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Fwd: Pale Fire
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----- Forwarded message from c.grierson@gmx.net -----
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 13:32:14 +0100
From: Christopher Grierson <c.grierson@gmx.net>
Reply-To: Christopher Grierson <c.grierson@gmx.net>
Subject: Pale Fire
To: chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu
Dear Don and list
I have a few ruminations on "Pale Fire": Can anybody help me with the
conundrum of why Charles Kinbote's "head of department" is named
Nattochdag? As far as I am aware, this word consists of three Swedish
words attached together of which the English equivalent is
Night-and-day. Reason versus lunacy perhaps? Or good in opposition to
evil/bad? Just below the word Nattochdag is the word attached, and later
the word Netochka, these words seem to want me to do something - but
what? "Netochka" I think translates roughly into English as "nameless
nobody", Dostoyevsky's first, unfinished novel is titled thus and if my
memory serves me, it is about a young lady condemned to live as an
outsider, as an observer. Could this be some ghostly reference to
Shade's unattractive daughter?
Later, and all on the same page, on the same page, we have the amusing
The Hally Vally muddling up Odin's residence and some Finnish epic. This
Finnish epic is, I assume, "Kalevala" where Joukahainen's sister Aino
drowns herself.
Lastly, and more general, has anybody thrown any thoughts in the
direction of Gogol's "The Diary of a Madman"?
Any help would be wholly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Christopher Grierson
----- End forwarded message -----