-------- Original Message --------
As usual, the arguments of the adepts of "multiple personality theory"
seem to me shaky - Carolyn is known to be a master of provoctive
arguments,
Jansy, being a psychoanalyst follows gladly, Matt fells to the old
temptation again... Anyway -
I re-read a poem and (imho)these two lines,
Man's life...
... Note for further use.
a)fit well enough this part of the poem, since one of main themes
here is afterlife, so, "further use" might be the use in afterlife;
btw it gives the wholly new meaning to OUR reading of the poem - it
may be seen as a kind of an extratextual metaphor - our life is
an afterlife with respect to the life "inside" the book, so, what
is the afterlife with respect to our lives? My guess is that this might
sufficiently interest VN himslef to put these slightly puzzling lines
into the poem.
b) another possibility is that it was indeed a note for further
use not intended for the main text of the poem, and it was Kinbote
who included it in the main text - again, we are at his mercy
here, whe have to believe him; his motivation is then that it looks
flattering to himself and his role as a commentator.
Notice that the comments to these lines are very "anorexic", as usual
when Kinbote doesn't want to attract our attention to something
very important to him. (A part of his own deep self.)
Contrary to his usual arrogance he says nothing
substantial. "If I correctly (!) understand..." and then follows
some babbling reformulation of Shade's words.
One may notice though that he replaced "commentary" by "footnotes"
and "unfinished poem" by "vast obscure unfinished masterpiece".
Shade's poem is not vast, and the word "masterpiece" is more vague,
probably he would like to substitute his own "oeuvre" but doesn't dare.
Best regards to all -
Sergei