Subject
PF, Jekyll and Hyde
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Dear Stan,
The split personality theory is not Shade/Kinbote but rather Kinbote/Botkin.
VN: ``I wonder if any reader will notice the following details: 1) that the
nasty commentator is not an ex-king and not even Dr. Kinbote, but Prof.
Vseslav Botkin, a Russian and a madman...''.
There are other details (in VN's sense of stuff that should be obvious)
about K's madness that seem to have escaped wide notice. K's behavior
towards Shade and Shade's work, at least in intent, has significant
affinities to the treatment of artists in certain modern tyrannies, a
profound concern of VN's: K wants to dictate to Shade his subject
(himself); he spies on his author; when his desire is not realized, K
inserts his own forged drafts, disparages Shade as unhappy and immoral, and
forces his own narrative on the reader anyway. Shade is to be K's bard,
singing of imagined greatness, not unlike (in intent) the Soviet artist
forced to become Stalin's bard, or rather the bard of the man Stalin dreamed
himself to be. K shares more than one fascination of another tyranny: the
Nordic sagas and varangian blood, the onomastics of family names, various
kinds of booga-booga mystical claptrap, Wagner, admiration of male beauty,
vegetarianism, among other points of reference. On careful examination,
Charles is a remarkable example of poshlust, a materialist with a powerful
car and snazzy wardrobe, a champagne drinker with a fondness for caviar, a
gossip, a snob of the first degree, a pedant who is blind and deaf to beauty
that is not a reflection of himself. He is ridiculous, but no less malignant
for that. Charles is mad, yes; but his madness is of a kind with tyrants.
Steve
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The split personality theory is not Shade/Kinbote but rather Kinbote/Botkin.
VN: ``I wonder if any reader will notice the following details: 1) that the
nasty commentator is not an ex-king and not even Dr. Kinbote, but Prof.
Vseslav Botkin, a Russian and a madman...''.
There are other details (in VN's sense of stuff that should be obvious)
about K's madness that seem to have escaped wide notice. K's behavior
towards Shade and Shade's work, at least in intent, has significant
affinities to the treatment of artists in certain modern tyrannies, a
profound concern of VN's: K wants to dictate to Shade his subject
(himself); he spies on his author; when his desire is not realized, K
inserts his own forged drafts, disparages Shade as unhappy and immoral, and
forces his own narrative on the reader anyway. Shade is to be K's bard,
singing of imagined greatness, not unlike (in intent) the Soviet artist
forced to become Stalin's bard, or rather the bard of the man Stalin dreamed
himself to be. K shares more than one fascination of another tyranny: the
Nordic sagas and varangian blood, the onomastics of family names, various
kinds of booga-booga mystical claptrap, Wagner, admiration of male beauty,
vegetarianism, among other points of reference. On careful examination,
Charles is a remarkable example of poshlust, a materialist with a powerful
car and snazzy wardrobe, a champagne drinker with a fondness for caviar, a
gossip, a snob of the first degree, a pedant who is blind and deaf to beauty
that is not a reflection of himself. He is ridiculous, but no less malignant
for that. Charles is mad, yes; but his madness is of a kind with tyrants.
Steve
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/