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Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3517 Pale Fire
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----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 12:00 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3517
>
> pynchon-l-digest Saturday, August 30 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3517
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 20:48:03 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm2 Here we go again
>
> After first complaining that my hosting session was a victim of the
> late-August diminished momentum of the Pale Fire discussion, now I'm
feeling
> a certain amount of responsibility for the continued lassitude, having
> requested and received a break in the schedule. Since the schedule change
a
> lot of PF readers have checked in. Each day of scrolling through my inbox
> and not finding any NPPF posts works on my guilt receptors; I don't want
to
> be responsible for letting this discussion, which has been lively and
> far-ranging up to this point, peter out. So: I'll start posting the rest
of
> my notes on the second part of the Commentary later tonight, soon as I get
> some of these things tidied up a little bit.
>
> Don
>
> Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 22:29:28 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> Thanks to all who replied to my request for guidance on handling the
learned
> critical insights of others in posting notes. There doesn't seem to be any
> consensus on this question. I guess we will each steer by our own lights,
> which is fine with me.
>
> My personal preference is to stay in the shallower water of the published
> criticism for a while longer, to let the conversation unfold more
naturally
> and incrementally, and that's what I'm going to try to do in the rest of
the
> notes I'll post on the second section of the commentary. I'll pick up on p
> 101, where I trailed off a few days ago.
>
> An entry-level observation that can be made as we begin to explore the
> Zemblan part of Kinbote's story is that, if in fact he is not Charles
Xavier
> the Beloved, he made all this stuff up. Not only the story of Gradus
> stalking the king and shooting the wrong man, but all of Charles II's
> personal history, and possibly even all of Zembla, are fabrications.
>
> Kinbote begins his Zemblaiad with a wonderfully comic portrait of the
king's
> father, Alfin the Vague--vague to his son, who cannot remember his
father's
> face, and to his subjects, whom he occasionally addressed in the few
phrases
> of French and Danish he knew.
>
> Kinbote's narrative can be sorted into three piles. (It can be sorted into
a
> lot of different piles, I guess, but these are three that seem useful to
> me.) First is his account of his life in New Wye. Not exactly verifiable,
> observed through the deeply flawed lens of Kinbote's consciousness, it is
> nevertheless the most nearly reliable part of his story. The second is his
> biography of Charles II and his account of the king's escape from Zembla,
> which seems to have been invented at least in part after his arrival in
the
> United States but before the spring of 1959, when he began relating the
tale
> to Shade. The third is the Gradus story, which Kinbote could not have
> fabricated before Jack Grey shot Shade. Dividing Kinbote's narrative this
> way gives us a scheme for tracing his sources, the consonances and
analogues
> between the New Wye part of the narrative-the Kinbote experiences that we
> have some fragile reason to believe actually might have happened-and the
> Charles II and Gradus stories-the ones we're pretty sure he's shucking us
> about.
>
> One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death by
> crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection (excuse
me)
> of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we know
> that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
(Since
> Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this particular
item
> should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II story
> that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at least
> part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff of a
> sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story of
> Alfin losing an emperor.)
>
> Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's work, the
> account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
>
> In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are given a
> connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
shadei),
> and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding around
a
> new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
>
> "that very last photograph (Christmas 1918)..." The photograph would have
> been made only a few days before Alfin's death. It contains yet another
> image of flight ("little monoplane of chocolate") and also, oddly, the
> likeness of the face that Kinbote/Charles, although he describes the rest
of
> the picture as if he is holding it in his hand, is "unable to recall."
>
> "Old Style to New..." The switch from the Julian to the Gregorian
calendar,
> which in 1918 meant skipping thirteen days to get in synch with the rest
of
> the world. Russia made the change in January 1918, (the day after January
31
> became February 14). The Zemblans apparently switched at the end of that
> year, causing the confusion about the regnal dates of Alfin, who was
killed
> on one of the last days of December 1918.
>
> Amphitheatricus: Gr. amphi, on both sides: of both kinds : both + Gr.
> theatron, fr. theasthai, to view, fr. thea, act of seeing
>
> Uranograd. For its remoteness, after the planet? Two choices in Greek
> mythology (from www.theoi.com) : Urania (Ourania): the Muse of
astronomical
> writings. Uranus (Ouranos): the ancient personification of the sky, which
> was thought to be a solid dome of bronze. He was the first ruler of the
> universe but was castrated and deposed by his son Cronus.
>
> "What emperor?" The only emperor in Europe at the time, I think, would
have
> been Franz Josef, who presided over the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Emperor
> of Austria from 1848-1916 and King of Hungary from 1867-1916.
>
> Santos Dumont. (According to the Smithsonian, the name is hyphenated.)
> Brazilian-born aviation pioneer who, working in France in the years before
> WW I, built the first successful European heavier-than-air craft. A
picture
> of the mosquito-like LaDemoiselle can be seen at:
>
> http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Santos-Dumont/DI41.htm
>
> "smashed two Farmans..." Another early French airplane.
>
> Colonel Peter Gusev. The apparent reason for the Zemblan passion for
> parachuting. This attraction to falling through the sky turns up memorably
> in Kinbote's meditation on suicide: "The ideal drop is from an aircraft,
> your muscles relaxed, your pilot puzzled, your packed parachute shuffled
> off--farewell, shootka (little chute)!" (221)
>
> More soon.
>
> Don
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 20:47:59 -0700 (PDT)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 00:01:47 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 2: Parents, part 3
>
> p 104
>
> Kinbote's take on the king's (his) mother is remarkable mostly for its
cool
> remoteness. He devotes one line to a physical description, one line to her
> death (on the fateful July 21). Much of the rest of the two pages he
writes
> about the night she died are concerned with describing his attendance at
an
> all-night ball with friends.
>
> And to Mr. Campbell, his tutor, who seems like he might be a kind of
Zemblan
> analogue of Aunt Maud--he was apparently the most important adult in
> Charles's life from age seven to seventeen--except that he "preferred
ladies
> to laddies."
>
> We meet Otar, Charles's "platonic pal," and the sisters Fifalda and Fleur
de
> Fyler ("flower defiler"). There follows an intricately detailed
description
> of the scene at dawn--which comes early in this northern latitude in the
> summer, around four o'clock--the moment before Charles learns of his
> mother's death. As soon as Charles receives the word from the Countess de
> Fyler, the narrative abruptly shifts to Kinbote's p.o.v. and to a "rather
> handsomely drawn plan of the chambers, terraces, bastions, and pleasure
> grounds of the Onhava Palace," which is "clearly signed with a black
> chess-king crown after 'Kinbote'...." Kinbote had prepared it for John
Shade
> as a visual aid in support of the Zembla poem and now he's desperate to
get
> it back from Sybil. It seems likely that he wants it back so badly because
> he *can't* redraw it in all its precise detail--because it was drawn not
> from memory but from his imagination.
>
> *Lord Ronald's Coronach*. Lyric by Walter Scott, based on a Scottish
folk
> tale that involves a couple of hunters who encounter a couple of
green-clad
> maidens one night in the Highlands forest.
>
> All dropping wet her garments seem;
> Chill'd was her cheek, her bosom bare,
> As, bending o'er the dying gleam,
> She wrung the moisture from her hair.
>
> That kind of action, and one of the hunters goes into the woods with one
of
> the ladies and wakes up dead. The other one survives by scaring off the
> second dewy, chill'd, bare-bosomed maiden with prayer and some wicked harp
> playing.
>
> "The drunk started to sing a ribald ballad about 'Karlie-Garlie'..." Seems
> likely this might be a bit of folk wisdom about Charles's sexual
> orientation.
>
> demilune. Half-moon or crescent? Not found in the old MW10, which is all I
> have access to at the moment.
>
> "these excruciating headaches..." Kinbote is not in good shape in that
cabin
> out in Utana.
>
> Don
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
today!
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 01:22:31 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm2: Preterist
>
> line 79: a preterist (p 107)
>
>
> We've been over some of this ground before, but, from the Random House
> Unabridged:
>
> preter-. a prefix, meaning "beyond," "more than," "by," "past," occurring
> originally in loanwords from Latin (preterit) and used in the formation of
> compound words (preterlegal).
>
> preterist. Theol. --n. 1. A person who maintains that the prophecies of
the
> Apocalypse have already been fulfilled. Cf. futurist, presentist. [which
> mean just what you think they would with respect to Apocalyptic
> prophecy.] --adj. 2. of or pertaining to the preterists.
>
> preterit. n. Gram. 1. past. 2. a preterit tense. 3. a verb form in this
> tense. --adj. 4. Gram. noting a past action or state. 5. Archaic. bygone;
> past. Also, preterite.
>
> preterition. n. 1. the act of passing by or over; omission; disregard. 2.
> Law. the passing over by a testator of an heir otherwise entitled to a
> portion. 3. Calvinistic Theol. the passing over by God of those not
elected
> to salvation or eternal life. 4. Rhet. paralipsis
>
> The Zemblan verse that Kinbote quotes, which he found charming and Sybil
> must have found appalling, is a curious mix of caution and misogyny.
>
> The Elder Edda. Also known as The Poetic Edda, a collection of Icelandic
> poetry that was preserved in oral tradition before finally being recorded
in
> writing between 1000 and 1300. Tolkein used it as a source for the Lord of
> the Rings trilogy. Someone who is more familiar with the Eddas than me
could
> probably tell us if Kinbote's Zemblan quatrain is a direct lift.
>
> "Kirby's?" Probably W.H. Kirby, translator of the Finnish epic Kalevala.
>
> Don
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 01:59:08 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Fw: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> I wrote:
>
> > One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death by
> > crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection (excuse
> me)
> > of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we
know
> > that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
> (Since
> > Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this particular
> item
> > should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II
story
> > that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at
least
> > part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff of a
> > sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story of
> > Alfin losing an emperor.)
> >
> > Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's work,
the
> > account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
> >
> > In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are given a
> > connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
> shadei),
> > and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> > Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding
around
> a
> > new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
>
> There is (at least) one more way of reading this. It is conceivable that
> Kinbote *did* relate the story of Alfin crashing into the building to
Shade
> before July, and that Shade transmuted the incident into the opening image
> of the poem. This might be some of what Kinbote means when he says on the
> second reading of "Pale Fire" he detected "that dim distant music, those
> vestiges of color in the air" that convinced him that the poem actually
did
> contain his story, and "all the many subliminal debts to me." (297)
>
> Don
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> To: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 10:29 PM
> Subject: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
>
> > Thanks to all who replied to my request for guidance on handling the
learn
> ed
> > critical insights of others in posting notes. There doesn't seem to be
any
> > consensus on this question. I guess we will each steer by our own
lights,
> > which is fine with me.
> >
> > My personal preference is to stay in the shallower water of the
published
> > criticism for a while longer, to let the conversation unfold more
> naturally
> > and incrementally, and that's what I'm going to try to do in the rest of
> the
> > notes I'll post on the second section of the commentary. I'll pick up on
p
> > 101, where I trailed off a few days ago.
> >
> > An entry-level observation that can be made as we begin to explore the
> > Zemblan part of Kinbote's story is that, if in fact he is not Charles
> Xavier
> > the Beloved, he made all this stuff up. Not only the story of Gradus
> > stalking the king and shooting the wrong man, but all of Charles II's
> > personal history, and possibly even all of Zembla, are fabrications.
> >
> > Kinbote begins his Zemblaiad with a wonderfully comic portrait of the
> king's
> > father, Alfin the Vague--vague to his son, who cannot remember his
> father's
> > face, and to his subjects, whom he occasionally addressed in the few
> phrases
> > of French and Danish he knew.
> >
> > Kinbote's narrative can be sorted into three piles. (It can be sorted
into
> a
> > lot of different piles, I guess, but these are three that seem useful to
> > me.) First is his account of his life in New Wye. Not exactly
verifiable,
> > observed through the deeply flawed lens of Kinbote's consciousness, it
is
> > nevertheless the most nearly reliable part of his story. The second is
his
> > biography of Charles II and his account of the king's escape from
Zembla,
> > which seems to have been invented at least in part after his arrival in
> the
> > United States but before the spring of 1959, when he began relating the
> tale
> > to Shade. The third is the Gradus story, which Kinbote could not have
> > fabricated before Jack Grey shot Shade. Dividing Kinbote's narrative
this
> > way gives us a scheme for tracing his sources, the consonances and
> analogues
> > between the New Wye part of the narrative-the Kinbote experiences that
we
> > have some fragile reason to believe actually might have happened-and the
> > Charles II and Gradus stories-the ones we're pretty sure he's shucking
us
> > about.
> >
> >
> > "that very last photograph (Christmas 1918)..." The photograph would
have
> > been made only a few days before Alfin's death. It contains yet another
> > image of flight ("little monoplane of chocolate") and also, oddly, the
> > likeness of the face that Kinbote/Charles, although he describes the
rest
> of
> > the picture as if he is holding it in his hand, is "unable to recall."
> >
> > "Old Style to New..." The switch from the Julian to the Gregorian
> calendar,
> > which in 1918 meant skipping thirteen days to get in synch with the rest
> of
> > the world. Russia made the change in January 1918, (the day after
January
> 31
> > became February 14). The Zemblans apparently switched at the end of that
> > year, causing the confusion about the regnal dates of Alfin, who was
> killed
> > on one of the last days of December 1918.
> >
> > Amphitheatricus: Gr. amphi, on both sides: of both kinds : both + Gr.
> > theatron, fr. theasthai, to view, fr. thea, act of seeing
> >
> > Uranograd. For its remoteness, after the planet? Two choices in Greek
> > mythology (from www.theoi.com) : Urania (Ourania): the Muse of
> astronomical
> > writings. Uranus (Ouranos): the ancient personification of the sky,
which
> > was thought to be a solid dome of bronze. He was the first ruler of the
> > universe but was castrated and deposed by his son Cronus.
> >
> > "What emperor?" The only emperor in Europe at the time, I think, would
> have
> > been Franz Josef, who presided over the Austro-Hungarian Empire as
Emperor
> > of Austria from 1848-1916 and King of Hungary from 1867-1916.
> >
> > Santos Dumont. (According to the Smithsonian, the name is hyphenated.)
> > Brazilian-born aviation pioneer who, working in France in the years
before
> > WW I, built the first successful European heavier-than-air craft. A
> picture
> > of the mosquito-like LaDemoiselle can be seen at:
> >
> >
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Santos-Dumont/DI41.htm
> >
> > "smashed two Farmans..." Another early French airplane.
> >
> > Colonel Peter Gusev. The apparent reason for the Zemblan passion for
> > parachuting. This attraction to falling through the sky turns up
memorably
> > in Kinbote's meditation on suicide: "The ideal drop is from an aircraft,
> > your muscles relaxed, your pilot puzzled, your packed parachute shuffled
> > off--farewell, shootka (little chute)!" (221)
> >
> > More soon.
> >
> > Don
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3517
> *******************************
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 12:00 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3517
>
> pynchon-l-digest Saturday, August 30 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3517
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 20:48:03 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm2 Here we go again
>
> After first complaining that my hosting session was a victim of the
> late-August diminished momentum of the Pale Fire discussion, now I'm
feeling
> a certain amount of responsibility for the continued lassitude, having
> requested and received a break in the schedule. Since the schedule change
a
> lot of PF readers have checked in. Each day of scrolling through my inbox
> and not finding any NPPF posts works on my guilt receptors; I don't want
to
> be responsible for letting this discussion, which has been lively and
> far-ranging up to this point, peter out. So: I'll start posting the rest
of
> my notes on the second part of the Commentary later tonight, soon as I get
> some of these things tidied up a little bit.
>
> Don
>
> Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 22:29:28 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> Thanks to all who replied to my request for guidance on handling the
learned
> critical insights of others in posting notes. There doesn't seem to be any
> consensus on this question. I guess we will each steer by our own lights,
> which is fine with me.
>
> My personal preference is to stay in the shallower water of the published
> criticism for a while longer, to let the conversation unfold more
naturally
> and incrementally, and that's what I'm going to try to do in the rest of
the
> notes I'll post on the second section of the commentary. I'll pick up on p
> 101, where I trailed off a few days ago.
>
> An entry-level observation that can be made as we begin to explore the
> Zemblan part of Kinbote's story is that, if in fact he is not Charles
Xavier
> the Beloved, he made all this stuff up. Not only the story of Gradus
> stalking the king and shooting the wrong man, but all of Charles II's
> personal history, and possibly even all of Zembla, are fabrications.
>
> Kinbote begins his Zemblaiad with a wonderfully comic portrait of the
king's
> father, Alfin the Vague--vague to his son, who cannot remember his
father's
> face, and to his subjects, whom he occasionally addressed in the few
phrases
> of French and Danish he knew.
>
> Kinbote's narrative can be sorted into three piles. (It can be sorted into
a
> lot of different piles, I guess, but these are three that seem useful to
> me.) First is his account of his life in New Wye. Not exactly verifiable,
> observed through the deeply flawed lens of Kinbote's consciousness, it is
> nevertheless the most nearly reliable part of his story. The second is his
> biography of Charles II and his account of the king's escape from Zembla,
> which seems to have been invented at least in part after his arrival in
the
> United States but before the spring of 1959, when he began relating the
tale
> to Shade. The third is the Gradus story, which Kinbote could not have
> fabricated before Jack Grey shot Shade. Dividing Kinbote's narrative this
> way gives us a scheme for tracing his sources, the consonances and
analogues
> between the New Wye part of the narrative-the Kinbote experiences that we
> have some fragile reason to believe actually might have happened-and the
> Charles II and Gradus stories-the ones we're pretty sure he's shucking us
> about.
>
> One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death by
> crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection (excuse
me)
> of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we know
> that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
(Since
> Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this particular
item
> should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II story
> that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at least
> part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff of a
> sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story of
> Alfin losing an emperor.)
>
> Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's work, the
> account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
>
> In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are given a
> connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
shadei),
> and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding around
a
> new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
>
> "that very last photograph (Christmas 1918)..." The photograph would have
> been made only a few days before Alfin's death. It contains yet another
> image of flight ("little monoplane of chocolate") and also, oddly, the
> likeness of the face that Kinbote/Charles, although he describes the rest
of
> the picture as if he is holding it in his hand, is "unable to recall."
>
> "Old Style to New..." The switch from the Julian to the Gregorian
calendar,
> which in 1918 meant skipping thirteen days to get in synch with the rest
of
> the world. Russia made the change in January 1918, (the day after January
31
> became February 14). The Zemblans apparently switched at the end of that
> year, causing the confusion about the regnal dates of Alfin, who was
killed
> on one of the last days of December 1918.
>
> Amphitheatricus: Gr. amphi, on both sides: of both kinds : both + Gr.
> theatron, fr. theasthai, to view, fr. thea, act of seeing
>
> Uranograd. For its remoteness, after the planet? Two choices in Greek
> mythology (from www.theoi.com) : Urania (Ourania): the Muse of
astronomical
> writings. Uranus (Ouranos): the ancient personification of the sky, which
> was thought to be a solid dome of bronze. He was the first ruler of the
> universe but was castrated and deposed by his son Cronus.
>
> "What emperor?" The only emperor in Europe at the time, I think, would
have
> been Franz Josef, who presided over the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Emperor
> of Austria from 1848-1916 and King of Hungary from 1867-1916.
>
> Santos Dumont. (According to the Smithsonian, the name is hyphenated.)
> Brazilian-born aviation pioneer who, working in France in the years before
> WW I, built the first successful European heavier-than-air craft. A
picture
> of the mosquito-like LaDemoiselle can be seen at:
>
> http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Santos-Dumont/DI41.htm
>
> "smashed two Farmans..." Another early French airplane.
>
> Colonel Peter Gusev. The apparent reason for the Zemblan passion for
> parachuting. This attraction to falling through the sky turns up memorably
> in Kinbote's meditation on suicide: "The ideal drop is from an aircraft,
> your muscles relaxed, your pilot puzzled, your packed parachute shuffled
> off--farewell, shootka (little chute)!" (221)
>
> More soon.
>
> Don
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 20:47:59 -0700 (PDT)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 00:01:47 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm 2: Parents, part 3
>
> p 104
>
> Kinbote's take on the king's (his) mother is remarkable mostly for its
cool
> remoteness. He devotes one line to a physical description, one line to her
> death (on the fateful July 21). Much of the rest of the two pages he
writes
> about the night she died are concerned with describing his attendance at
an
> all-night ball with friends.
>
> And to Mr. Campbell, his tutor, who seems like he might be a kind of
Zemblan
> analogue of Aunt Maud--he was apparently the most important adult in
> Charles's life from age seven to seventeen--except that he "preferred
ladies
> to laddies."
>
> We meet Otar, Charles's "platonic pal," and the sisters Fifalda and Fleur
de
> Fyler ("flower defiler"). There follows an intricately detailed
description
> of the scene at dawn--which comes early in this northern latitude in the
> summer, around four o'clock--the moment before Charles learns of his
> mother's death. As soon as Charles receives the word from the Countess de
> Fyler, the narrative abruptly shifts to Kinbote's p.o.v. and to a "rather
> handsomely drawn plan of the chambers, terraces, bastions, and pleasure
> grounds of the Onhava Palace," which is "clearly signed with a black
> chess-king crown after 'Kinbote'...." Kinbote had prepared it for John
Shade
> as a visual aid in support of the Zembla poem and now he's desperate to
get
> it back from Sybil. It seems likely that he wants it back so badly because
> he *can't* redraw it in all its precise detail--because it was drawn not
> from memory but from his imagination.
>
> *Lord Ronald's Coronach*. Lyric by Walter Scott, based on a Scottish
folk
> tale that involves a couple of hunters who encounter a couple of
green-clad
> maidens one night in the Highlands forest.
>
> All dropping wet her garments seem;
> Chill'd was her cheek, her bosom bare,
> As, bending o'er the dying gleam,
> She wrung the moisture from her hair.
>
> That kind of action, and one of the hunters goes into the woods with one
of
> the ladies and wakes up dead. The other one survives by scaring off the
> second dewy, chill'd, bare-bosomed maiden with prayer and some wicked harp
> playing.
>
> "The drunk started to sing a ribald ballad about 'Karlie-Garlie'..." Seems
> likely this might be a bit of folk wisdom about Charles's sexual
> orientation.
>
> demilune. Half-moon or crescent? Not found in the old MW10, which is all I
> have access to at the moment.
>
> "these excruciating headaches..." Kinbote is not in good shape in that
cabin
> out in Utana.
>
> Don
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
today!
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 01:22:31 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm2: Preterist
>
> line 79: a preterist (p 107)
>
>
> We've been over some of this ground before, but, from the Random House
> Unabridged:
>
> preter-. a prefix, meaning "beyond," "more than," "by," "past," occurring
> originally in loanwords from Latin (preterit) and used in the formation of
> compound words (preterlegal).
>
> preterist. Theol. --n. 1. A person who maintains that the prophecies of
the
> Apocalypse have already been fulfilled. Cf. futurist, presentist. [which
> mean just what you think they would with respect to Apocalyptic
> prophecy.] --adj. 2. of or pertaining to the preterists.
>
> preterit. n. Gram. 1. past. 2. a preterit tense. 3. a verb form in this
> tense. --adj. 4. Gram. noting a past action or state. 5. Archaic. bygone;
> past. Also, preterite.
>
> preterition. n. 1. the act of passing by or over; omission; disregard. 2.
> Law. the passing over by a testator of an heir otherwise entitled to a
> portion. 3. Calvinistic Theol. the passing over by God of those not
elected
> to salvation or eternal life. 4. Rhet. paralipsis
>
> The Zemblan verse that Kinbote quotes, which he found charming and Sybil
> must have found appalling, is a curious mix of caution and misogyny.
>
> The Elder Edda. Also known as The Poetic Edda, a collection of Icelandic
> poetry that was preserved in oral tradition before finally being recorded
in
> writing between 1000 and 1300. Tolkein used it as a source for the Lord of
> the Rings trilogy. Someone who is more familiar with the Eddas than me
could
> probably tell us if Kinbote's Zemblan quatrain is a direct lift.
>
> "Kirby's?" Probably W.H. Kirby, translator of the Finnish epic Kalevala.
>
> Don
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 01:59:08 -0400
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Fw: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
> I wrote:
>
> > One that practically leaps off the page is the story of Alfin's death by
> > crashing an airplane into a building. It's a perfect reflection (excuse
> me)
> > of the action described in the first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we
know
> > that Kinbote read the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin.
> (Since
> > Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this particular
> item
> > should probably go into a sub-pile: embellishments of the Charles II
story
> > that Kinbote made after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at
least
> > part of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a whiff of a
> > sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the faculty lounge the story of
> > Alfin losing an emperor.)
> >
> > Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in Kinbote's work,
the
> > account of Alfin's death resonates with the poem in a different way.
> >
> > In either case, it is significant that within three pages we are given a
> > connection between John Shade's father and the waxwing (Bombycilla
> shadei),
> > and reminded of the bird's fatal smack into the glass, and then shown
> > Charles Kinbote's father crashing an airplane into the scaffolding
around
> a
> > new hotel, his fist raised in triumph.
>
> There is (at least) one more way of reading this. It is conceivable that
> Kinbote *did* relate the story of Alfin crashing into the building to
Shade
> before July, and that Shade transmuted the incident into the opening image
> of the poem. This might be some of what Kinbote means when he says on the
> second reading of "Pale Fire" he detected "that dim distant music, those
> vestiges of color in the air" that convinced him that the poem actually
did
> contain his story, and "all the many subliminal debts to me." (297)
>
> Don
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Don Corathers" <gumbo@fuse.net>
> To: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 10:29 PM
> Subject: NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2
>
>
> > Thanks to all who replied to my request for guidance on handling the
learn
> ed
> > critical insights of others in posting notes. There doesn't seem to be
any
> > consensus on this question. I guess we will each steer by our own
lights,
> > which is fine with me.
> >
> > My personal preference is to stay in the shallower water of the
published
> > criticism for a while longer, to let the conversation unfold more
> naturally
> > and incrementally, and that's what I'm going to try to do in the rest of
> the
> > notes I'll post on the second section of the commentary. I'll pick up on
p
> > 101, where I trailed off a few days ago.
> >
> > An entry-level observation that can be made as we begin to explore the
> > Zemblan part of Kinbote's story is that, if in fact he is not Charles
> Xavier
> > the Beloved, he made all this stuff up. Not only the story of Gradus
> > stalking the king and shooting the wrong man, but all of Charles II's
> > personal history, and possibly even all of Zembla, are fabrications.
> >
> > Kinbote begins his Zemblaiad with a wonderfully comic portrait of the
> king's
> > father, Alfin the Vague--vague to his son, who cannot remember his
> father's
> > face, and to his subjects, whom he occasionally addressed in the few
> phrases
> > of French and Danish he knew.
> >
> > Kinbote's narrative can be sorted into three piles. (It can be sorted
into
> a
> > lot of different piles, I guess, but these are three that seem useful to
> > me.) First is his account of his life in New Wye. Not exactly
verifiable,
> > observed through the deeply flawed lens of Kinbote's consciousness, it
is
> > nevertheless the most nearly reliable part of his story. The second is
his
> > biography of Charles II and his account of the king's escape from
Zembla,
> > which seems to have been invented at least in part after his arrival in
> the
> > United States but before the spring of 1959, when he began relating the
> tale
> > to Shade. The third is the Gradus story, which Kinbote could not have
> > fabricated before Jack Grey shot Shade. Dividing Kinbote's narrative
this
> > way gives us a scheme for tracing his sources, the consonances and
> analogues
> > between the New Wye part of the narrative-the Kinbote experiences that
we
> > have some fragile reason to believe actually might have happened-and the
> > Charles II and Gradus stories-the ones we're pretty sure he's shucking
us
> > about.
> >
> >
> > "that very last photograph (Christmas 1918)..." The photograph would
have
> > been made only a few days before Alfin's death. It contains yet another
> > image of flight ("little monoplane of chocolate") and also, oddly, the
> > likeness of the face that Kinbote/Charles, although he describes the
rest
> of
> > the picture as if he is holding it in his hand, is "unable to recall."
> >
> > "Old Style to New..." The switch from the Julian to the Gregorian
> calendar,
> > which in 1918 meant skipping thirteen days to get in synch with the rest
> of
> > the world. Russia made the change in January 1918, (the day after
January
> 31
> > became February 14). The Zemblans apparently switched at the end of that
> > year, causing the confusion about the regnal dates of Alfin, who was
> killed
> > on one of the last days of December 1918.
> >
> > Amphitheatricus: Gr. amphi, on both sides: of both kinds : both + Gr.
> > theatron, fr. theasthai, to view, fr. thea, act of seeing
> >
> > Uranograd. For its remoteness, after the planet? Two choices in Greek
> > mythology (from www.theoi.com) : Urania (Ourania): the Muse of
> astronomical
> > writings. Uranus (Ouranos): the ancient personification of the sky,
which
> > was thought to be a solid dome of bronze. He was the first ruler of the
> > universe but was castrated and deposed by his son Cronus.
> >
> > "What emperor?" The only emperor in Europe at the time, I think, would
> have
> > been Franz Josef, who presided over the Austro-Hungarian Empire as
Emperor
> > of Austria from 1848-1916 and King of Hungary from 1867-1916.
> >
> > Santos Dumont. (According to the Smithsonian, the name is hyphenated.)
> > Brazilian-born aviation pioneer who, working in France in the years
before
> > WW I, built the first successful European heavier-than-air craft. A
> picture
> > of the mosquito-like LaDemoiselle can be seen at:
> >
> >
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Santos-Dumont/DI41.htm
> >
> > "smashed two Farmans..." Another early French airplane.
> >
> > Colonel Peter Gusev. The apparent reason for the Zemblan passion for
> > parachuting. This attraction to falling through the sky turns up
memorably
> > in Kinbote's meditation on suicide: "The ideal drop is from an aircraft,
> > your muscles relaxed, your pilot puzzled, your packed parachute shuffled
> > off--farewell, shootka (little chute)!" (221)
> >
> > More soon.
> >
> > Don
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3517
> *******************************