John Shade is a rather provincial American poet. So ... how could he impersonate Kinbote? Psychotic breakdowns never improve one's cultural references and syntax. Jansy
Dear Jansy,
John Shade seems to be a rather provincial American poet. But I think this is Nabokov being intentionally misleading. Shade's mother's maiden name, Lukin, is ambiguous - - it could be British as Kinbote advises, or it could very well be Russian, as I think VN meant it to be.
Charles Kinbote's name is in part derived from Hyde's first misadventure in the RLS story,* but also from his mother's name: Carolyn (fem. form of Charles) Lukin So it could be that "the scholar of Russian descent" (i.e. Botkin/Kinbote) is actually Shade.
The John Shade personality I believe suppressed his knowledge of Russian along with his homosexuality and sent them both to "Zembla" as "King Charles."
I don't believe that Shade impersonates Kinbote, he is Kinbote. Or to be more precise, Kinbote is a part of Shade, just as VN describes Hyde as being a part of Jekyll in his lecture on the story.
If you (or anyone else) still find this difficult to accept, may I ask you to tell me why you think this provincial American poet has for his muse a versipel, who I believe he says, is always with him. What can he possibly mean by it?
Carolyn (lu)K(un)in
* in which Jekyll/Hyde is forced to pay retribution or kinbote to a child's family for injuring her