Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0008493, Mon, 1 Sep 2003 13:28:42 -0700

Subject
Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3525 PALE FIRE
Date
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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 12:04 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3525


>
> pynchon-l-digest Monday, September 1 2003
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 12:32:30 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part two)
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jasper Fidget [mailto:jasper@hatguild.org]
> > Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 2:57 PM
> > To: pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part two)
> >
>
> > 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.
> >
>
> The "so-called Rose Court at the back of the Ducal Chapel" where Kinbote
> sees the minister "making contact with God" may be an allusion to St.
> Augustine in the very process of converting from guilt to renewed
> commitment.
>
> Note that Alfred translated Augustine.
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3525
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