Subject
Re: a bit of S in K
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C.Kunin: There are indeed "Shadian bits and pieces shining thru .. K." And Kinbotean bits lurking in Shade as well [...] page one, paragraph two:
The short (166 lines) Canto One, with all those amusing birds and parhelia, occupies thirteen cards. Canto Two, your favorite ....I argue that this is John Shade addressing Sybil. If not, who is Kinbote addressing?
JM:Not really a convert, Carolyn, but a helpful devil's advocate? Your first example is almost convincing but it is still possible to conjecture that Kinbote had been referring to himself (your favorite=my favorite)
J.Aisenberg: I take it you either do believe that Hyde's assaults and crimes are equivalent to Kinbote's rude an unethical behavior, or you believe that Nabokov thought so. If he did then it seems to me that, far more than the logical problems this parallel foists on the story, would be the "fatal flaw", since there's no equivalent between the two [...] Pale Fire would flatten these kinds of distinctions out-[...]I'm here leaving asside the theoretical nature of Kinbote's activities as you understand them, versus the Hyde persona's actual activities and am simply weighing them abstractly against one another.
JM: In full agreement. And yet ( again) there is something VN wrote in his lecture on J&H which is worth bringing up again:" since something of the composite Jekyll remains behind to wonder in horror at Hyde while Hyde is in action."
The composite Jekyll can be horrified at Hyde... while Hyde is in action ( not when he stares at himself in the mirror and finds Hyde or feels his evil inclinations while recognizes them as also being his own).Cp. with "Hyde persona's actual activities" instead of "the theoretical nature" of Kinbote's.
I think Nabokov refrained from letting Kinbote act out his fantasies, he merely set them down on paper dividing agressiveness (the shadows and Gradus) and homoerotic impulses.
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The short (166 lines) Canto One, with all those amusing birds and parhelia, occupies thirteen cards. Canto Two, your favorite ....I argue that this is John Shade addressing Sybil. If not, who is Kinbote addressing?
JM:Not really a convert, Carolyn, but a helpful devil's advocate? Your first example is almost convincing but it is still possible to conjecture that Kinbote had been referring to himself (your favorite=my favorite)
J.Aisenberg: I take it you either do believe that Hyde's assaults and crimes are equivalent to Kinbote's rude an unethical behavior, or you believe that Nabokov thought so. If he did then it seems to me that, far more than the logical problems this parallel foists on the story, would be the "fatal flaw", since there's no equivalent between the two [...] Pale Fire would flatten these kinds of distinctions out-[...]I'm here leaving asside the theoretical nature of Kinbote's activities as you understand them, versus the Hyde persona's actual activities and am simply weighing them abstractly against one another.
JM: In full agreement. And yet ( again) there is something VN wrote in his lecture on J&H which is worth bringing up again:" since something of the composite Jekyll remains behind to wonder in horror at Hyde while Hyde is in action."
The composite Jekyll can be horrified at Hyde... while Hyde is in action ( not when he stares at himself in the mirror and finds Hyde or feels his evil inclinations while recognizes them as also being his own).Cp. with "Hyde persona's actual activities" instead of "the theoretical nature" of Kinbote's.
I think Nabokov refrained from letting Kinbote act out his fantasies, he merely set them down on paper dividing agressiveness (the shadows and Gradus) and homoerotic impulses.
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/