JM: Everything2 testimonial by Ikura, posted in Feb 06
2002[...]"My father once told me that ...Nabokov would walk out his front door
and get in his car...He would never clear the snow himself, and he would never
get out of the car while his wife did it."
Joseph Aisenberg:"this is
very amusing. Stacy Schiff, in her book Vera, has similar scenes [...] Pale Fire
doesn't give us quite those kinds of images [...] John Shade seems meant to be
very American, and having him completely attended by his wife as the blogger's
grandfather recalled Nabokov's being attended by his would really stand
out."
JM: American Shade wouldn't
be subserviently attended by Sybill, you mean? And yet she's been portrayed as
his sensible, authoritarian and over-protective dragon - and
she didn't type his cards.
There is always a surprise when one stops to
examine VN's words. For example. Kinbote wrote: My fall
acted as a chemical reagent on the Shades’ sedan..." and I wonder why he said "chemical reagent,"
since a fall would only entail mechanical, not
chemical, consequences. Unless...?