Subject
Split personality in PF
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Carolyn K. and Sergei described:
(a) "But I think this is Nabokov being intentionally misleading" ;
(b) "looks rather as a trap (one of many) prepared by Nabokov",
although these traps seem to spring in different places for everyone and reveal more about the reader himself than the plot of the novel. Chess-expert and writer Nabokov might set different kinds of problems in his novels which, although distinct, are not mutually excludent. The complexity of VN's novels lies in the particular moves it offers each "player" and in his open unending options instead of a single solution.
Andrew Brown noted three clear points:1. " Shade suppressing a knowledge of Russian as well as his homosexuality is an awful lot of suppressing" ; 2." To take one’s homosexuality and recreate it imaginatively and comically, as Kinbote does in relating his escapades, seems to be more than one can reasonably ask a fictional character to do"; 3. "Shade blends the placid beauty of life with a darker subterranean life. One’s muse can be angelic, and one’s muse can be demonic".
Thank you Andrew, I enjoyed your posting very much!
G.S. questioned:"When Shade says to Kinbote "Why must one always quote St. Augustine to me?" did he really talk back to his split self." There were other postings in the past with St.Augustine famous lines about his own quite normal "divided-self" ( "the spirit is strong, the flesh is weak"). We don't need psychiatric theories about multiple personalities to understand this dilemma, nor our muses must be either angelic or demonic...
Jansy
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(a) "But I think this is Nabokov being intentionally misleading" ;
(b) "looks rather as a trap (one of many) prepared by Nabokov",
although these traps seem to spring in different places for everyone and reveal more about the reader himself than the plot of the novel. Chess-expert and writer Nabokov might set different kinds of problems in his novels which, although distinct, are not mutually excludent. The complexity of VN's novels lies in the particular moves it offers each "player" and in his open unending options instead of a single solution.
Andrew Brown noted three clear points:1. " Shade suppressing a knowledge of Russian as well as his homosexuality is an awful lot of suppressing" ; 2." To take one’s homosexuality and recreate it imaginatively and comically, as Kinbote does in relating his escapades, seems to be more than one can reasonably ask a fictional character to do"; 3. "Shade blends the placid beauty of life with a darker subterranean life. One’s muse can be angelic, and one’s muse can be demonic".
Thank you Andrew, I enjoyed your posting very much!
G.S. questioned:"When Shade says to Kinbote "Why must one always quote St. Augustine to me?" did he really talk back to his split self." There were other postings in the past with St.Augustine famous lines about his own quite normal "divided-self" ( "the spirit is strong, the flesh is weak"). We don't need psychiatric theories about multiple personalities to understand this dilemma, nor our muses must be either angelic or demonic...
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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