PF - -
a restorative if nothing else.
I would like to point out that the crown jewels are not a collection of
jewels, but three destinct pieces: diamond crown, ruby necklace and
"gemmed" sceptre. The Bera mountains, however beautiful & glittering (and
that "foil" would of course only be an adjunct to paste jewelry) do not
really strike me as being jewel-like (the "intercalated" bits of cotton are
a lovely touch, but do not strike me as a clue). Mt Glitterntin's back-lit
zigzag ridge could be a reference to a diamond crown - - but where are the
necklace, the sceptre?
The "family jewels" joke would work if the jewels were a collection of round
stones, perhaps, but the three pieces already contain the phallus symbol
(sceptre), so it would be a rather messy joke and therefore I tend to doubt
the solution has been discovered yet.
I took the opportunity to look back through our archives to see what
solutions might have been discussed previously. Sam Schuman: "My theory has
always been that the Crown Jewels are actually hidden...IN the Index!"
Jasper Fidget had an alternate theory:"The crown jewels then are the cards
of John Shade's poem Pale Fire." I also found reference to Rachel
Trousdale's paper "The Crown Jewels" but no hint as to her solution.
Priscilla Meyer in her book on Pale Fire sees the search for the crown
jewels as part of a web of references to the historical (i.e. British)
Charleses I & II. Some have thought that Kobaltana was an anagram of "Nabok
alta," but I fail to understand this. Brian Boyd's book could not be
searched (its index I suspect is intentionally useless).
Mr Donohue and his students made a good stab at answering the question "why
did Disa laugh?" In order to posit an answer to that question, I would have
to re-read Pale Fire and - - I think I will. My thanks to Mr D & his
students for giving me the impetus.
Carolyn
p.s. Steinmann is the German word for cairn, & the plural would be
Steinmänner.
----- End forwarded message -----