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Re: Botkin
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Matthew Roth: Jansy, when you say that Shade is ambidextrous, I assume you are referring to his calling himself a "bimanist." I don't think he is saying that he shaves (and therefore writes) with either hand. Rather, he is saying that he holds his sagging skin taut with one hand while shaving with the other (as opposed to the one-armed bloke in the shaving cream ad). Your comment has, however, made me wonder why I assume that Shade writes with his right hand. Is this stated somewhere in the text? As for the beard, I think you are mistaken that Kinbote does not always have one. He admires its "rich tint and texture" and in the faculty room scene the lecturer remarks that "King Charles wore no beard, and yet it is his very face," meaning that Kinbote does have a beard. I don't see any reason to assume that at this point it is a fake beard.
Gary Lipon: Nevertheless Botkin presents us with a character and a story, and it seems natural enough to ask the purpose of the tale even knowing that it is contextually fallacious. One answer is that Shade was real, and, as Jansy speculates, a homosexual.The other point though is that Kinbote's Notes, or Botkin's Tale, can still have meaning and purpose along the same lines that existed before Botkin was revealed. Seen as false in the outer frame, they still have the force of illusion in the inner one.
JM: Points registered, Matt. The words Shade uses are "bimanist" not "ambidextrous" (the latter implies a kind of "dexterity" that he fussily lacks!). Your observation on beards seems to be accurate,too. Kinbote always uses a beard, it was Charles II who was clean-shaven and then wore a fake one when he wanted to disguise himself and teach. I confused CK and Charles II from Kinbote's tales.
Perhaps we could consider Shade to be an "agnostic" ( not the positive denial of God by the "atheist").
Gary, your comment about the force of illusion in the inner frame is very apt.
btw: I didn't intend to imply that Shade was an homosexual, but a bisexual.
Like Matt, I began to explore the List-archives and the first entry, a very ancient one (2001!) is very elucidative. I'll add it here:
Brian Boyd on Pale FIRE: ament catkin botkin
Wed, 24 Jan 2001 10:47:59 -0800
Excerpts: (from the Archives)
Kinbote is our only source for much of Pale Fire: not only for the Zembla story, but for the relationship between himself and Shade, and his insistence that Shade write about Zembla. Although Kinbote records Shade's talking to him on numerous occasions, Shade himself of course never writes about Kinbote.There is nothing independent of Kinbote's own testimony to indicate the nature of Shade's relationship with Kinbote, or even that Shade thought of him or called him "Kinbote."/ If, as some parts of Pale Fire seem to suggest, Charles Kinbote (or Charles II or Charles Xavier Vseslav) of Zembla was actually V. Botkin of Russia (see my Nabokov's Pale Fire, pp. 90-93, for a summary of the evidence), how did Shade address Kinbote? Are Kinbote's reports of Shade calling him "Charles," and referring to him as "Professor Kinbote" (note to line 894), mere fabrication, along with other elements in this note, where the habituÊs of the Faculty Club seem not only to accept the existence of Zembla, but the name Kinbote, and the resemblance between Kinbote and the recently deposed Charles II of Zembla? We have no other evidence, and the question of the identity this exile, Kinbote or Botkin, really has in New Wye, remains as mysterious and irresolvable
...............
As Charles Lock has recently reminded us, "ament and the noun I meant / To use but did not" of course requires us to identify "the noun I meant to use" as "catkin." Why does Shade evoke a word he does not use? Given the context, that he has been writing about the inspiration for his verse, that he has shown his imagination roaming, with the help of Pope and others, to Zembla, that he has invoked his wife's role in his rhythms, and that he has called on Shakespeare to supply the title for the poem he is now writing, might he not very discreetly be contrasting these sources of inspiration with the Botkin who has been insistently but hopelessly trying to inspire him? Shade is too discreet to bring into his poem the neighbor he knows is insane, and too compassionate to declare his rejection of the inspiration "Kinbote" seeks to supply. Without naming Botkin directly, he evokes him obliquely, through the "catkin" he summons but rejects, a catkin lying "dry on the cement"-seeds, in other words, that have fallen on stony ground-and even hints at his neighbor's madness, through the other sense of "ament" (imbecile, from the Latin for "mad," non-mental), which cannot help being also implied when the botanical "ament" immediately follows the phrase "The brain is drained." / Shade has all but finished his poem, and although he acknowledges other inspirations, he firmly but painlessly declares he has had to resist Botkin's insane implorations to write an epic about Charles II of Zembla. He draws
attention, after the consonne d'appui in "meant/cement," to this prosodic device, but he has given the rhyme syllables still another appui, another support, in the internal rhyme, also with consonne d'appui, of "ament," as if to stress through the "brown ament, and the noun I meant / To use but did not, dry on the cement," the insistent "me . . . me . . . me" running through Botkin's story.
----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Roth
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Botkin
Sam Gwynn, you are right, I reversed Christian/Atheist by accident. Shade says that he doesn't believe in God--which would seem to align him with atheism. Kinbote is clearly a Christian.
Jansy, when you say that Shade is ambidextrous, I assume you are referring to his calling himself a "bimanist." I don't think he is saying that he shaves (and therefore writes) with either hand. Rather, he is saying that he holds his sagging skin taut with one hand while shaving with the other (as opposed to the one-armed bloke in the shaving cream ad). Your comment has, however, made me wonder why I assume that Shade writes with his right hand. Is this stated somewhere in the text? As for the beard, I think you are mistaken that Kinbote does not always have one. He admires its "rich tint and texture" and in the faculty room scene the lecturer remarks that "King Charles wore no beard, and yet it is his very face," meaning that Kinbote does have a beard. I don't see any reason to assume that at this point it is a fake beard.
Sergei, as for what Botkin teaches, I was simply repeating the conclusion of others--based on his department chair's name, where Gradus looks for him in the library, and the subject of the lecture he was asked to give. All of these point to Scandinavian lit or language. But Kinbote/Botkin says (via Sylvia) that he was teaching Zemblan. I'm not sure why you would think this could mean math. If I said he taught Russian, wouldn't you think he was teaching the language?
MR
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Gary Lipon: Nevertheless Botkin presents us with a character and a story, and it seems natural enough to ask the purpose of the tale even knowing that it is contextually fallacious. One answer is that Shade was real, and, as Jansy speculates, a homosexual.The other point though is that Kinbote's Notes, or Botkin's Tale, can still have meaning and purpose along the same lines that existed before Botkin was revealed. Seen as false in the outer frame, they still have the force of illusion in the inner one.
JM: Points registered, Matt. The words Shade uses are "bimanist" not "ambidextrous" (the latter implies a kind of "dexterity" that he fussily lacks!). Your observation on beards seems to be accurate,too. Kinbote always uses a beard, it was Charles II who was clean-shaven and then wore a fake one when he wanted to disguise himself and teach. I confused CK and Charles II from Kinbote's tales.
Perhaps we could consider Shade to be an "agnostic" ( not the positive denial of God by the "atheist").
Gary, your comment about the force of illusion in the inner frame is very apt.
btw: I didn't intend to imply that Shade was an homosexual, but a bisexual.
Like Matt, I began to explore the List-archives and the first entry, a very ancient one (2001!) is very elucidative. I'll add it here:
Brian Boyd on Pale FIRE: ament catkin botkin
Wed, 24 Jan 2001 10:47:59 -0800
Excerpts: (from the Archives)
Kinbote is our only source for much of Pale Fire: not only for the Zembla story, but for the relationship between himself and Shade, and his insistence that Shade write about Zembla. Although Kinbote records Shade's talking to him on numerous occasions, Shade himself of course never writes about Kinbote.There is nothing independent of Kinbote's own testimony to indicate the nature of Shade's relationship with Kinbote, or even that Shade thought of him or called him "Kinbote."/ If, as some parts of Pale Fire seem to suggest, Charles Kinbote (or Charles II or Charles Xavier Vseslav) of Zembla was actually V. Botkin of Russia (see my Nabokov's Pale Fire, pp. 90-93, for a summary of the evidence), how did Shade address Kinbote? Are Kinbote's reports of Shade calling him "Charles," and referring to him as "Professor Kinbote" (note to line 894), mere fabrication, along with other elements in this note, where the habituÊs of the Faculty Club seem not only to accept the existence of Zembla, but the name Kinbote, and the resemblance between Kinbote and the recently deposed Charles II of Zembla? We have no other evidence, and the question of the identity this exile, Kinbote or Botkin, really has in New Wye, remains as mysterious and irresolvable
...............
As Charles Lock has recently reminded us, "ament and the noun I meant / To use but did not" of course requires us to identify "the noun I meant to use" as "catkin." Why does Shade evoke a word he does not use? Given the context, that he has been writing about the inspiration for his verse, that he has shown his imagination roaming, with the help of Pope and others, to Zembla, that he has invoked his wife's role in his rhythms, and that he has called on Shakespeare to supply the title for the poem he is now writing, might he not very discreetly be contrasting these sources of inspiration with the Botkin who has been insistently but hopelessly trying to inspire him? Shade is too discreet to bring into his poem the neighbor he knows is insane, and too compassionate to declare his rejection of the inspiration "Kinbote" seeks to supply. Without naming Botkin directly, he evokes him obliquely, through the "catkin" he summons but rejects, a catkin lying "dry on the cement"-seeds, in other words, that have fallen on stony ground-and even hints at his neighbor's madness, through the other sense of "ament" (imbecile, from the Latin for "mad," non-mental), which cannot help being also implied when the botanical "ament" immediately follows the phrase "The brain is drained." / Shade has all but finished his poem, and although he acknowledges other inspirations, he firmly but painlessly declares he has had to resist Botkin's insane implorations to write an epic about Charles II of Zembla. He draws
attention, after the consonne d'appui in "meant/cement," to this prosodic device, but he has given the rhyme syllables still another appui, another support, in the internal rhyme, also with consonne d'appui, of "ament," as if to stress through the "brown ament, and the noun I meant / To use but did not, dry on the cement," the insistent "me . . . me . . . me" running through Botkin's story.
----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Roth
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Botkin
Sam Gwynn, you are right, I reversed Christian/Atheist by accident. Shade says that he doesn't believe in God--which would seem to align him with atheism. Kinbote is clearly a Christian.
Jansy, when you say that Shade is ambidextrous, I assume you are referring to his calling himself a "bimanist." I don't think he is saying that he shaves (and therefore writes) with either hand. Rather, he is saying that he holds his sagging skin taut with one hand while shaving with the other (as opposed to the one-armed bloke in the shaving cream ad). Your comment has, however, made me wonder why I assume that Shade writes with his right hand. Is this stated somewhere in the text? As for the beard, I think you are mistaken that Kinbote does not always have one. He admires its "rich tint and texture" and in the faculty room scene the lecturer remarks that "King Charles wore no beard, and yet it is his very face," meaning that Kinbote does have a beard. I don't see any reason to assume that at this point it is a fake beard.
Sergei, as for what Botkin teaches, I was simply repeating the conclusion of others--based on his department chair's name, where Gradus looks for him in the library, and the subject of the lecture he was asked to give. All of these point to Scandinavian lit or language. But Kinbote/Botkin says (via Sylvia) that he was teaching Zemblan. I'm not sure why you would think this could mean math. If I said he taught Russian, wouldn't you think he was teaching the language?
MR
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/