Alexey
Sklyarenko: "The very subject matter of syllogisms
seems to amuse them, as for example: "All men are mortal, Mr. N is a man,
ergo Mr. N is mortal." The too simple fact ["truth"] that Mr. N is a
man made Pushkin smile." + "I like my name: Shade, Ombre, almost 'man' / In
Spanish..." ...Shade is almost man (as his name suggests).
Similarly, young Pushkin questions the too simple fact that Mr. N is a
man...
JM: Pushkin's smile
conveys, completely, what his opinion about "N" was. Nevertheless, we
don't get a similar definition in "Pale Fire": a dead Shade is no longer
a man and a half-dead Shade is merely "half a shade"
dead.*
However, in both cases, what we reach is a suggestion of
"incompleteness." ** The same reasoning applies to "almost man,
in Spanish" (the word in full is "hombre," with a mute "h"). Perhaps
linguistic immortality is not enough to bring peace to someone who fears
death and madness?
.............................................................................................................................
* But, Doctor, I was dead!/ He smiled. "Not quite: just
half a shade," he said.
**- CK line 949 and another series
of strange "halves" and the "status of man": "how and why
anybody is capable of destroying a fellow creature (this argument necessitates,
I know, a temporary granting to Gradus of the status of man), unless he
is defending the life of...so that in final judgment of the Gradus versus the
Crown case I would submit that if his human incompleteness be deemed
insufficient to explain his idiotic journey across the Atlantic...we may
concede, doctor, that our half-man was also half mad."