I’ve been trying for a few days now to complete a post on the editing examples found in the PF poem, but since that document seems to be growing instead of becoming more concise, I would like to respond very briefly to Matt’s note below.
Briefly, then, Shade’s “note for future use” seems to me to be clear “advanced warning” supplied by VN supporting the ideas I advanced for Sergei that Shade was far from finished with his poem. Not only was the final word as yet unsupplied, the theme itself, and its poetic support, were as yet incomplete.
In contrast to Shade’s legitimate “note to self” Kinbote’s gaffe in the foreword, an ineptly inscribed direction to the printer, not caught by either a professional publishing house proofreader or by the self-designated editor — is another indication of a manuscript far from ready for printing. This clumsy novice’s error, along with the anguished cry for help at the noises he hears beyond his cabin, are early warnings of the pretender’s unsuitability for the task he has presumptuously, unethically, arrogated to himself. Kinbote/Botkin’s editing has been concentrated more on stitching a delusional Zembla into another man’s work than on faithfully but incompetently trying to help a beloved, respected friend, now deceased.
Andrew Brown
On 1/19/07 8:37 AM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Editing Problems
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:19:48 -0800
From: Matthew Roth <mroth@MESSIAH.EDU> <mailto:mroth@MESSIAH.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Jansy said: "contrary to MR,who wrote: I do like your observation about
the editing problems shared by JS and CK", I confess that I cannot
understand where these shared problems lie."
MR: My understanding of Carolyn's post: John Shade incorporates his "note
for further use" into his poem, even though it doesn't really fit with the
poem and is more apt as a marginal notation. Similarly, though not exactly
in the same way, Kinbote leaves notes to his editor in the text of the
Foreword when they clearly should not be there. In a sense, then, JS and
CK share that trait. I thought it a clever observation, if not definitive.
Matt
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