Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0008449, Sun, 24 Aug 2003 22:04:06 -0700

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Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3501 Pale Fire Canto 4
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Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3501


>
> pynchon-l-digest Saturday, August 23 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3501
>
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 14:56:35 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part two)
>
> pg 86
> "Let us turn to our poet's windows." A subject of great preoccupation for
> Kinbote, and the main theme of the rest of the note.
>
> pg 86
> "I have no desire to twist and batter an unambiguous /apparatus criticus/
> into the monstrous semblance of a novel."
>
> apparatus criticus: "A collection of material, as variant readings and
other
> palaeographical and critical matter, for the textual study of a document."
> (OED)
>
> VN seems to be commenting on his current project itself through the irony
of
> Kinbote's assertion.
>
> pg 86
> "the coming of summer presented a problem in optics: the encroaching
foliage
> did not always see eye to eye with me: it confused a green monocle with an
> opaque occludent, and the idea of protection with that obstruction."
>
> As I believe I mentioned before, Kinbote's frustration with the natural
> world's hindrance to his spying on Shade may imply the *unnaturalness* of
> his behavior (I think of Huysmans' _ю Rebours_ (1884) when imagining
Kinbote
> in that house all alone), that the patterns of the natural world that help
> Shade toward his goal do the opposite for artificial Kinbote, perhaps even
> *protect* Shade from Kinbote's aggression.
>
> Also I like the parallelism of "eye to eye": Kinbote's eye meeting
nature's
> eye: the word "eye" as a hole in something: "An object resembling the eye
in
> appearance, shape, function, or relative position" (OED) and "an object
> resembling an eye on a plant; esp. (a) an axillary bud or leaf bud; (b)
the
> centre of a flower; (c) the remains of the calyx on a fruit" (OED). "Eye"
> can also mean "the opening through which the water of a fountain or spring
> wells up" (OED), recalling Shade's fountain of (false) salvation and Poe's
> fountain of creative inspiration.
>
> "Monocle: A single eyeglass" (OED) as in the thing Col. Klink wears.
> "Occludent: noun & adjective (rare) (a thing) that occludes" (OED).
>
> Kinbote wants to see *through* nature to whatever interests him beyond it,
> so in this sense he may parallel Shade. Where Shade's interests lie in
the
> otherworldly, however, Kinbote's lie in the here-and-now.
>
> See also on pg 86: "Sybil whom a shrub had screened from my falcon eye"
> (87), "he never pulled down the shades (*she* did)" (87), and
"interference
> by framework or leaves" (89).
>
> pg 86
> "on July 3 according to my agenda"
>
> "Agenda" as both a memorandum book and a plan for matters to be attended
to.
>
> pg 87
> "People who live in glass houses should not write poems"
>
> Perhaps another allusion to Salinger? Glass here also as the windows
> between Shade at work and Kinbote's eye, so a lens as if on a
microscope --
> Kinbote treats Shade in this note as an insect or an animal that a
scientist
> wishes to observe and document.
>
> pg 87
> "led me to indulge in an orgy of spying which no considerations of pride
> could stop"
>
> Admits to spying and casts it into negative terms; Kinbote apparently
knows
> his behavior is wrong but is unable to stop.
>
> pg 87
> "_Hero of Our Time_", "_Time Lost_": indicating the novels of Lermontov
and
> Proust respectively. Lermontov's novel concerns a corrupted anti-hero who
> goes to great lengths to combat the boredom of his aristocratic society.
> Much the same might be said of Proust's Marcel.
>
> pg 87
> "I found, at the end of the veranda, an ivied corner from which I could
view
> rather amply the front of the poet's house." etc -- this large passage has
> Kinbote orienting himself based on the location of Shade's house and
> scouting out positions from which he can spy on three of its sides (and if
> you're playing along as a good Nabokovian reader, by the end of this
section
> you should have a decent map of Kinbote and Shade's adjacent properties).
> Kinbote's geography has Shade in something of a bear-hug, enveloping him,
as
> the pieces on a chess board might seek to envelop an opponent (Kinbote has
> bishops controlling the oblique lines and Rooks attacking the open files
to
> Shade's front porch -- we have a position out of a chess-problem).
>
> pg 87
> "my bodyguard of black junipers" -- the junipers in Kinbote's rented
garden,
> suggesting perhaps the "Black Rose Paladins" (did they act as Charles'
> bodyguards in Zembla?). Also suggests chess again: black pawns.
>
> pg 87
> "patch of pale light under the lone streetlamp": again flirting with the
> title. The streetlamp is mentioned several times -- I wonder if it has a
> function beyond supporting the image of loneliness and melancholy?
>
> pg 87-88
> "[I] rather enjoyed following in the dark a weedy and rocky easterly
> projection of my grounds ending in a locust grove on a slightly higher
level
> than the north side of the poet's house."
>
> Kinbote may be confusing locusts with the cicadas Shade writes about in
his
> poem. We also learn that the Goldsworth property has a higher elevation
> than Shade's, putting Kinbote geologically above the other.
>
> pg 88
> "Once, three decades ago [...]"
>
> This passage may recount Kinbote's first sexual experience with "a tall,
> pale, long-nosed, dark-haired young minister." Using very Romantic
images,
> he writes, "Into these roses and thorns there walked a black shadow" (88),
> "Guilty disgust contorted his thin lips" (88), "His clenched hands seemed
to
> be gripping invisible prison bars. But there is no bound to the measure
of
> grace which man may be able to receive. All at once his look changed to
one
> of rapture and reverence. I had never seen such a blaze of bliss before"
> (88). All this sexual innuendo seems a parallel for Shade's Aunt Maud
> passages, although for Kinbote it's all mixed up with religious imagery.
It
> culminates in a linkage between the minister and John Shade.
>
> pg 88-89
> "My binoculars would seek him out and focus upon him from afar in his
> various places of labor"
>
> Kinbote using a technological device to help satisfy his sexual urge
toward
> Shade. Hey, that sounds Pynchonesque!
>
>
> ++Jasper Fidget--
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 14:57:19 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part three)
>
> pg 89
> This passage expands on the theme of spying on Shade, giving various
> conditions and the manner in which Kinbote sees him: at night as a
> reflection from a mirror, "in the forenoon, lurking in the ruptured
> shadows", "on a hot day, among the vines of a small arborlike portico"
> culminating in "[Shade's] plump cherubic fist propping and crimpling his
> temple." One gets the sense this is Kinbote's religious triptych of John
> Shade -- he can "distinguish the expression of passionate interest,
rapture
> and reverence" on the poet (echoing the description of the Zemblan
> minister), and is certain that "at *that* moment Our Lord was with him."
>
> pg 90
> On a "hot, black, blustery night," Kinbote invades the rear of Shade's
house
> and "experiences a queer sense of relief" (keep your jokes to yourself)
when
> he finds it dark there -- again implying that he knows the wrongness of
his
> behavior. Then he spots "a faint square of light under the window", the
> word square implying chess again, and that the position of the board has
> changed with this foray: Kinbote's "black, blustery [k]night" attacking
the
> white king and queen on their side of the board. Positioned in a "box
> hedge" (box = square, hedge as in "hedge knight"), Kinbote knocks over a
> garbage can lid, prompting Sybil to close the window (the white queen
moves
> between the black knight and the white king). Kinbote retreats back to
his
> "cheerless domicile with a heavy heart and a puzzled mind" (90) (he's seen
> Shade reading Canto Two to Sybil but doesn't realize it). If this is a
> chess-problem (a puzzle), one gets the sense of Kinbote as the player
trying
> to devise a strategy for his black pieces to mate the white king
> (literally!).
>
> He's seen the solution but doesn't recognize it until: "the puzzle was
> solved a few days later"; Kinbote returns to the rear of the house (at
dusk)
> and this time finds the door ajar. It's interesting that Kinbote's
> intrusion to the rear of the Shades' house seems easier this time, almost
> casual, as if he's getting used to it.
>
> K demonstrates his misogyny by describing Sybil's response to the poem as
> having "so rapt a look on her face that one might have supposed she had
just
> thought up a new recipe." Shade cannot restrain a rare expression of
> annoyance with Kinbote, uttering "an unprintable oath" (90).
>
> pg 90
> "Sybil hated the wind"
> Just an odd interesting detail -- I don't really know what to make of it.
>
> pg 90
> "St. Swithin's Day"
>
> July 15th. St. Swithin was the Bishop of Winchester (died 862), a
counselor
> to Egbert, King of the West Saxons (d. 839), and tutor of Egbert's son
> Ethelwulf. By his request he was buried outside the north wall of his
> cathedral so that passers-by could walk over his grave and rain could fall
> on it. A century later, his body was moved inside the cathedral and,
legend
> has it, a great storm ensued, signaling the saint's displeasure and
linking
> him to the weather. A superstition grew around his day that if it rained,
> then 40 days of perfect weather would follow, if not then 40 days of rain
> would come:
>
> St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
> For forty days it will remain
> St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
> For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.
>
> http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14357c.htm
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/weather/st_swithins_day_2.shtml
>
> pg 90
> "/promnad vespert mid J.S./" Zemblan for "evening walk with J.S." (I took
it
> in High School).
>
> pg 92
> "the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero"
>
> A fictitious fraternity? See pg 27 for K's recollection of the photograph
> of Shade and Kinbote at Prof C's house looking out over this lake and on
> into eternity. Omega summons the biblical passage concerning Alpha and
> Omega, the beginning and the end -- God and transcendence of the infinite,
> and time. "Ozero" is Russian for lake, so we have a volume of time and of
> space bordering a lake: omega, the end, and zero, the nothing; thus
> suggesting the obvious Hazel connections.
>
> "Indian names garbled"
> Native American folklore describes the creation of New York's Finger Lakes
> as the handprint of a god on the land. There are 11 Finger Lakes
(borders,
> bookends again): Conesus Lake, Hemlock Lake, Canadice Lake, Honeoye Lake,
> Canandaigua Lake, Keuka Lake, Seneca Lake, Cayuga Lake, Oswasco Lake,
> Skaneateles Lake, and Otisco Lake.
>
> http://www.ohwy.com/ny/f/fingerla.htm
>
>
> pg 92-93
> The final passage in this note is probably my favorite from the book.
> Kinbote describes the setting as if gliding through it, reaching into
> hyperbole: "Here are the great mansions of madness, the impeccably planned
> dormitories", "the magnificent palace of Administration", "the prisonlike
> edifice containing our classrooms and offices"; he passes through the
> university along the avenue of Shakespeare trees -- then an odd
disorienting
> intrusion: "a distant droning sound" -- then on through "a hint of a haze,
> the turquoise dome of the Observatory" which pushes him upward through
> "wisps and pale plumes of cirrus," then back down to the sports
facilities,
> "the poplar-curtained Roman-tiered football field, deserted on summer days
> [like this one] except for a dreamy-eyed youngster flying" -- then another
> hyphenated intrusion: "on a long control line, in a droning circle" -- to
an
> unexpected final phrase: "a motor-powered model plane" and the note's last
> paragraph: "Dear Jesus, do something."
>
> How to explain Kinbote's final reaction to this passage? His father -- or
> at least Charles' father -- King Alfin dies in a plane crash (pg 104), but
> I'm inclined to think that detail is inspired by this scene (and indeed on
> pg 126 there's a Zembla version of this passage). It seems more likely
that
> Kinbote has interiorized the sensation of that tethered model plane
trapped
> in that endless vicious circle. The prose prior to its mention has much
the
> feel of an airplane looping about and above the university, around the
> buildings, along the tree lines, up toward the sky and back toward the
> ground, almost as if searching for something unknown or unknowable, its
> early allusion ("a distant droning sound") a premonition of what it will
> find and a vague self-awareness (Kinbote aware of his deviant behavior but
> unable to stop it), finally discovering only itself "on a long control
line
> in a droning circle" -- realizing then and too late that the search was an
> illusion of volition, and that the real goal should have been escape.
"Dear
> Jesus, do something": somebody save me.
>
> - --Jasper Fidget++
>

> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3501
>