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Fw: Fw: Pale Fire Chronology
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Friedman" <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (85
lines) ------------------
>
> --- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
> > Pale Fire Chronology
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Carolyn Kunin
> > To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> > Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 1:08 PM
> > Subject: Pale Fire Chronology
> >
> >
> > Dear Mr Friedman,
> >
> > Thanks for sharing your PF chronology.
>
> Thanks for the comments!
>
> > But a few things seem to be
> > missing -- some of them are a bit tricky, and I'm not sure myself where
> > (or when) they all should go:
> >
> > one is John Shade's illness* that precedes (or coincides with?)
> > Kinbote's unusual descent chez Sylvia;
>
> I have that one. 1958, Oct. 17.
>
> > another is the car crash that took the life of a mother and child on a
> > March night (but which March? and which mother and child? or doesn't it
> > matter?);
>
> Well, I know I said I wasn't going to discriminate between "real"
> and "unreal" events, but I see that (ll. 582-584), only as a
> hypothetical example like the other examples that come up at IPH:
> reincarnation as a toad, a bear cub, a book mite; the "school chum
> killed in a distant war"; the execution by the "rough gray wall";
> and the death of the old exile in a motel. They could be "real",
> but I see no reason to think so.
>
> However, going back to check this led me to notice some very minor
> and possibly undatable events that I didn't include: the "dwindling
> plane/ Off Hesperus" (ll. 528-529) and the last drive by IPH and
> Sybil's remark (ll. 621-622). I'd also missed the possible
> reference to bird taxonomy in "foxed" (l. 522), from which I get
> nothing but the likelihood that this is a term Shade would know.
>
> > the birthday of Gradus (it coincides with Charles's -- this is an easy
> > one);
>
> I have that one too, in the same note as Charles's birth (though
> maybe I should have called it Kinbote's claimed birth).
>
> > the death of Carolyn Lukin Shade (very tricky);
>
> Thanks for pointing that out. Is there anything but line 71 ("I
> was an infant when my parents died.")? Incidentally, whether
> Shade was "not quite three" or not quite four when his father died,
> I wouldn't call him an infant.
>
> > and Sybil's retreat to Canada (another easy one);
>
> Thanks again. Should be no earlier than July 25 (unless that
> document was postdated, which there's no reason to expect) and
> no later than July 29, according to the Foreword.
>
> > and finally John Shade's funeral (which does not take place in the
> > novel).
>
> That's why it's not in my timeline. I'm not saying that the
> lack of mention is insignificant, but I didn't think it belonged
> in the timeline any more than Shade's time in college or Hazel's
> high-school graduation.
>
> > These are a few that popped out at me, and I wonder what you make of
> > them?
> >
> > Carolyn
> >
> > * and his possible hospitalization (but this is in my opinion only)
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
>
> __________________________________
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From: "Jerry Friedman" <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (85
lines) ------------------
>
> --- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
> > Pale Fire Chronology
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Carolyn Kunin
> > To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> > Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 1:08 PM
> > Subject: Pale Fire Chronology
> >
> >
> > Dear Mr Friedman,
> >
> > Thanks for sharing your PF chronology.
>
> Thanks for the comments!
>
> > But a few things seem to be
> > missing -- some of them are a bit tricky, and I'm not sure myself where
> > (or when) they all should go:
> >
> > one is John Shade's illness* that precedes (or coincides with?)
> > Kinbote's unusual descent chez Sylvia;
>
> I have that one. 1958, Oct. 17.
>
> > another is the car crash that took the life of a mother and child on a
> > March night (but which March? and which mother and child? or doesn't it
> > matter?);
>
> Well, I know I said I wasn't going to discriminate between "real"
> and "unreal" events, but I see that (ll. 582-584), only as a
> hypothetical example like the other examples that come up at IPH:
> reincarnation as a toad, a bear cub, a book mite; the "school chum
> killed in a distant war"; the execution by the "rough gray wall";
> and the death of the old exile in a motel. They could be "real",
> but I see no reason to think so.
>
> However, going back to check this led me to notice some very minor
> and possibly undatable events that I didn't include: the "dwindling
> plane/ Off Hesperus" (ll. 528-529) and the last drive by IPH and
> Sybil's remark (ll. 621-622). I'd also missed the possible
> reference to bird taxonomy in "foxed" (l. 522), from which I get
> nothing but the likelihood that this is a term Shade would know.
>
> > the birthday of Gradus (it coincides with Charles's -- this is an easy
> > one);
>
> I have that one too, in the same note as Charles's birth (though
> maybe I should have called it Kinbote's claimed birth).
>
> > the death of Carolyn Lukin Shade (very tricky);
>
> Thanks for pointing that out. Is there anything but line 71 ("I
> was an infant when my parents died.")? Incidentally, whether
> Shade was "not quite three" or not quite four when his father died,
> I wouldn't call him an infant.
>
> > and Sybil's retreat to Canada (another easy one);
>
> Thanks again. Should be no earlier than July 25 (unless that
> document was postdated, which there's no reason to expect) and
> no later than July 29, according to the Foreword.
>
> > and finally John Shade's funeral (which does not take place in the
> > novel).
>
> That's why it's not in my timeline. I'm not saying that the
> lack of mention is insignificant, but I didn't think it belonged
> in the timeline any more than Shade's time in college or Hazel's
> high-school graduation.
>
> > These are a few that popped out at me, and I wonder what you make of
> > them?
> >
> > Carolyn
> >
> > * and his possible hospitalization (but this is in my opinion only)
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
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