About 'Remorse'. I believe I have identified the
movie the Shades watched on their TV the night Hazel died. There are
cues. It was on a February or March night of 1957. What they saw was
only a preview. The main actress was Marilyn Monroe. This is confirmed
in a list of suggestions for the two French translators of 'Pale Fire'.
Nabokov objected to some adjective they wanted to use for 'inane' and
said that would certainly not apply to Marilyn Monroe whom he had in
mind.
Now there was only one new film with Marilyn Monroe
in 1957. It opened on June 13. That was 'The Prince and the Showgirl',
by Laurence Olivier, starring Olivier and Monroe. It was based on a
comedy by Terrence Rattigan and is set in London before WW I. There is
a visiting European prince who has come for the coronation ceremony and
a pert and naive American showgirl who falls in love with him. But he
leaves for his home country, and it remains open whether they will ever
come together again.
The plot would hardly justify the title 'Remorse',
though it would not be altogether unfitting because both the prince and
the showgirl do feel sorry in the end. But there is one very curious
detail. The name of the Prince Regent is Charles, and his country is
fictitious Carpathia. Carpathia is not situated were Zembla is but
rather in the vicinity of Anthony Hope's Ruritania, in 'The Prisoner of
Zenda', somewhere between Budapest and Bucharest.
So is this "just an accident"? Or did Shade want to
humor Kinbote by by mentioning a movie about King Charles of an
imaginary country, but Kinbote failed to get the joke, as in other
cases? Or is it a case of reverse suggestion, Kinbote telepathically
prompting Shade? I don't know.
Dieter Zimmer
Feb 5, 2007 -- 8am
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