Subject
Fw: Pale Fire Solutions: Hazel vs Hyde. Problems in &
Alternatives to Boyd on PF
Alternatives to Boyd on PF
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (59
lines) ------------------
> Problems with Boyd's Hazel-solution to Pale Fire
>
> 1) Boyd's connection of the Toothwort White (isn't "toothwort" in the barn
> message?) and the Atalanta would have been a lovely discovery, but Boyd
has
> to go through a lot of contortions in order to force this to solve the
> puzzle posed by Pale Fire. There should be a more instinctual solution to
> be found - at least we should look for it.
>
> 2) If Hazel's manipulations solved the puzzle, the puzzle would be solved.
> There would be no more to discuss. Fortunately I think the next level will
> point to another level, which the Hazel solution does not. Boyd himself
> suspects this.
>
> and 3) If Hazel is pulling all the strings behind both the poem and the
> commentary, then Hazel = VN, an unsatisfactory solution.
>
> Argument for 'Shade is to Kinbote as Jekyll is to Hyde' solution:
>
> There are at least six clues pointing to the identity of Kinbote and Hyde:
>
> 1) meaning of name Kinbote (see Boyd's footnote in LoA edition). One of
the
> first sightings of Mr Hyde in RLS's story is when he is cornered and
forced
> to pay reparations for injury he has inflicted;
>
> 2) There is a reference to another Edward Hyde (identified as a reference
by
> Boyd in a footnote in Library of America edition);
>
> 3) Kinbote as author of book on surnames and reference to such a book in
> VN's essay on Jekyll & Hyde in "Lectures on Literature";
>
> 4) There is a reference to another RLS story, "The Bottle Imp" in the note
> to line 171
>
> 5) The clue of Mr Shade and Dr Kinbote; and
>
> 6) the cheval glass in the palace (note to line 80) comes from Hyde's
> lodgings.
>
> One of the nicest aspects of this solution is that it can be solved by any
> reader with general knowledge and it is an instinctual solution;
>
> This solution allows us to discover another level of meaning in the text
of
> the poem and in some of the notes to the commentary (I have been trying to
> draw attention to these in recent postings);
>
> This solution points to another problem which we may now try to solve. If
> Kinbote = Shade = Gradus, the reader can now tackle the puzzling nature of
> time in the novel. I suspect that the solution to this will be "a fugue."
> Multiple personality is a form of fugue state (a term less used in
> psychology now than at the time Pale Fire was written, and which term has
> the original twin meanings of chase and flight). Of course a musical
fugue
> is a complicated form in which the same themes and motifs chase and flee
> from each other, overlapping and repeating to form complex
> inter-relationships, inversions, subversions and so on. Kinbote chased by
> Gradus chasing Shade may turn out to be a fugue in two voices (Shade's &
> Kinbote's) or three (+ Nabokov's ?).
>
> Carolyn Kunin
>
From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (59
lines) ------------------
> Problems with Boyd's Hazel-solution to Pale Fire
>
> 1) Boyd's connection of the Toothwort White (isn't "toothwort" in the barn
> message?) and the Atalanta would have been a lovely discovery, but Boyd
has
> to go through a lot of contortions in order to force this to solve the
> puzzle posed by Pale Fire. There should be a more instinctual solution to
> be found - at least we should look for it.
>
> 2) If Hazel's manipulations solved the puzzle, the puzzle would be solved.
> There would be no more to discuss. Fortunately I think the next level will
> point to another level, which the Hazel solution does not. Boyd himself
> suspects this.
>
> and 3) If Hazel is pulling all the strings behind both the poem and the
> commentary, then Hazel = VN, an unsatisfactory solution.
>
> Argument for 'Shade is to Kinbote as Jekyll is to Hyde' solution:
>
> There are at least six clues pointing to the identity of Kinbote and Hyde:
>
> 1) meaning of name Kinbote (see Boyd's footnote in LoA edition). One of
the
> first sightings of Mr Hyde in RLS's story is when he is cornered and
forced
> to pay reparations for injury he has inflicted;
>
> 2) There is a reference to another Edward Hyde (identified as a reference
by
> Boyd in a footnote in Library of America edition);
>
> 3) Kinbote as author of book on surnames and reference to such a book in
> VN's essay on Jekyll & Hyde in "Lectures on Literature";
>
> 4) There is a reference to another RLS story, "The Bottle Imp" in the note
> to line 171
>
> 5) The clue of Mr Shade and Dr Kinbote; and
>
> 6) the cheval glass in the palace (note to line 80) comes from Hyde's
> lodgings.
>
> One of the nicest aspects of this solution is that it can be solved by any
> reader with general knowledge and it is an instinctual solution;
>
> This solution allows us to discover another level of meaning in the text
of
> the poem and in some of the notes to the commentary (I have been trying to
> draw attention to these in recent postings);
>
> This solution points to another problem which we may now try to solve. If
> Kinbote = Shade = Gradus, the reader can now tackle the puzzling nature of
> time in the novel. I suspect that the solution to this will be "a fugue."
> Multiple personality is a form of fugue state (a term less used in
> psychology now than at the time Pale Fire was written, and which term has
> the original twin meanings of chase and flight). Of course a musical
fugue
> is a complicated form in which the same themes and motifs chase and flee
> from each other, overlapping and repeating to form complex
> inter-relationships, inversions, subversions and so on. Kinbote chased by
> Gradus chasing Shade may turn out to be a fugue in two voices (Shade's &
> Kinbote's) or three (+ Nabokov's ?).
>
> Carolyn Kunin
>