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----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 8:42 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3533
>
> pynchon-l-digest Thursday, September 4 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3533
>
>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Subject: Re: NPPF Aunt Maud
>
> on 2/9/03 11:40 AM, Don Corathers wrote:
>
> > Lines 86-90: Aunt Maud
> >
> > I think this group is already a bit ahead of where the author expected
his
> > readers to be at this point in plumbing Maud's eccentricities.
>
> The thing that strikes me about this entry is just how thoroughly wrong
> Kinbote's interpretation of the poem is. He writes: "At her [Maud's]
death,
> Hazel (born 1934) was not exactly a 'babe' as implied in line 90."
>
> I don't for the life of me see that this is a relevant criticism of line
90.
>
> One wonders though -- Kinbote answering Keith here perhaps -- whether
there
> is something in this superimposition of Hazel onto Maud. Given the lesbian
> and incest speculations, the mirroring effects in the goings-on in the
> Zemblan court and the Shade household, the lack of any mention in the poem
> of Maud's presence as Hazel was growing up, and Hazel's latent emotional
> disorders, is there cause to consider Maud as *Hazel's* seducer? Perhaps
the
> imagery in Shade's poem is a subconscious manifestation of the *parental*
> shame and remorse he has tried to submerge since his daughter's suicide?
>
> best
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 06:21:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF That'd be up the butt, Bob [was Comm 2: My bedroom, part
2 (tendril)]
>
> - --- Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net> wrote:
> > I think I 've figured this out, at some cost to my moral serenity: with
no
> "secondary homosexual complications" Kinbote is assuring us he's not
Fleur's
> back-door man, either.
>
> I think you're making this into a "bush vet" thing, but that's OK 'cause
who
> really cares?
>
> DM
>>
>
> >
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 06:43:11 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
>
> Botkin (a professor of Russian cescent is supposed to have created Kinbote
(who
> created Charles) who thus never lived next door to Shade, and thus never
had
> the oppurtunity to steal the poem. It only takes a half-step to realize
Botkin
> (and thus N) as the single author, so I don't think the liberties I've
taken in
> describing his thesis are too grand. If Shade still authored the poem,
this
> thesis makes no account for how Botkin ended up with it.
>
> DM
>
> - --- Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net> wrote:
> > Hold on, there, pardner. The thesis of the paper is that Kinbote is
Botkin's
> > creation and that Botkin (bodkin, note correct spelling) is "the
instrument
> > Nabokov uses to pierce the material of the novel without causing any
snags
> > or runs that would give away his presence too easily, allowing his entry
> > into the text to remain stealthy."
> >
> > I've only had time to read half and skim half, but I don't think there's
> > anything in there about about Kinbote as author of the poem. Kaplan
> > addresses single author theories very briefly at the bottom of page 1
> > (online--if you print it it'll be page 5), and includes Shade as a free
> > agent under contract to Nabokov.
>
> __________________________________
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 10:14:47 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 3: C.90-121 notes (1)
>
> p. 114
> "A Luna" ... "a large, tailed, pale green moth, the caterpillar of which
> feeds on the hickory."
>
> The Luna moth: "a light-green moth that has long, curving tails on its
> hindwings and distinctive eyespots on all four wings. This nocturnal
insect
> is found in deciduous hardwood forests in North America."
>
>
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/activities/printouts/Lun
> amothprintout.shtml
>
> We're not supposed to interpret colors as symbols (especially not green!),
> but we can trace connections between passages featuring them. "Pale" -
Pale
> Fire etc, "green" - the green door and room in C.130 etc, "moth" -
mirrors,
> Gradus ("batlike moth" on 123), butterflies (everywhere) etc, so this is
an
> image that collects several motifs (a nexus of patterns?) nominally linked
> to the moon (which has served that same purpose for a multitude of
artists).
>
> p. 114
> "Aunt Maud had been pasting clippings of an involuntarily ludicrous or
> grotesque nature"
>
> Assuming I've read it correctly, the implication is that Aunt Maud's act
of
> cutting and pasting the clippings has transformed them into the ludicrous
or
> grotesque (Aunt Maud again as despoiler or corrupter?) -- although it is
> Kinbote who describes them this way. That her clippings should be
> "involuntarily ludicrous and grotesque" is an interesting judgment coming
> from Kinbote -- Aunt Maud has clipped these ads for a purpose other than
> what their publisher had foreseen, and so she's Kinboted Life Magazine
> (Kinboted Life?).
>
> We are told the first and the last of these clippings "intercommunicate
most
> pleasingly." Alpha and Omega joined again.
>
> p. 114
> "pudibundity":
>
> An odd word that OED doesn't know. A search turns up some peculiar
results
> - -- see for yourself:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=pudibundity
>
> The context here is of Aunt Maud's clippings from Life Magazine, "so
justly
> famed for its pudibundity in regard to the mysteries of the male sex"
(114).
> The two example clippings each contain images of females admiring males --
> was she interested in the males, in the admiring females, or both? Was
she
> operating from some sense of irony? Desire? Were these clippings
> pornographic for her?
>
> Maud has also clipped out the "On Chapman's Homer" newspaper article
> (thumbtacked to the door, not pasted to the scrapbook), again stripping
> content from context.
>
> p. 115
> "a modern Eve worshipfully peeping from behind a potted tree of knowledge"
>
> Much as American life is coerced into the frames of Life Magazine's pages,
> all of knowledge is potted for the modern Eve.
>
> p. 115
> "Nothing beats a fig leaf"
>
> See p. 86 for Kinbote's other problems with optics and uncooperative
> vegetation.
>
> p. 115
> "the paperweight" -- see ln 61 for paperclip
>
> Shade's poem "Mountain View" (presumably it's Shade's) continues this
theme
> of abstracting ideas and images into reductive forms, this time the image
> and memory of a mountain view encapsulated into a paperweight. "The
> mountain is too weak to wait" is reminiscent of Shade's mountain/fountain
> concerns in Canto Three.
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 10:15:44 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 3: C.90-121 notes (2)
>
> pg 116
> "misprint": Kinbote has no knowledge of baseball, so he thinks "Red Sox
Beat
> Yanks 5-4 On Chapman's Homer" is a misprint, completely missing the joke.
> He says parenthetically that the Keats' poem is "often quoted in America."
> Was that the case in the 50s? (It sure isn't now.) See also 117 where
> Kinbote confuses "bounced a ball or swung a bat" for soccer and cricket.
He
> seems eminently qualified to comment on the work of this American poet,
no?
>
> pg 116
> "No free man needs a God"
> See p 89 for Shade as "agnostic friend," p. 223 for Kinbote's Christian
> polemic and belief system.
>
> p. 116
> "iridule"
>
> Kinbote believes Shade invented this term, yet the Zemblan language has a
> word for it?
>
> p. 116
> "peacock-herl", "alder"
>
> The owner of Kinbote's motor court is right -- it's artificial bait for
fly
> fishing (cost you $1.27 at iflyshop.com) that can form the body for an
alder
> fly (among others). It's often used to tie "nymphs" (a kind of lure).
>
> http://www.about-flyfishing.com/library/flyswap2/blbeadnymph.htm
> http://www.alaskaflyfishingonline.com/afb/princenymph.html
>
> pg 117
> "Sutton", "recombination of letters taken from two names, one beginning in
> 'Sut,' the other ending in 'ton.'"
>
> See p. 236 where K notes that "real-life characters, except members of the
> family, of course, are pseudonymized in the poem" (with the exception of
> Prof. Starover Blue). Presumably this is the case with Dr. Sutton,
although
> I'm curious if there's enough evidence here to piece together the actual
> names of the "two distinguished medical men" represented as Sutton.
>
> p 117
> "In the Middle Ages and hour was equal to 480 ounces of fine sand or
22,560
> atoms"
>
> More merging of time and space in measurement. Has anyone been able to
> verify this assertion of 480 ounces and 22,560 atoms?
>
> There are 480 grains in one troy ounce (based on the supposed weight of
the
> barley grain), so 480 is an important number when it comes to measuring
> precious metals like gold -- one troy ounce of gold equals 480 grains
> (compute the value of gold grains by dividing its current market value by
> 480).
>
> p. 117
> "Gradus the Gunman was getting ready to leave Zembla for his steady
> blunderings through two hemispheres"
>
> Trying to connect this with some famous villain. Anyone? This one's
> admittedly tenuous (but interesting for the obvious reasons):
>
> John Francis (yes!) attempted to shoot Queen Victoria in 1842 while she
rode
> in an open carriage. He failed (like Gradus he was a blunderer) but
managed
> to escape. Victoria's police chief, Sir Robert Peel, convinced Victoria
to
> travel along the same route at the same time in case Francis decided to
try
> again. Francis did try again and this time was caught. Victoria wanted
him
> hanged but Peel had him shipped off to Australia (sending the gunman
across
> two hemispheres).
>
>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/society/deary_gallery_08.shtml
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> (I'll hold off on the big C.130 note for a few days out of respect for the
> revised schedule)
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 07:22:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Aunt Maud
>
> - --- jbor <jbor@bigpond.com> wrote:
> >
> > One wonders though -- Kinbote answering Keith here perhaps -- whether
there
> > is something in this superimposition of Hazel onto Maud. Given the
lesbian
> > and incest speculations, the mirroring effects in the goings-on in the
> > Zemblan court and the Shade household, the lack of any mention in the
poem
> > of Maud's presence as Hazel was growing up, and Hazel's latent emotional
> > disorders, is there cause to consider Maud as *Hazel's* seducer? Perhaps
the
> > imagery in Shade's poem is a subconscious manifestation of the
*parental*
> > shame and remorse he has tried to submerge since his daughter's suicide?
>
> Hazel is sixteen when Maude dies, well into high school, so it is curious
that
> she is invisible in any interaction with Hazel (or Sybil) in the poem.
Shade's
> occupation of the house is continuous from childhood through his own
death.
> Woldn't it seem likely that Maude would stay on there as well? BTW, I
> speculated Maude's abuse of Hazel and Shade's guilt a long while back, but
the
> evidence is so thin...
>
> DM
>
> __________________________________
com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 10:35:52 -0400
> From: <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
>
> Sorry, that's not the way I read it.
>
> Botkin created the *identity* of Kinbote, not a fictional character named
Kinbote. He did live next door to Shade, who wrote a 999-line poem titled
"Pale Fire." Living in New Wye and teaching at Wordsmith, Botkin used the
name Kinbote and believed his real name was Charles II, but his passport
said he was a Russian immigrant named V. Botkin.
>
> Don
>
> >
> > From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> > Date: 2003/09/04 Thu AM 09:43:11 EDT
> > To: Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net>, pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
> >
> >
> > Botkin (a professor of Russian cescent is supposed to have created
Kinbote (who
> > created Charles) who thus never lived next door to Shade, and thus never
had
> > the oppurtunity to steal the poem. It only takes a half-step to realize
Botkin
> > (and thus N) as the single author, so I don't think the liberties I've
taken in
> > describing his thesis are too grand. If Shade still authored the poem,
this
> > thesis makes no account for how Botkin ended up with it.
> >
> > DM
> >
> > --- Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net> wrote:
> > > Hold on, there, pardner. The thesis of the paper is that Kinbote is
Botkin's
> > > creation and that Botkin (bodkin, note correct spelling) is "the
instrument
> > > Nabokov uses to pierce the material of the novel without causing any
snags
> > > or runs that would give away his presence too easily, allowing his
entry
> > > into the text to remain stealthy."
> > >
> > > I've only had time to read half and skim half, but I don't think
there's
> > > anything in there about about Kinbote as author of the poem. Kaplan
> > > addresses single author theories very briefly at the bottom of page 1
> > > (online--if you print it it'll be page 5), and includes Shade as a
free
> > > agent under contract to Nabokov.
> >
> > __________________________________
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 08:14:44 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 3: C.90-121 notes (2)
>
> p. 117
> "Gradus the Gunman was getting ready to leave Zembla for his steady
> blunderings through two hemispheres"
>
> Blunderings through the hemispheres of a seized brain.
>
>
> OK, I can see that take, and I don't think it matters whether this is
exactly
> how Kaplan meant it (and I'm not saying he didn't). But ultimately what
is the
> value of a Botkin existing at all, whether another as a layer beneath
Kinbote's
> madness or as a genius creator of a fictional construct which includes
> authorship of a poem, other than, as Kaplan posits, for Nabokov to poke
his own
> identity into the text. It's a fun minor-riddle but doesn't go anywhere.
It
> doesn't get us any deeper into Kinbote's or Shade's lives because it
doesn't do
> anything but dead-end into a person named Botkin.
>
> David Morris
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 11:37:02 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Aunt Maud
>
> > The thing that strikes me about this entry is just how thoroughly wrong
> > Kinbote's interpretation of the poem is. He writes: "At her [Maud's]
death,
> > Hazel (born 1934) was not exactly a 'babe' as implied in line 90."
> >
> > I don't for the life of me see that this is a relevant criticism of line
90.
>
> Yeah, but most of commentary is like this.
>
> The Dear Aunt Maud with the noble head in the poem is eccentric, no
> doubt, but she is after all an artist. She raised the poet. And her
> death, her dying, inspires some beautiful lines, themes.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 11:39:54 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
>
> But ultimately what is the
> > value of a Botkin existing at all, whether another as a layer beneath
Kinbote's
> > madness or as a genius creator of a fictional construct which includes
> > authorship of a poem, other than, as Kaplan posits, for Nabokov to poke
his own
> > identity into the text.
>
> Isn't that what Pale Fire is about? Authors poking their identities into
> the texts?
>
> ------------------------------
> with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 8:42 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3533
>
> pynchon-l-digest Thursday, September 4 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3533
>
>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Subject: Re: NPPF Aunt Maud
>
> on 2/9/03 11:40 AM, Don Corathers wrote:
>
> > Lines 86-90: Aunt Maud
> >
> > I think this group is already a bit ahead of where the author expected
his
> > readers to be at this point in plumbing Maud's eccentricities.
>
> The thing that strikes me about this entry is just how thoroughly wrong
> Kinbote's interpretation of the poem is. He writes: "At her [Maud's]
death,
> Hazel (born 1934) was not exactly a 'babe' as implied in line 90."
>
> I don't for the life of me see that this is a relevant criticism of line
90.
>
> One wonders though -- Kinbote answering Keith here perhaps -- whether
there
> is something in this superimposition of Hazel onto Maud. Given the lesbian
> and incest speculations, the mirroring effects in the goings-on in the
> Zemblan court and the Shade household, the lack of any mention in the poem
> of Maud's presence as Hazel was growing up, and Hazel's latent emotional
> disorders, is there cause to consider Maud as *Hazel's* seducer? Perhaps
the
> imagery in Shade's poem is a subconscious manifestation of the *parental*
> shame and remorse he has tried to submerge since his daughter's suicide?
>
> best
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 06:21:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF That'd be up the butt, Bob [was Comm 2: My bedroom, part
2 (tendril)]
>
> - --- Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net> wrote:
> > I think I 've figured this out, at some cost to my moral serenity: with
no
> "secondary homosexual complications" Kinbote is assuring us he's not
Fleur's
> back-door man, either.
>
> I think you're making this into a "bush vet" thing, but that's OK 'cause
who
> really cares?
>
> DM
>>
>
> >
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 06:43:11 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
>
> Botkin (a professor of Russian cescent is supposed to have created Kinbote
(who
> created Charles) who thus never lived next door to Shade, and thus never
had
> the oppurtunity to steal the poem. It only takes a half-step to realize
Botkin
> (and thus N) as the single author, so I don't think the liberties I've
taken in
> describing his thesis are too grand. If Shade still authored the poem,
this
> thesis makes no account for how Botkin ended up with it.
>
> DM
>
> - --- Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net> wrote:
> > Hold on, there, pardner. The thesis of the paper is that Kinbote is
Botkin's
> > creation and that Botkin (bodkin, note correct spelling) is "the
instrument
> > Nabokov uses to pierce the material of the novel without causing any
snags
> > or runs that would give away his presence too easily, allowing his entry
> > into the text to remain stealthy."
> >
> > I've only had time to read half and skim half, but I don't think there's
> > anything in there about about Kinbote as author of the poem. Kaplan
> > addresses single author theories very briefly at the bottom of page 1
> > (online--if you print it it'll be page 5), and includes Shade as a free
> > agent under contract to Nabokov.
>
> __________________________________
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 10:14:47 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 3: C.90-121 notes (1)
>
> p. 114
> "A Luna" ... "a large, tailed, pale green moth, the caterpillar of which
> feeds on the hickory."
>
> The Luna moth: "a light-green moth that has long, curving tails on its
> hindwings and distinctive eyespots on all four wings. This nocturnal
insect
> is found in deciduous hardwood forests in North America."
>
>
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/activities/printouts/Lun
> amothprintout.shtml
>
> We're not supposed to interpret colors as symbols (especially not green!),
> but we can trace connections between passages featuring them. "Pale" -
Pale
> Fire etc, "green" - the green door and room in C.130 etc, "moth" -
mirrors,
> Gradus ("batlike moth" on 123), butterflies (everywhere) etc, so this is
an
> image that collects several motifs (a nexus of patterns?) nominally linked
> to the moon (which has served that same purpose for a multitude of
artists).
>
> p. 114
> "Aunt Maud had been pasting clippings of an involuntarily ludicrous or
> grotesque nature"
>
> Assuming I've read it correctly, the implication is that Aunt Maud's act
of
> cutting and pasting the clippings has transformed them into the ludicrous
or
> grotesque (Aunt Maud again as despoiler or corrupter?) -- although it is
> Kinbote who describes them this way. That her clippings should be
> "involuntarily ludicrous and grotesque" is an interesting judgment coming
> from Kinbote -- Aunt Maud has clipped these ads for a purpose other than
> what their publisher had foreseen, and so she's Kinboted Life Magazine
> (Kinboted Life?).
>
> We are told the first and the last of these clippings "intercommunicate
most
> pleasingly." Alpha and Omega joined again.
>
> p. 114
> "pudibundity":
>
> An odd word that OED doesn't know. A search turns up some peculiar
results
> - -- see for yourself:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=pudibundity
>
> The context here is of Aunt Maud's clippings from Life Magazine, "so
justly
> famed for its pudibundity in regard to the mysteries of the male sex"
(114).
> The two example clippings each contain images of females admiring males --
> was she interested in the males, in the admiring females, or both? Was
she
> operating from some sense of irony? Desire? Were these clippings
> pornographic for her?
>
> Maud has also clipped out the "On Chapman's Homer" newspaper article
> (thumbtacked to the door, not pasted to the scrapbook), again stripping
> content from context.
>
> p. 115
> "a modern Eve worshipfully peeping from behind a potted tree of knowledge"
>
> Much as American life is coerced into the frames of Life Magazine's pages,
> all of knowledge is potted for the modern Eve.
>
> p. 115
> "Nothing beats a fig leaf"
>
> See p. 86 for Kinbote's other problems with optics and uncooperative
> vegetation.
>
> p. 115
> "the paperweight" -- see ln 61 for paperclip
>
> Shade's poem "Mountain View" (presumably it's Shade's) continues this
theme
> of abstracting ideas and images into reductive forms, this time the image
> and memory of a mountain view encapsulated into a paperweight. "The
> mountain is too weak to wait" is reminiscent of Shade's mountain/fountain
> concerns in Canto Three.
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 10:15:44 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 3: C.90-121 notes (2)
>
> pg 116
> "misprint": Kinbote has no knowledge of baseball, so he thinks "Red Sox
Beat
> Yanks 5-4 On Chapman's Homer" is a misprint, completely missing the joke.
> He says parenthetically that the Keats' poem is "often quoted in America."
> Was that the case in the 50s? (It sure isn't now.) See also 117 where
> Kinbote confuses "bounced a ball or swung a bat" for soccer and cricket.
He
> seems eminently qualified to comment on the work of this American poet,
no?
>
> pg 116
> "No free man needs a God"
> See p 89 for Shade as "agnostic friend," p. 223 for Kinbote's Christian
> polemic and belief system.
>
> p. 116
> "iridule"
>
> Kinbote believes Shade invented this term, yet the Zemblan language has a
> word for it?
>
> p. 116
> "peacock-herl", "alder"
>
> The owner of Kinbote's motor court is right -- it's artificial bait for
fly
> fishing (cost you $1.27 at iflyshop.com) that can form the body for an
alder
> fly (among others). It's often used to tie "nymphs" (a kind of lure).
>
> http://www.about-flyfishing.com/library/flyswap2/blbeadnymph.htm
> http://www.alaskaflyfishingonline.com/afb/princenymph.html
>
> pg 117
> "Sutton", "recombination of letters taken from two names, one beginning in
> 'Sut,' the other ending in 'ton.'"
>
> See p. 236 where K notes that "real-life characters, except members of the
> family, of course, are pseudonymized in the poem" (with the exception of
> Prof. Starover Blue). Presumably this is the case with Dr. Sutton,
although
> I'm curious if there's enough evidence here to piece together the actual
> names of the "two distinguished medical men" represented as Sutton.
>
> p 117
> "In the Middle Ages and hour was equal to 480 ounces of fine sand or
22,560
> atoms"
>
> More merging of time and space in measurement. Has anyone been able to
> verify this assertion of 480 ounces and 22,560 atoms?
>
> There are 480 grains in one troy ounce (based on the supposed weight of
the
> barley grain), so 480 is an important number when it comes to measuring
> precious metals like gold -- one troy ounce of gold equals 480 grains
> (compute the value of gold grains by dividing its current market value by
> 480).
>
> p. 117
> "Gradus the Gunman was getting ready to leave Zembla for his steady
> blunderings through two hemispheres"
>
> Trying to connect this with some famous villain. Anyone? This one's
> admittedly tenuous (but interesting for the obvious reasons):
>
> John Francis (yes!) attempted to shoot Queen Victoria in 1842 while she
rode
> in an open carriage. He failed (like Gradus he was a blunderer) but
managed
> to escape. Victoria's police chief, Sir Robert Peel, convinced Victoria
to
> travel along the same route at the same time in case Francis decided to
try
> again. Francis did try again and this time was caught. Victoria wanted
him
> hanged but Peel had him shipped off to Australia (sending the gunman
across
> two hemispheres).
>
>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/society/deary_gallery_08.shtml
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> (I'll hold off on the big C.130 note for a few days out of respect for the
> revised schedule)
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 07:22:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Aunt Maud
>
> - --- jbor <jbor@bigpond.com> wrote:
> >
> > One wonders though -- Kinbote answering Keith here perhaps -- whether
there
> > is something in this superimposition of Hazel onto Maud. Given the
lesbian
> > and incest speculations, the mirroring effects in the goings-on in the
> > Zemblan court and the Shade household, the lack of any mention in the
poem
> > of Maud's presence as Hazel was growing up, and Hazel's latent emotional
> > disorders, is there cause to consider Maud as *Hazel's* seducer? Perhaps
the
> > imagery in Shade's poem is a subconscious manifestation of the
*parental*
> > shame and remorse he has tried to submerge since his daughter's suicide?
>
> Hazel is sixteen when Maude dies, well into high school, so it is curious
that
> she is invisible in any interaction with Hazel (or Sybil) in the poem.
Shade's
> occupation of the house is continuous from childhood through his own
death.
> Woldn't it seem likely that Maude would stay on there as well? BTW, I
> speculated Maude's abuse of Hazel and Shade's guilt a long while back, but
the
> evidence is so thin...
>
> DM
>
> __________________________________
com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 10:35:52 -0400
> From: <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
>
> Sorry, that's not the way I read it.
>
> Botkin created the *identity* of Kinbote, not a fictional character named
Kinbote. He did live next door to Shade, who wrote a 999-line poem titled
"Pale Fire." Living in New Wye and teaching at Wordsmith, Botkin used the
name Kinbote and believed his real name was Charles II, but his passport
said he was a Russian immigrant named V. Botkin.
>
> Don
>
> >
> > From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> > Date: 2003/09/04 Thu AM 09:43:11 EDT
> > To: Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net>, pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
> >
> >
> > Botkin (a professor of Russian cescent is supposed to have created
Kinbote (who
> > created Charles) who thus never lived next door to Shade, and thus never
had
> > the oppurtunity to steal the poem. It only takes a half-step to realize
Botkin
> > (and thus N) as the single author, so I don't think the liberties I've
taken in
> > describing his thesis are too grand. If Shade still authored the poem,
this
> > thesis makes no account for how Botkin ended up with it.
> >
> > DM
> >
> > --- Don Corathers <gumbo@fuse.net> wrote:
> > > Hold on, there, pardner. The thesis of the paper is that Kinbote is
Botkin's
> > > creation and that Botkin (bodkin, note correct spelling) is "the
instrument
> > > Nabokov uses to pierce the material of the novel without causing any
snags
> > > or runs that would give away his presence too easily, allowing his
entry
> > > into the text to remain stealthy."
> > >
> > > I've only had time to read half and skim half, but I don't think
there's
> > > anything in there about about Kinbote as author of the poem. Kaplan
> > > addresses single author theories very briefly at the bottom of page 1
> > > (online--if you print it it'll be page 5), and includes Shade as a
free
> > > agent under contract to Nabokov.
> >
> > __________________________________
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 08:14:44 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 3: C.90-121 notes (2)
>
> p. 117
> "Gradus the Gunman was getting ready to leave Zembla for his steady
> blunderings through two hemispheres"
>
> Blunderings through the hemispheres of a seized brain.
>
>
> OK, I can see that take, and I don't think it matters whether this is
exactly
> how Kaplan meant it (and I'm not saying he didn't). But ultimately what
is the
> value of a Botkin existing at all, whether another as a layer beneath
Kinbote's
> madness or as a genius creator of a fictional construct which includes
> authorship of a poem, other than, as Kaplan posits, for Nabokov to poke
his own
> identity into the text. It's a fun minor-riddle but doesn't go anywhere.
It
> doesn't get us any deeper into Kinbote's or Shade's lives because it
doesn't do
> anything but dead-end into a person named Botkin.
>
> David Morris
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 11:37:02 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Aunt Maud
>
> > The thing that strikes me about this entry is just how thoroughly wrong
> > Kinbote's interpretation of the poem is. He writes: "At her [Maud's]
death,
> > Hazel (born 1934) was not exactly a 'babe' as implied in line 90."
> >
> > I don't for the life of me see that this is a relevant criticism of line
90.
>
> Yeah, but most of commentary is like this.
>
> The Dear Aunt Maud with the noble head in the poem is eccentric, no
> doubt, but she is after all an artist. She raised the poet. And her
> death, her dying, inspires some beautiful lines, themes.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 11:39:54 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
>
> But ultimately what is the
> > value of a Botkin existing at all, whether another as a layer beneath
Kinbote's
> > madness or as a genius creator of a fictional construct which includes
> > authorship of a poem, other than, as Kaplan posits, for Nabokov to poke
his own
> > identity into the text.
>
> Isn't that what Pale Fire is about? Authors poking their identities into
> the texts?
>
> ------------------------------
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