I - After I checked Math Roth's discussion with Carolyn
Kunin in the Nab-L archives (19 Oct 2006), in
which he considers: "In C.949 Kinbote analyzes
the character of Gradus. In one section, he imagines a trial (Gradus versus the
Crown), during which he says, I suppose in the voice of the prosecutor,
'we may concede, doctor, that our half-man was also half-mad'..." I started to
have second thoughts concerning Kinbote's note mentioning a "doctor". It
had seemed to me, at first, that Kinbote was addressing an
imaginary audience in a Humbert-like way although, in this case,
his arguments swayed on behalf of the "half man...half mad"
Gradus.*
For me the intrusion of this "voice" remains unexplained: does
it indicate anything other than Kinbote's own madness? (in the second example
the doctor is called in to opine about Gradus's innards, in a scenery of
psychotic delusion on Kinbote's part, not Gradus's).
II - Kinbote writes, in the Foreword: "A few days later, as I was about to leave Parthenocissus
Hall**--or Main Hall (or now Shade Hall, alas). Later, in
his commentaries, we read: "A
car, he was told, would take him to the Campus Hotel which was a few minutes’
walk from the Main Hall (now Shade Hall)"
Wasn't this homage to John Shade too quick? It must have
taken place in less than two months, before Kinbote went to his Cedarn
cave. I don't remember any special festivities and
re-innaugurations of the plaque having been mentioned by Kinbote
anywhere.
Perhaps anyone can help me to contextualize these two
items?
..................................................................................................................................
* "Gradus is now much nearer to us in
space and time...his human incompleteness ...we may concede, doctor, that our
half-man was also half mad" and "My own opinion, which I
would like the doctor to confirm, is that the French sandwich was engaged in
an intestinal internecine war..."
Compare to Shade: "But, Doctor, I was dead!/ He smiled. "Not quite: just half a
shade." Or Kinbote's
note to it: "Another
fine example of our poet’s special brand of combinational magic. The subtle pun
here turns on two additional meanings of "shade"...The doctor is made to suggest
that not only did Shade retain in his trance half of his identity but that he
was also half a ghost. Knowing the particular medical man who treated my friend
at the time, I venture to add that he is far too stodgy to have displayed any
such wit."
** - In former
Nab-L discussions there's Victor Fet's August 2006 observation that
"Partenocissus is a Latin name for creepers -- ivies of
grape family (Vitaceae), of Asian and North American origin. In Russian it is
called "devichii vinograd" (maiden's grape), which is of course a connection
both to maidens (or virginity) and Gradus!".