Matthew Roth,
There are indeed plenty of people left out of the index. The names of the people in town who made various remarks which Kinbote found stupid or thoughtless -- for example, the name of the woman who told Kinbote face to face that he was insane -- are left out. This is because, regardless of the preferences of any of the fictional characters, the novelist is obliged to include whatever will move forward the action of the novel. In a work of art, the autobiographer does not really have the last word -- the artist (VN) does.
Andrew Brown
On 11/20/06 5:14 PM, "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@GSS.UCSB.EDU> wrote:
> From: Don Johnson
>
> In re Matthew Roth's query below --- the Index is VN's device for tipping off
> the reader to all sorts of things. It is probably indispensable to "full"
> understabding of the book.
> ---------------------------------
>
>>> The Botkin entry in the index should not be misleading at all, if we
>> keep
>> in
>>> mind that it is Kinbote who compiled the index, and since he is
>> actually
>>> Botkin claiming to be Kinbote and Zembla's king, he would take great
>> pains
>>> to cover any track which might lead to or betray his true identity.
>> Remember his sarcastic tone when Botkin's name comes up.
>>>
>>> A. Bouazza.
>>
>> If this is the case, why include Botkin at all in the commentary or
>> index? Kinbote certainly leaves plenty of people out of the latter.
>>
>> Matthew Roth
>>
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>
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