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Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3519 Pale Fire
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----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 4:23 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3519
>
> pynchon-l-digest Saturday, August 30 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3519
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 15:36:34 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> Kinbote calls Alfin's monoplane his "bird of doom"
> > (reminding me of the Butterfly of Doom), while the model plane causes
him
> to
> > beg "Dear Jesus, do something."
>
>
> Damn, I was looking everywhere for that model plane last light. Why do
you
> suppose that memory--presumably Kinbote is writing this recollection of
New
> Wye at his cabin in Utana a month or two later--opens such a reservoir of
> despair for him?
>
> Don
>
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 16:18:10 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > Behalf Of Jasper Fidget
> >
> > > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > > Behalf Of Don Corathers
> >
> > > Uranograd. For its remoteness, after the planet? Two choices
> > > in Greek mythology (from www.theoi.com) : Urania (Ourania):
> > > the Muse of astronomical writings. Uranus (Ouranos): the
> > > ancient personification of the sky, which was thought to be a
> > > solid dome of bronze. He was the first ruler of the universe
> > > but was castrated and deposed by his son Cronus.
> > >
> >
> > When Cronus castrated Uranus, the blood gave birth to nymphs and giants
> > (in
> > one version anyway). Also, Uranus was both son and husband to Gaia.
> >
> > Urania is invoked by Milton in Book 7 of PL, and by Wordsworth in
> > "Prospectus to The Recluse."
> >
>
> I'm informed by Dr. Johnson (of the Nabokov-L) that VN often uses the
"uran"
> root in regard to homosexuality, which is common in Russian. Therefore,
> with "grad" meaning "town," Uranograd means "Gay-town."
>
> I was wondering about Kinbote's phrasing there: "dubbing *my* capital
> Uranograd" (emphasis mine) instead of *the* capital or Onhava. It helps
to
> resolve a question I've had regarding Zembla and homosexuality, whether
it's
> the norm there or just normal for Charles. This would imply that the
latter
> is the case, and that other locals have taken note (assuming
Amphitheatricus
> is local to the Zemblan narrative column).
>
> Jasper
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 06:53:35 +1000
> From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> It's also possible that the two incidents (bird into window, plane into
> scaffolding) actually happened (in terms of the fiction), that the
> similarities between them are superficial and coincidental, and that the
> account of each was independent of the other, or that the detailed
> recollection/significance of the one was jogged by the oral/written
recount
> of the other.
>
> Call this the Nabokovian authorship theory.
>
> best
>
>
>
> on 30/8/03 3:59 PM, Don Corathers at gumbo@fuse.net wrote:
>
> >> One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death
by
> >> crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection (excuse
> > me)
> >> of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we
know
> >> that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
> > (Since
> >> Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this particular
> > item
> >> should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II
story
> >> that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at
least
> >> part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff of
a
> >> sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story of
> >> Alfin losing an emperor.)
> >>
> >> Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's work,
the
> >> account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
> >>
> >> In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are given
a
> >> connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
> > shadei),
> >> and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> >> Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding
around
> > a
> >> new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
> >
> > There is (at least) one more way of reading this. It is conceivable that
> > Kinbote *did* relate the story of Alfin crashing into the building to
Shade
> > before July, and that Shade transmuted the incident into the opening
image
> > of the poem. This might be some of what Kinbote means when he says on
the
> > second reading of "Pale Fire" he detected "that dim distant music, those
> > vestiges of color in the air" that convinced him that the poem actually
did
> > contain his story, and "all the many subliminal debts to me." (297)
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:04:16 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> > It's also possible that the two incidents (bird into window, plane into
> > scaffolding) actually happened (in terms of the fiction), that the
> > similarities between them are superficial and coincidental, and that the
> > account of each was independent of the other, or that the detailed
> > recollection/significance of the one was jogged by the oral/written
> recount
> > of the other.
> >
> > Call this the Nabokovian authorship theory.
>
> Certainly. But if that is true of all of the consonances between Shade's
> life and Kinbote's, and Shade's poem and Kinbote's Commentary--and I
realize
> that you didn't suggest that it was--then the intricacy and complexity of
> the coincidence and happenstance is pretty spectaclar, isn't it? But not
> terribly interesting.
>
> I believe the book invites the reader to make connections and to indulge
the
> human impulse to create order and sense. It's impossible to resist trying
to
> unravel the strands. It's probably also impossible to achieve a Unified
> Theory that everybody is going to find satisfactory, but it's fun trying.
>
> Don
>
>
>
> >
> > best
> >
> >
> >
> > on 30/8/03 3:59 PM, Don Corathers at gumbo@fuse.net wrote:
> >
> > >> One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death
> by
> > >> crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection
(excuse
> > > me)
> > >> of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we
> know
> > >> that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
> > > (Since
> > >> Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this
particular
> > > item
> > >> should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II
> story
> > >> that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at
> least
> > >> part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff
of
> a
> > >> sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story
of
> > >> Alfin losing an emperor.)
> > >>
> > >> Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's
work,
> the
> > >> account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
> > >>
> > >> In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are
given
> a
> > >> connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
> > > shadei),
> > >> and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> > >> Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding
> around
> > > a
> > >> new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
> > >
> > > There is (at least) one more way of reading this. It is conceivable
that
> > > Kinbote *did* relate the story of Alfin crashing into the building to
> Shade
> > > before July, and that Shade transmuted the incident into the opening
> image
> > > of the poem. This might be some of what Kinbote means when he says on
> the
> > > second reading of "Pale Fire" he detected "that dim distant music,
those
> > > vestiges of color in the air" that convinced him that the poem
actually
> did
> > > contain his story, and "all the many subliminal debts to me." (297)
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:22:59 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Comm 2: Parents, part 3
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > Behalf Of Don Corathers
>
> >
> > demilune. Half-moon or crescent? Not found in the old MW10, which is all
I
> > have access to at the moment.
> >
>
> Also: "Fortification. An outwork resembling a bastion, with a
> crescent-shaped gorge" (OED).
>
> Part of Alfred the Great's appearance in this note:
>
> pg 105
> "A peasant woman with a small cake she had baked":
>
> According to legend Alfred spent the night in a peasant woman's hut while
a
> fugitive in the marshes of Athelney. The woman, ignorant of his identity,
> left Alfred to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire, and
> scolded him when he allowed them to burn.
>
> http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great
> http://www.ogdoad.force9.co.uk/alfred/alfcake.htm
>
> pg 106
> "a drunk with a walrus mustache kept staggering around and patting the
> trunks of the lindens"
>
> A linden is a lime tree, but it's also the wood from such a tree. Linden
> wood was commonly used to create shields and boats, and it turns up in
many
> Anglo-Saxon poems, for instance in Beowulf, or here from Tennyson's
> translation of "The Battle of Brunnanburh":
>
> There by Brunnanburh,
> Brake the shield-wall,
> Hew'd the linden-wood,
> Hack'd the battle-shield,
> Sons of Edward with hammer'd brands.
>
>
http://www.lincolnshire-web.co.uk/lincolnshire-illustrious/tennyson-brunanbu
> rh.htm
>
> Alfred (the King, not the Lord) was responsible for the creation of a
fleet
> of ships and a series of fortifications, so in keeping with the kennings
of
> that period's poetry, he might have "[patted] the trunks of the lindens"
> while ensuring the security of his kingdom. He also had a mustache. I'm
> not sure why he's drunk here, perhaps in celebration of his victory over
the
> Danes?
>
> Jasper
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:38:30 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 2: Parents: some notes
>
> pg. 100
> "Chicago where I interrupted for a couple of days my automobile journey
from
> New Wye to Cedarn"
>
> Reinforces the assumption of Cedarn's location, that it is at least west
of
> Chicago.
>
> pg. 100
> "Other names derive from professions such as Rymer, Scrivener, Limner
[...],
> Botkin"
>
> Botkin is (probably) aka Kinbote, and it is the only name in this list
that
> is not English and has nothing to do with writing.
>
> pg. 101
> "the neatly stacked batches of [Pale Fire index cards] lie in the sun on
my
> table as so many ingots of fabulous metal"
>
> Prompts a question that I don't recall being asked: could Kinbote be in it
> for the money?
>
> pg. 101
> From Professor Hurley's "Appreciation of John Shade": "Just before our
> poet's untimely death he seems to have been working on an autobiographical
> poem."
>
> What if this quote from Prof H. were the only reference to the poem that
> Kinbote had ever seen? What if he wrote his own poem and passed it off as
> Shade's, along with a commentary, in order to profit from the poet's
death?
>
> pg 105
> "Grindelwod": Grindelwald is a beautiful little town in Switzerland:
>
> http://www.clasohm.com/photodb/photo?photo_id=3412&size=lg
>
> Also Grindel (or Grendel) is the monster in Beowulf, so "Grindel's Wood."
>
> pg. 105
> "Fleur de Fyler": Flower defiler, de-virginizer. Makes me think of
Joyce's
> "Sir Tristram, violer d'amores" (FW:3).
>
> pg. 105
> "Pavonian Pavilion": has the ring of Pavlov in it.
>
> pg. 105
> "along which a road, connecting with the Eastern highway, ran."
>
> A Zemblan parallel for Dulwich Rd. which "On the northern side of the hill
> [...] joins the highway leading to Wordsmith University" (pg. 92).
> Wordsmith is to the east of Dulwich Hill.
>
> pg 106
> "the various approaches to a fortified castle": or to a fortified text.
>
> pg 107
> "a black chess-king crown": reinforcing the chess motif with Kinbote in
> control of the black pieces.
>
> Jasper
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 08:58:32 +1000
> From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> >> It's also possible that the two incidents (bird into window, plane into
> >> scaffolding) actually happened (in terms of the fiction), that the
> >> similarities between them are superficial and coincidental, and that
the
> >> account of each was independent of the other, or that the detailed
> >> recollection/significance of the one was jogged by the oral/written
> > recount
> >> of the other.
> >>
> >> Call this the Nabokovian authorship theory.
> >
> > Certainly. But if that is true of all of the consonances between Shade's
> > life and Kinbote's, and Shade's poem and Kinbote's Commentary--and I
realize
> > that you didn't suggest that it was--then the intricacy and complexity
of
> > the coincidence and happenstance is pretty spectaclar, isn't it? But not
> > terribly interesting.
> >
> > I believe the book invites the reader to make connections and to indulge
the
> > human impulse to create order and sense.
>
> Sure. But by "the book" you actually mean Nabokov. And as the composer of
> the text he not only "invites" this activity on the part of the reader, he
> satirises it (through his characterisation of Kinbote), and in fact has
> rendered the task of creating ultimate "order and sense" impossible.
>
> The thing that strikes me about _Pale Fire_ is that, yes, we're invited
to,
> and, yes, we *do* end up wondering whether Kinbote fabricated this or
that,
> whether Kinbote or Shade or another character made everything and everyone
> else up, whether one or another event or character or reminiscence is
"true"
> or "fictional", and so forth, when in fact it's *all* a fiction, and the
> questions about authorship and identity -- about what's "fact" and what
> isn't -- are components of a larger literary construction, and they are
> questions and coincidences and contradictions which Nabokov has
deliberately
> created. And, that he has deliberately created these hints and leads and
cul
> de sacs in such a way that there is no ultimate solution to the questions
we
> are being invited to consider about all these connections and coincidences
> and consonances. (I actually find that pretty interesting. But I realise
> that mileage will vary.)
>
> > It's impossible to resist trying to
> > unravel the strands.
>
> Pretty soon it becomes clear that the strands won't ever unravel in a neat
> way, however. But I agree it can be fun, a bit like trying to put together
a
> jigsaw puzzle where there are too many pieces.
>
> best
>
> > It's probably also impossible to achieve a Unified
> > Theory that everybody is going to find satisfactory, but it's fun
trying.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3519
> ********************************
>
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 4:23 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3519
>
> pynchon-l-digest Saturday, August 30 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3519
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 15:36:34 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> Kinbote calls Alfin's monoplane his "bird of doom"
> > (reminding me of the Butterfly of Doom), while the model plane causes
him
> to
> > beg "Dear Jesus, do something."
>
>
> Damn, I was looking everywhere for that model plane last light. Why do
you
> suppose that memory--presumably Kinbote is writing this recollection of
New
> Wye at his cabin in Utana a month or two later--opens such a reservoir of
> despair for him?
>
> Don
>
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 16:18:10 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > Behalf Of Jasper Fidget
> >
> > > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > > Behalf Of Don Corathers
> >
> > > Uranograd. For its remoteness, after the planet? Two choices
> > > in Greek mythology (from www.theoi.com) : Urania (Ourania):
> > > the Muse of astronomical writings. Uranus (Ouranos): the
> > > ancient personification of the sky, which was thought to be a
> > > solid dome of bronze. He was the first ruler of the universe
> > > but was castrated and deposed by his son Cronus.
> > >
> >
> > When Cronus castrated Uranus, the blood gave birth to nymphs and giants
> > (in
> > one version anyway). Also, Uranus was both son and husband to Gaia.
> >
> > Urania is invoked by Milton in Book 7 of PL, and by Wordsworth in
> > "Prospectus to The Recluse."
> >
>
> I'm informed by Dr. Johnson (of the Nabokov-L) that VN often uses the
"uran"
> root in regard to homosexuality, which is common in Russian. Therefore,
> with "grad" meaning "town," Uranograd means "Gay-town."
>
> I was wondering about Kinbote's phrasing there: "dubbing *my* capital
> Uranograd" (emphasis mine) instead of *the* capital or Onhava. It helps
to
> resolve a question I've had regarding Zembla and homosexuality, whether
it's
> the norm there or just normal for Charles. This would imply that the
latter
> is the case, and that other locals have taken note (assuming
Amphitheatricus
> is local to the Zemblan narrative column).
>
> Jasper
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 06:53:35 +1000
> From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> It's also possible that the two incidents (bird into window, plane into
> scaffolding) actually happened (in terms of the fiction), that the
> similarities between them are superficial and coincidental, and that the
> account of each was independent of the other, or that the detailed
> recollection/significance of the one was jogged by the oral/written
recount
> of the other.
>
> Call this the Nabokovian authorship theory.
>
> best
>
>
>
> on 30/8/03 3:59 PM, Don Corathers at gumbo@fuse.net wrote:
>
> >> One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death
by
> >> crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection (excuse
> > me)
> >> of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we
know
> >> that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
> > (Since
> >> Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this particular
> > item
> >> should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II
story
> >> that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at
least
> >> part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff of
a
> >> sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story of
> >> Alfin losing an emperor.)
> >>
> >> Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's work,
the
> >> account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
> >>
> >> In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are given
a
> >> connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
> > shadei),
> >> and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> >> Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding
around
> > a
> >> new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
> >
> > There is (at least) one more way of reading this. It is conceivable that
> > Kinbote *did* relate the story of Alfin crashing into the building to
Shade
> > before July, and that Shade transmuted the incident into the opening
image
> > of the poem. This might be some of what Kinbote means when he says on
the
> > second reading of "Pale Fire" he detected "that dim distant music, those
> > vestiges of color in the air" that convinced him that the poem actually
did
> > contain his story, and "all the many subliminal debts to me." (297)
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:04:16 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> > It's also possible that the two incidents (bird into window, plane into
> > scaffolding) actually happened (in terms of the fiction), that the
> > similarities between them are superficial and coincidental, and that the
> > account of each was independent of the other, or that the detailed
> > recollection/significance of the one was jogged by the oral/written
> recount
> > of the other.
> >
> > Call this the Nabokovian authorship theory.
>
> Certainly. But if that is true of all of the consonances between Shade's
> life and Kinbote's, and Shade's poem and Kinbote's Commentary--and I
realize
> that you didn't suggest that it was--then the intricacy and complexity of
> the coincidence and happenstance is pretty spectaclar, isn't it? But not
> terribly interesting.
>
> I believe the book invites the reader to make connections and to indulge
the
> human impulse to create order and sense. It's impossible to resist trying
to
> unravel the strands. It's probably also impossible to achieve a Unified
> Theory that everybody is going to find satisfactory, but it's fun trying.
>
> Don
>
>
>
> >
> > best
> >
> >
> >
> > on 30/8/03 3:59 PM, Don Corathers at gumbo@fuse.net wrote:
> >
> > >> One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death
> by
> > >> crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection
(excuse
> > > me)
> > >> of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we
> know
> > >> that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
> > > (Since
> > >> Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this
particular
> > > item
> > >> should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II
> story
> > >> that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at
> least
> > >> part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff
of
> a
> > >> sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story
of
> > >> Alfin losing an emperor.)
> > >>
> > >> Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's
work,
> the
> > >> account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
> > >>
> > >> In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are
given
> a
> > >> connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
> > > shadei),
> > >> and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> > >> Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding
> around
> > > a
> > >> new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
> > >
> > > There is (at least) one more way of reading this. It is conceivable
that
> > > Kinbote *did* relate the story of Alfin crashing into the building to
> Shade
> > > before July, and that Shade transmuted the incident into the opening
> image
> > > of the poem. This might be some of what Kinbote means when he says on
> the
> > > second reading of "Pale Fire" he detected "that dim distant music,
those
> > > vestiges of color in the air" that convinced him that the poem
actually
> did
> > > contain his story, and "all the many subliminal debts to me." (297)
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:22:59 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Comm 2: Parents, part 3
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > Behalf Of Don Corathers
>
> >
> > demilune. Half-moon or crescent? Not found in the old MW10, which is all
I
> > have access to at the moment.
> >
>
> Also: "Fortification. An outwork resembling a bastion, with a
> crescent-shaped gorge" (OED).
>
> Part of Alfred the Great's appearance in this note:
>
> pg 105
> "A peasant woman with a small cake she had baked":
>
> According to legend Alfred spent the night in a peasant woman's hut while
a
> fugitive in the marshes of Athelney. The woman, ignorant of his identity,
> left Alfred to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire, and
> scolded him when he allowed them to burn.
>
> http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great
> http://www.ogdoad.force9.co.uk/alfred/alfcake.htm
>
> pg 106
> "a drunk with a walrus mustache kept staggering around and patting the
> trunks of the lindens"
>
> A linden is a lime tree, but it's also the wood from such a tree. Linden
> wood was commonly used to create shields and boats, and it turns up in
many
> Anglo-Saxon poems, for instance in Beowulf, or here from Tennyson's
> translation of "The Battle of Brunnanburh":
>
> There by Brunnanburh,
> Brake the shield-wall,
> Hew'd the linden-wood,
> Hack'd the battle-shield,
> Sons of Edward with hammer'd brands.
>
>
http://www.lincolnshire-web.co.uk/lincolnshire-illustrious/tennyson-brunanbu
> rh.htm
>
> Alfred (the King, not the Lord) was responsible for the creation of a
fleet
> of ships and a series of fortifications, so in keeping with the kennings
of
> that period's poetry, he might have "[patted] the trunks of the lindens"
> while ensuring the security of his kingdom. He also had a mustache. I'm
> not sure why he's drunk here, perhaps in celebration of his victory over
the
> Danes?
>
> Jasper
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:38:30 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 2: Parents: some notes
>
> pg. 100
> "Chicago where I interrupted for a couple of days my automobile journey
from
> New Wye to Cedarn"
>
> Reinforces the assumption of Cedarn's location, that it is at least west
of
> Chicago.
>
> pg. 100
> "Other names derive from professions such as Rymer, Scrivener, Limner
[...],
> Botkin"
>
> Botkin is (probably) aka Kinbote, and it is the only name in this list
that
> is not English and has nothing to do with writing.
>
> pg. 101
> "the neatly stacked batches of [Pale Fire index cards] lie in the sun on
my
> table as so many ingots of fabulous metal"
>
> Prompts a question that I don't recall being asked: could Kinbote be in it
> for the money?
>
> pg. 101
> From Professor Hurley's "Appreciation of John Shade": "Just before our
> poet's untimely death he seems to have been working on an autobiographical
> poem."
>
> What if this quote from Prof H. were the only reference to the poem that
> Kinbote had ever seen? What if he wrote his own poem and passed it off as
> Shade's, along with a commentary, in order to profit from the poet's
death?
>
> pg 105
> "Grindelwod": Grindelwald is a beautiful little town in Switzerland:
>
> http://www.clasohm.com/photodb/photo?photo_id=3412&size=lg
>
> Also Grindel (or Grendel) is the monster in Beowulf, so "Grindel's Wood."
>
> pg. 105
> "Fleur de Fyler": Flower defiler, de-virginizer. Makes me think of
Joyce's
> "Sir Tristram, violer d'amores" (FW:3).
>
> pg. 105
> "Pavonian Pavilion": has the ring of Pavlov in it.
>
> pg. 105
> "along which a road, connecting with the Eastern highway, ran."
>
> A Zemblan parallel for Dulwich Rd. which "On the northern side of the hill
> [...] joins the highway leading to Wordsmith University" (pg. 92).
> Wordsmith is to the east of Dulwich Hill.
>
> pg 106
> "the various approaches to a fortified castle": or to a fortified text.
>
> pg 107
> "a black chess-king crown": reinforcing the chess motif with Kinbote in
> control of the black pieces.
>
> Jasper
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 08:58:32 +1000
> From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> >> It's also possible that the two incidents (bird into window, plane into
> >> scaffolding) actually happened (in terms of the fiction), that the
> >> similarities between them are superficial and coincidental, and that
the
> >> account of each was independent of the other, or that the detailed
> >> recollection/significance of the one was jogged by the oral/written
> > recount
> >> of the other.
> >>
> >> Call this the Nabokovian authorship theory.
> >
> > Certainly. But if that is true of all of the consonances between Shade's
> > life and Kinbote's, and Shade's poem and Kinbote's Commentary--and I
realize
> > that you didn't suggest that it was--then the intricacy and complexity
of
> > the coincidence and happenstance is pretty spectaclar, isn't it? But not
> > terribly interesting.
> >
> > I believe the book invites the reader to make connections and to indulge
the
> > human impulse to create order and sense.
>
> Sure. But by "the book" you actually mean Nabokov. And as the composer of
> the text he not only "invites" this activity on the part of the reader, he
> satirises it (through his characterisation of Kinbote), and in fact has
> rendered the task of creating ultimate "order and sense" impossible.
>
> The thing that strikes me about _Pale Fire_ is that, yes, we're invited
to,
> and, yes, we *do* end up wondering whether Kinbote fabricated this or
that,
> whether Kinbote or Shade or another character made everything and everyone
> else up, whether one or another event or character or reminiscence is
"true"
> or "fictional", and so forth, when in fact it's *all* a fiction, and the
> questions about authorship and identity -- about what's "fact" and what
> isn't -- are components of a larger literary construction, and they are
> questions and coincidences and contradictions which Nabokov has
deliberately
> created. And, that he has deliberately created these hints and leads and
cul
> de sacs in such a way that there is no ultimate solution to the questions
we
> are being invited to consider about all these connections and coincidences
> and consonances. (I actually find that pretty interesting. But I realise
> that mileage will vary.)
>
> > It's impossible to resist trying to
> > unravel the strands.
>
> Pretty soon it becomes clear that the strands won't ever unravel in a neat
> way, however. But I agree it can be fun, a bit like trying to put together
a
> jigsaw puzzle where there are too many pieces.
>
> best
>
> > It's probably also impossible to achieve a Unified
> > Theory that everybody is going to find satisfactory, but it's fun
trying.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3519
> ********************************
>