Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0027439, Tue, 25 Jul 2017 16:52:00 -0700

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Alternate solution for Hazel's message in the barn, in Pale Fire
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Hello,



I am new to this group. I am fairly new to Nabokov studies, as well – I
was ignited by *Pale Fire*. I am writing a thesis on the influence of Carl
Jung and alchemy in that work. I’ve arrived at some pretty interesting
insights, including some convincing “word-golf”. I am stuck, though, at
Hazel’s message in the barn. I am not at all satisfied with the *"Padre
should not go to the lane” *solution. Is anyone aware of alternate
solutions? From my thesis:





I find it hard to believe that this clumsy interpretation is correct, or at
least is incomplete. I would expect something far more elegant from
Nabokov. Nabokov is quite the dissembler, so I think it likely that his
endorsement of Boyd’s solution may be his way of saying, “Everybody seems
to accept this solution, so fine, you ask me and I’ll just tell you that,
because I am not going to give it away”. Nabokov rarely “gives away,” but
deflects his answers. My supposition is that this “riddle” has as many
layers as the whole book. The surface layer he’s made tricky, but not all
that hard to figure out. This is what Brian Boyd has done. It is the
surface story of John Shade’s eventual death. I think Nabokov took the
“scrabbled” letters and arranged them as best he could into certain “clue”
words in order to lead the solver in the right direction, but that this may
be intended as just the “thetic” solution on the level of plot. A deeper
level we would expect to bring in the synthetic level of the major theme of
the work. I suspect it is an anagram, in fact, Nabokov suggests so when he
has Hazel write in her notes “*10:23. Scrappy and scrabbly sounds*”. The
ultimate solution should be like the game “Scrabble”, an anagram. I
believe the solution will not be found until all the letters are arranged
to make sense. I also feel that a truly elegant solution would be in an
iambic couplet, and possibly that would be from a poem that exists. The
poem would reveal the psychological/alchemical trope of anima, sacred
marriage, and individuation via Hazel. I suspect that this deeper level
will also reveal the missing two letters, which I would surmise to be
“VN”. Therefore, a truly elegant solution would be an anagram of a poem by
Nabokov on the subject of “*sacred marriage*”, or, as the oft alluded to
myth of Atalanta, the “*Marriage of Art and Nature*”.



Are there any wordsmiths, anagramatists, scrabbleers out there that would
be interested in helping me find a solution to this? I have made a list of
all the words I could think of contained in message, but have not come to
any satisfactory solutions. I would be happy to share my work-in-progress,
interested.



Thanks, Mary Ross

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