James Twiggs: "although we, as readers
of VN’s novel, can see just how mad Botkin/Kinbote is, this would not
necessarily have been so clear to his colleagues...By the way, why is it so
seldom mentioned that Shade, in his obsession with the afterlife, is a bit on
the batty side himself and that Sybil is something of a
shrew? "
JM: We seem to agree that Shade was
quite "batty," although Sybil, as a shrew, must certainly derive from
Kinbote's own vision of her! Anyway, a great many mental illnesses exhibit no
dramatic outward signs. Pulling open Gerald's emerald bow-tie or playing
pingpong with two sets of tables seems to be harmless enough, just like Kinbote's reported conversations with
his colleagues in Wordsmith. Kinbote, at times, seems to be saner than Shade,
were it not for something masterfully conveyed by Nabokov, a visual
element (confessedly interested in observing and reproducing
little ticks and idiosyncratic gestures) that makes me sense,
always, Kinbote's manic jauntiness, shiny eyes, syncopated movements,
independently of what he writes about himself.
In Brazil, thanks to the
Jesuits (Kinbote might have been educated by them, although he mentions
Augustine and not Aquinas) we had a flourishing barroque period. I cannot
remember anything barroque in America, except for..say..
Nabokov?