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THOUGHTS: Pale Fire chess pieces, lies, and delusions
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--- On Sun, 11/2/08, jansymello <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> JF: Chess was one of Nabokov's main
> interests, and provides convenient "logos"
...
> JM:I gather you don't find any particular point in this
> setting side by side both TRLSK's narrator (and
> quasi-'usurper') and PF's commentator ( and
> 'usurper') by their having chosen a black
> chess-piece as a "logos."
Sorry, I even wondered whether I was being unclear.
"Logos" here is the plural of "logo", a identifying symbol
(especially for a corporation or brand).
I didn't really notice the fact that both were black,
though. When Kinbote compares himself to a /solus
rex/, he means a black king; in general in chess
problems (at least direct mates), the black king is
attacked and doomed, which is how Kinbote sees himself.
Also, black is a more conventionally romantic color than
white, as in Charles Vseslav's Black Rose Paladins.
I'm not going to say anything about Sebastian Knight's
black knight (not a king, Stan), since I don't remember
TRLSK well enough.
If I may correct something else SK-B said, we don't have
a new world champion in chess. Anand retained his title,
which he won last year. (I'm pleased.)
JM, I agree with your point about insignificant
coincidences.
> When I asked about the lie I was wondering in relation to
> Kinbote's various references to his trip to Cedarn, but
> not in general - although delusional people can also lie,
> too.
What I had in mind is that if someone is delusional,
it's hard to tell whether he's lying. I don't have the
kind of experience with this that I imagine you do,
though. Anyway, I'm not sure /why/ Kinbote would
lie or have delusions about being in Cedarn, though
yes, I do see something odd about his having a car
and how long the trip takes. Maybe part of the blur
reminding us that it's fiction.
> What really happened in PF, for me, is the materiality
> of a 999-line poem.
I'm not too far from that view.
Jerry Friedman
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> JF: Chess was one of Nabokov's main
> interests, and provides convenient "logos"
...
> JM:I gather you don't find any particular point in this
> setting side by side both TRLSK's narrator (and
> quasi-'usurper') and PF's commentator ( and
> 'usurper') by their having chosen a black
> chess-piece as a "logos."
Sorry, I even wondered whether I was being unclear.
"Logos" here is the plural of "logo", a identifying symbol
(especially for a corporation or brand).
I didn't really notice the fact that both were black,
though. When Kinbote compares himself to a /solus
rex/, he means a black king; in general in chess
problems (at least direct mates), the black king is
attacked and doomed, which is how Kinbote sees himself.
Also, black is a more conventionally romantic color than
white, as in Charles Vseslav's Black Rose Paladins.
I'm not going to say anything about Sebastian Knight's
black knight (not a king, Stan), since I don't remember
TRLSK well enough.
If I may correct something else SK-B said, we don't have
a new world champion in chess. Anand retained his title,
which he won last year. (I'm pleased.)
JM, I agree with your point about insignificant
coincidences.
> When I asked about the lie I was wondering in relation to
> Kinbote's various references to his trip to Cedarn, but
> not in general - although delusional people can also lie,
> too.
What I had in mind is that if someone is delusional,
it's hard to tell whether he's lying. I don't have the
kind of experience with this that I imagine you do,
though. Anyway, I'm not sure /why/ Kinbote would
lie or have delusions about being in Cedarn, though
yes, I do see something odd about his having a car
and how long the trip takes. Maybe part of the blur
reminding us that it's fiction.
> What really happened in PF, for me, is the materiality
> of a 999-line poem.
I'm not too far from that view.
Jerry Friedman
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/