I’ve followed the current Pale Fire discussion with interest, but am now confused about why the role of V. Botkin would be decisive in a consideration of influences on the poem or commentary.  No one, least of all Brian Boyd, if I’m reading him correctly, believes that Hazel Shade “wrote” any part of the text in the same way that Shade and Kinbote putatively do.  I’ve said this before but will say it again: Hazel is not a ghostwriter, but rather a ghostly influence on whatever living being actually put pen to paper.  So if we transpose “Kinbote” to “Botkin,” how does this change any of the issues under discussion?  Wouldn’t Botkin be equally susceptible to otherworldly influences?

 

To put it another way, surely we don’t take VN’s statement that Kinbote is really Botkin as a stop sign for any further investigations of the text, provided they’re consistent with the equation of CK with VB.  (Exactly what that equation means for a coherent reading of the novel is problematic for me, but that's a different headache.)  All of the extraordinary parallels and portents that Boyd has uncovered still remain.

 

Best,

 

John