Subject
Pynchon list..Pale Fire Commentary
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EDNOTE. If someone out there wants to do something useful, they could merge and edit the Pynchon list PALE FIRE discussion down to a clean compendium as a handy compilation of info for PF readers.
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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3504
Date: Monday, August 25, 2003 3:45 PM
pynchon-l-digest Monday, August 25 2003 Volume 02 : Number 3504
From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part two)
on 23/8/03 4:56 AM, Jasper Fidget wrote:
> "I have no desire to twist and batter an unambiguous /apparatus criticus/
> into the monstrous semblance of a novel."
>
> apparatus criticus: "A collection of material, as variant readings and other
> palaeographical and critical matter, for the textual study of a document."
> (OED)
>
> VN seems to be commenting on his current project itself through the irony of
> Kinbote's assertion.
I agree. And the bit just before this is interesting too, Kinbote noting how
Shade "did not bring up ... ridiculous stories about the terrifying shadows
that Judge Goldsworth's gown threw across the underworld, or about this or
that beast lying in prison and positively dying of *raghdirst* (thirst for
revenge) -- crass banalities circulated by the scurrilous and the heartless
- -- by all those for whom romance, remoteness, sealskin-lined scarlet skies,
the darkening dunes of a fabulous kingdom, simply do not exist."
Kinbote here seems to be responding to the suggestion that it was Jack Grey
seeking revenge on Judge Goldsmith who was Shade's slayer, suggestions which
would refute his own tale of Jakob Gradus, would-be assassin tracking down
the Zemblan king. While it demonstrates an awareness on Kinbote's part of
alternative explanations to the one he's pitching in the Commentary (and the
fact that these explanations have been made), and a defensive attitude
towards same, it also reveals Kinbote's absolute self-centredness. He
displays no concern for the fact that Shade was murdered (by whoever), only
that Shade ("my sweet old friend") was being thoughtful towards him,
Kinbote, in never mentioning the stories about those criminals who had been
sentenced by Judge Goldsworth, such as Jack Grey, who were out for revenge.
But there's also a flaw in Kinbote's logic, because Shade not bringing up
those particular stories couldn't have been out of consideration for
Kinbote, because the plot to kill someone (whether it was Grey's or
Gradus's) was not revealed until *after* Shade was shot.
There is, I think, also a touch of Nabokov the imaginative artist, Nabokov
the exile from pre-Revolutionary Russia, in this wistful pr?cis of "a
fabulous kingdom" lost.
best
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End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3504
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--------------------------------------------------------------
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3504
Date: Monday, August 25, 2003 3:45 PM
pynchon-l-digest Monday, August 25 2003 Volume 02 : Number 3504
From: jbor <jbor@bigpond.com>
Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part two)
on 23/8/03 4:56 AM, Jasper Fidget wrote:
> "I have no desire to twist and batter an unambiguous /apparatus criticus/
> into the monstrous semblance of a novel."
>
> apparatus criticus: "A collection of material, as variant readings and other
> palaeographical and critical matter, for the textual study of a document."
> (OED)
>
> VN seems to be commenting on his current project itself through the irony of
> Kinbote's assertion.
I agree. And the bit just before this is interesting too, Kinbote noting how
Shade "did not bring up ... ridiculous stories about the terrifying shadows
that Judge Goldsworth's gown threw across the underworld, or about this or
that beast lying in prison and positively dying of *raghdirst* (thirst for
revenge) -- crass banalities circulated by the scurrilous and the heartless
- -- by all those for whom romance, remoteness, sealskin-lined scarlet skies,
the darkening dunes of a fabulous kingdom, simply do not exist."
Kinbote here seems to be responding to the suggestion that it was Jack Grey
seeking revenge on Judge Goldsmith who was Shade's slayer, suggestions which
would refute his own tale of Jakob Gradus, would-be assassin tracking down
the Zemblan king. While it demonstrates an awareness on Kinbote's part of
alternative explanations to the one he's pitching in the Commentary (and the
fact that these explanations have been made), and a defensive attitude
towards same, it also reveals Kinbote's absolute self-centredness. He
displays no concern for the fact that Shade was murdered (by whoever), only
that Shade ("my sweet old friend") was being thoughtful towards him,
Kinbote, in never mentioning the stories about those criminals who had been
sentenced by Judge Goldsworth, such as Jack Grey, who were out for revenge.
But there's also a flaw in Kinbote's logic, because Shade not bringing up
those particular stories couldn't have been out of consideration for
Kinbote, because the plot to kill someone (whether it was Grey's or
Gradus's) was not revealed until *after* Shade was shot.
There is, I think, also a touch of Nabokov the imaginative artist, Nabokov
the exile from pre-Revolutionary Russia, in this wistful pr?cis of "a
fabulous kingdom" lost.
best
------------------------------
End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3504
********************************