Ron Rosenbaum addresses B.Boyd,
and the List: " Is he then, elephant and starfish aside, still
willing to assert that he believes the poem "Pale Fire" was meant by VN to be
taken as written by the ghost of John Shade's dead daughter? I think this is an
important question for the foremost Nabokov biographer to help us clear up[...]
And I'd be interested to see if anyone else on the list subscribes to this
theory of the poem's
authorship. "
JM: There's fiction's fiction
- otherwise we all know that even a perturbed Hazel has
been authored by Nabokov ( so, why not her ghost?).
I think it perfectly valid
to consider that, in one level (ie: of the plot,
as concocted by Kinbote, namely, the novel itself) it was Hazel
who inspired Shade's hand.
I don't subscribe to this theory ( actually,
for me it is easier to believe in fairies and nymphets,
than ethereal ghosts), but I don't see why this idea clashes with
any subsequent arguments about Nabokov's authorship of the poem
taken in isolation.