S. Soloviev: "... 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
-
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 ...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...
JM : The gist of
SS's introdutory remarks escaped me, but if the tone was derisive (
describing me as a "glad follower" and Matt as a
beguiled Adam - in Paradise I hope ) it was also instigating. But
first, I must apologise to CK and Matt, and concede them their point. I
separated a cartload of books and could not find one small example of
another poet's inclusion of a self-addressed "note for further use" in a
poem. As SS has pointed out, VN's lines fit in so
well that I experienced a "déjà vu/lu"), instead of recognizing
their originality. Second: In an old posting I mentioned a link bt. one of
Kinbote's explanations in the foreword and this "note to himself". It may
be pertinent ( or not) and I hope I can quote it
soon, while the PF discussion is still going on ( PF
discussion's afterlife is still surprisingly lively or whatever comes
after life).
Kinbote's own foreword might
hopefuly help to clarify if
(a) Shade alone scanned right
this innovative poetic device;
(b) Kinbote/Shade symptomatically blended
private and public messages into his/their poem/book;
(c) Kinbote,
alone, was up to mischief and confessed his intrusions...
SS: One may notice though
that he replaced "commentary" by "footnotes"...
JM: Well done, SS, to call our
attention to the substitution of "commentary" and "footnotes"!
Thanks...
To facilitate this
notice to the List I here copied Kinbote's Lines 939-940:
Man’s life,
etc....If I correctly understand the sense of this succinct observation,
our poet suggests here that human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast
obscure unfinished masterpiece.
Now I think we could place these
lines closer to the other ones with their "disjointed notes" to see
what comes out of that!
Instead of
poetry divinely terse,/ Disjointed notes, Insomnia’s mean
verse!/ Life is a message scribbled in the
dark. Anonymous./ Espied on a pine’s
bark...