Subject
Fw: alternate PALE FIRE interpretation reply
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 8:44 AM
Subject: alternate interpretation reply
> This message was originally submitted by chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET to
the
> NABOKV-L list at LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU. >
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (32
lines) ------------------
> Thank you Mr Friedman for your response. I am very much looking for
> objections and questions to this interpretation.
>
> You are right about the difference in hair color between Disa and Sybil. I
> mistakenly thought Sybil was blond and took Disa to be the opposite as
would
> be appropriate in Zembla (just as Kinbote is straight in Appalachia and
> Kinbote is bent sinister in Zembla). Like you, I have to think it possible
> that her hair is now white (time is very problematic in this novel!) I
will
> check for a reference.
>
> Dates are important clues in this novel. Aunt Maude's lifespan coincides
> with the Countess de Fyler's. This suggests that they are the same person.
>
> You are also right that Shade is rarely given an honorific (nor is
Kinbote).
> "Wives, Mr Shade, are forgetful" is the first. Line 727 of the poem "No,
Mr.
> Shade ... just half a shade." Again, unimportant and could be explained
> away, but if we take the index seriously, it certainly is a possible clue.
>
> Actually, what put me onto this reading was the discovery that Shade had
had
> another child, born before Aunt Maude's illness (referred to inline 90,
and
> described in lines 682-684). The ghost of his mother (described in lines
> 685-688) "haunts Lit 202" (the foreword). The car crash that killed them
is
> also referred to in the "kind of travelog" the Shades watch on TV during
> Hazel's travails (lines 430-432). The clue here is the repetition of
"March
> night."
>
> So there is a darker Shade than we had thought. Once I became aware of
that,
> it was an easy step to finally suspecting the actual relationship between
> poet and commentator.
>
> Carolyn Kunin
>
>
From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 8:44 AM
Subject: alternate interpretation reply
> This message was originally submitted by chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET to
the
> NABOKV-L list at LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU. >
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (32
lines) ------------------
> Thank you Mr Friedman for your response. I am very much looking for
> objections and questions to this interpretation.
>
> You are right about the difference in hair color between Disa and Sybil. I
> mistakenly thought Sybil was blond and took Disa to be the opposite as
would
> be appropriate in Zembla (just as Kinbote is straight in Appalachia and
> Kinbote is bent sinister in Zembla). Like you, I have to think it possible
> that her hair is now white (time is very problematic in this novel!) I
will
> check for a reference.
>
> Dates are important clues in this novel. Aunt Maude's lifespan coincides
> with the Countess de Fyler's. This suggests that they are the same person.
>
> You are also right that Shade is rarely given an honorific (nor is
Kinbote).
> "Wives, Mr Shade, are forgetful" is the first. Line 727 of the poem "No,
Mr.
> Shade ... just half a shade." Again, unimportant and could be explained
> away, but if we take the index seriously, it certainly is a possible clue.
>
> Actually, what put me onto this reading was the discovery that Shade had
had
> another child, born before Aunt Maude's illness (referred to inline 90,
and
> described in lines 682-684). The ghost of his mother (described in lines
> 685-688) "haunts Lit 202" (the foreword). The car crash that killed them
is
> also referred to in the "kind of travelog" the Shades watch on TV during
> Hazel's travails (lines 430-432). The clue here is the repetition of
"March
> night."
>
> So there is a darker Shade than we had thought. Once I became aware of
that,
> it was an easy step to finally suspecting the actual relationship between
> poet and commentator.
>
> Carolyn Kunin
>
>