Dear Jerry
Yes, but I think he has to pile on too many inventions. It's one
thing to expect readers to infer what a delusional character's
real name is, and another thing to expect us to infer something
with one unprecedented feature after another. The latter would
need much stronger evidence, in my opinion.
I don't have any problem with this. What are the Alice books, beloved by Nabokov, if not one invention after another? And Pale Fire is hardly as fanciful as that. Or perhaps it is? Either way, I accept fiction as fictional.
My feeling is that, to have a complete theory, you need to say
more on this "indicating". Is Kinbote indicating such impacts
purposely or by accident?
By a complete theory I assume you mean one that can explain everything in Pale Fi
re? I have never claimed to be able to do that. There are at least two books whose only subject is Pale Fire, and I don't think either of them claims to be able to explain everything in it. Perhaps you expect too much from me?
Carolyn