-------- Original Message --------
Dear list,
I am going to be as fact-based as I can be, so as not to dwell too long
in
the land of opinion. In putting together (almost exclusively with the
generous assistance of Jerry Friedman) the Pale Fire Concordance
(palefireconcordance.pbwiki.com) I've noticed more so than ever the
linked
references to pederasty throughout the novel. In particular, references
to
catamites (a corruption of Ganymede), meaning boys kept for homosexual,
pederastic purposes. In addition to the oft-referenced Erlkonig of
Goethe
(as well as Kinbote's references to boy pages and boy students), we see
the
following:
1. Oleg referred to as Charles' "ingle"--meaning catamite.
2. A reference to the tradition of "ingledom" in Zembla.
3. The reference to Gide the Lucid.
4. Kinbote's simile in C.1000, in which he compares his feelings for
the
poem to the feeling "one has for a fickle young creature who has been
stolen and brutally enjoyed by a black giant..."
5. In the index, Kinbote gives us an entry for Igor II (though he
doesn't
appear in the text), in which we learn that Igor kept in Bower P (see
also "Vault P" in the New Wye library) pink marble statues of his "four
hundred favorite catamites."
6. Though it's not a homosexual example, and thus not exactly
catamiting,
Shade gives us that very odd simile in which he compares the feeling of
his
fits to that of an innocent youth molested by a wench (see 3 above).
7. Byron was the first English poet translated into Zemblan, perhaps
because of his own reputation as a keeper of catamites. (speculative)
To this, I would like to add another reference, though it is outside
the
text and admittedly more speculative. I realize that it is dangerous to
expect that VN was somehow referencing multiple texts with the same
allusion. If one plugs the phrase "pale fire" into the Google Books
engine
and limits the results to those occuring before 1950, you get 610
different
sources that include that phrase. Nevertheless, I want to throw one of
them into the mix.
Haste then, Cyllenius, thro' the liquid air;
Go, mount the winds, and to the shades repair;
Bid hell's black monarch my commands obey,
And give up Laius to the realms of day,
Whose ghost yet shiv'ring on Cocytus' sand,
Expects its passage to the further strand:
Let the pale fire revisit Thebes, and bear
These pleasing orders to the tyrant's ear;
This passage is from Alexander Pope's translation of _The First Book of
Statius His Thebais_. In the passage, Mercury (Cyllenius) is sent to
the
underworld in search of the shade of Laius, who has not been allowed to
cross over the river Cocytus (also the name of the frozen lake in the
ninth
circle of Dante's hell). As I understand it, "pale fire" here refers to
Laius's shade, who is supposed to go to Thebes in order to appeal to
Eteocles. But Laius and Thebes also should point us to the following:
1. Laius, before marrying Jocasta, became infatuated with the young boy
Chrysippus. He kidnapped Chrysippus, carried him off and raped him.
Chrysippus was his catamite.
2. Thebes is specifically associated with pederasty. According to
Wikipedia, "Theban pederasty was a social institution by means of which
upper class Theban adolescent boys were educated and entered into adult
responsibilities through a love and sexual relationship with an adult
aristocrat....The tale of Laius and Chrysippus garnered Thebes the
distinction of being, on the mainland, the 'legendary font of Greek
pederasty.'"
Given the importance of the pederasty--specifically of catamites--in
PF,
and given the importance of Pope as a source of allusions in the novel,
I
am given to think that this allusion to "pale fire," while not the
primary
allusion, is intended at the very least by VN, and possibly (though
cloaked) by Shade himself.
Matt Roth apologizes, in the manner of JF, for the length of this post.