Subject
Pale Fire: Who Killed John Shade? (fwd)
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I've found the Shadean theory troublesome from the time the Boyd biography
was first reviewed in The New Republic, and I must agree with this
reader's tacit conclusion: Gradus did not exist, and Kinbote killed John
Shade. The evidence is overwhelming, and any other conclusion is grasping
at straws.
The basic framework? An insane college professor moves next door to the
object of his obsession, formulates a complex world involving a
self-fulfilling assassination prophesy, as schizophrenics are wont to do,
and afterwards publishes his apology.
Nabokov is famous for his understanding of the insane; 'Signs and Symbols'
being a perfect example. The inconsistencies that Boyd claims prove a
bizarre theory are only inconsistent because Pale Fire, unlike 'Signs and
Symbols', is written by the insane, not about him.
At 13:18 12/12/97 -0800, you wrote:
>EDITOR's NOTE. In re thequery below....: A succunct survey of PF may be
>found in Pekka Tammi's "Pale Fire" essay in _The Garland Companion to VN_
>ed. Vladimir Alexandrov.
>
>--------------------
>I just finished my first reading of "Pale Fire," and am left with a few
>concerns.
>
>What's the general consensus (if any) in the Nabokov community concerning
>which aspects of Kinbote's story are fact and which are fiction? Can we
>assume that it's all a fanciful invention?
>
>My initial impression is that there is/was a John Shade, and a "Charles
>Kinbote," and they knew each other. Aside from that, though, what do we
>have to go on? Is all of Zembla an invention? If so, then the Shadows must
>be an invention, and if this is the case, there is no Gradus, and so how did
>John Shade die?
>
>Are these necessarily unanswerable questions? Is this all part of VN's
>trap? Have we, as readers, been duped?
>
>I understand that we are supposed to hold most of Kinbote's story as highly
>suspect (and often very funny)---but is there an underlying *truth*, i.e. a
>basic framework of "actual events" (in the context of the novel, of course)
>that Kinbote draped his fantasy over? Or is it all just NV's deception?
>
>I realize these are probably all the common questions that a newbie asks
>about this book, so forgive me...
>
>Thanks,
>
>Tony R.
>
>
>****************************************************************************
>*******
> Anthony Robinson http://rio.com/~antrobin
> "These are the days of Miracle and Wonder...."
> Paul Simon
>"With writing, I find, you can have all the right ingredients, give plenty
>of time
>and care, and still get nothing. Also true of love. Cooking, therefore, can
>keep a
>person who tries hard sane." - John Irving, The World According to Garp
>****************************************************************************
>********
>
>
was first reviewed in The New Republic, and I must agree with this
reader's tacit conclusion: Gradus did not exist, and Kinbote killed John
Shade. The evidence is overwhelming, and any other conclusion is grasping
at straws.
The basic framework? An insane college professor moves next door to the
object of his obsession, formulates a complex world involving a
self-fulfilling assassination prophesy, as schizophrenics are wont to do,
and afterwards publishes his apology.
Nabokov is famous for his understanding of the insane; 'Signs and Symbols'
being a perfect example. The inconsistencies that Boyd claims prove a
bizarre theory are only inconsistent because Pale Fire, unlike 'Signs and
Symbols', is written by the insane, not about him.
At 13:18 12/12/97 -0800, you wrote:
>EDITOR's NOTE. In re thequery below....: A succunct survey of PF may be
>found in Pekka Tammi's "Pale Fire" essay in _The Garland Companion to VN_
>ed. Vladimir Alexandrov.
>
>--------------------
>I just finished my first reading of "Pale Fire," and am left with a few
>concerns.
>
>What's the general consensus (if any) in the Nabokov community concerning
>which aspects of Kinbote's story are fact and which are fiction? Can we
>assume that it's all a fanciful invention?
>
>My initial impression is that there is/was a John Shade, and a "Charles
>Kinbote," and they knew each other. Aside from that, though, what do we
>have to go on? Is all of Zembla an invention? If so, then the Shadows must
>be an invention, and if this is the case, there is no Gradus, and so how did
>John Shade die?
>
>Are these necessarily unanswerable questions? Is this all part of VN's
>trap? Have we, as readers, been duped?
>
>I understand that we are supposed to hold most of Kinbote's story as highly
>suspect (and often very funny)---but is there an underlying *truth*, i.e. a
>basic framework of "actual events" (in the context of the novel, of course)
>that Kinbote draped his fantasy over? Or is it all just NV's deception?
>
>I realize these are probably all the common questions that a newbie asks
>about this book, so forgive me...
>
>Thanks,
>
>Tony R.
>
>
>****************************************************************************
>*******
> Anthony Robinson http://rio.com/~antrobin
> "These are the days of Miracle and Wonder...."
> Paul Simon
>"With writing, I find, you can have all the right ingredients, give plenty
>of time
>and care, and still get nothing. Also true of love. Cooking, therefore, can
>keep a
>person who tries hard sane." - John Irving, The World According to Garp
>****************************************************************************
>********
>
>