JMEverything2 testimonial by Ikura, posted in Feb 06 2002[...]"My father once told me that ...Nabokov would walk out his front door and get in his car...He would never clear the snow himself, and he would never get out of the car while his wife did it."
 
Joseph Aisenberg:"this is very amusing. Stacy Schiff, in her book Vera, has similar scenes [...] Pale Fire doesn't give us quite those kinds of images [...] John Shade seems meant to be very American, and having him completely attended by his wife as the blogger's grandfather recalled Nabokov's being attended by his would really stand out."
 
JM: American Shade wouldn't be subserviently attended by Sybill, you mean? And yet she's been portrayed as his sensible, authoritarian and over-protective dragon  - and she didn't type his cards.
 
There is always a surprise when one stops to examine VN's words. For example. Kinbote wrote: My fall acted as a chemical reagent on the Shades’ sedan..." and I wonder why he said "chemical reagent," since a fall would only entail mechanical, not chemical, consequences. Unless...? 


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