Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023258, Thu, 9 Aug 2012 23:43:21 -0600

Subject
Re: J&H/PF reversal
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No, Shade did not attempt to burn the index cards that make up PF -
what you are remembering is this passage from Kinbote's Foreword: "As
a rule, Shade destroyed drafts the moment he ceased to need them: well
do I recall seeing him from my porch, on a brilliant morning, burning
a whole stack of them in the pale fire of the incinerator before which
he stood with bent head like an official mourner among the wind-borne
black butterflies of that backyard auto-da-fe." But VN did attempt to
burn Lolita, before Vera intervened.

Pale Fire is so convolute that one hesitates to reject out of hand
almost any interpretation, but I can see no evidence that PF is
Shade's sexual confession (what, pray, is he confessing?), much less
Nabokov's.

Earl Sampson

On Aug 7, 2012, at 9:53 PM, Carolyn Kunin wrote:

> Just letting the old gray cells roam about ad lib -- an interesting
> supra-textual reVersal between RLS's Jekyll & Hyde and VN's Pale Fire:
>
> The story of Jekyll and Hyde was engendered by a dream. We know that
> Fanny, Mrs RLS, read the story and destroyed it and then asked RLS
> to re-write it in a more socially acceptable (i.e. sexually less
> explicit) Ver-sion. Which RLS did and thus we have the text of that
> most interesting of Scottish novels*.
>
> But that is by the by -- what I am getting at is that there is some
> reference to Shade (do I have it right?) attempting to burn the
> index cards that make up PF; but am I dreaming? or did VN also
> attempt to burn - which one? Lolita? -- and Vera saved "her" from
> VN's attempted auto da fe.
>
> Why auto da fe (act of faith), by the way? I have a suggestion. I
> believe that Pale Fire is not just Shade's but also Nabokov's sexual
> confession. And now that I recall the attempted auto da fe of
> Lolita, I suspect VN & Humbert have more in common than one could
> dare to suggest while Dmitri was alive.
> Carolyn
>
> *Speaking of Scottish novels and Pale Fire, The Confessions of a
> Justified Sinner by Hogg is another which plays a role in VN's PF.
> And all those Campbells and hoot man, who were the other Scots
> playing boring board games? By the way I am to host a direct
> descendant of the great Sir Walter himself next week in my home. Her
> husband and I met at the convention surrounding the landing of
> Curiosity (great name) on Mars that was held in Pasadena on Saturday
> and Sunday. He told me he is convinced of the mental superiority of
> women in general to men in general and of wives to husbands in
> particular -- a man after my own heart, clearly.
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The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is
the source of all true art and all true science.
-- Albert Einstein




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