Subject
Re: Query re PALE FIRE (fwd)
Date
Body
>
> Candy Hooker <cehooker@artsci.wustl.edu> writes:
>
> I am a Washington University student preparing a presentation on Nabokov's
> Pale Fire.
> The presentation is about the book as a self-conscious novel. Through
> reading and study, a few things have intrigued me. I am interested in the
> possible parallels between Nabokov and Kinbote as well as the
> believability of Kinbote as narrator. Most importantly, I have noticed
> that at seemingly random places in the text there are small type size
> changes, barely noticeable. The type changes occur, as far as I can tell,
> in the notes for lines 12, 130, 171, 502, 678. In these instances, a new
> paragraph might begin with a slightly larger type size or a break will be
> made and the return to the paragraph is set in a larger type size.
>
> I am interested to know if Nabokov laid out specific instructions for how
> the book was to be type set on press because between editions there are
> also basic similarities like what font was used and how the division
> pages are set (Foreward, Commentary). Do you have any information
> regarding this question? Can you send it out into the NABOKV-L to see
> what other people have to say?
>
> I appreciate any help you may be able to give.
>
> Candy Hooker
> cehooker@artsci.wustl.edu
---------------------------------------------------
Larry Zirlin's response:
I don't see the typeface changes mentioned by Candy Hooker in my Vintage
Paper edition of Pale File, but I have noticed the phenomena in the
series. However, my background in printing and book design tells me that
these size changes are just typographer tricks to fit in corrections
without resetting entire pages. If you can squeeze in a word by
dropping down a 1/2 point size you do it, and only other typographers
and hyper-aware college students will ever notice.
--
Larry Zirlin
Throb baffled and curious brain
throwing out questions and answers
Walt Whitman
http://home.att.net/~larryz/index.html
> Candy Hooker <cehooker@artsci.wustl.edu> writes:
>
> I am a Washington University student preparing a presentation on Nabokov's
> Pale Fire.
> The presentation is about the book as a self-conscious novel. Through
> reading and study, a few things have intrigued me. I am interested in the
> possible parallels between Nabokov and Kinbote as well as the
> believability of Kinbote as narrator. Most importantly, I have noticed
> that at seemingly random places in the text there are small type size
> changes, barely noticeable. The type changes occur, as far as I can tell,
> in the notes for lines 12, 130, 171, 502, 678. In these instances, a new
> paragraph might begin with a slightly larger type size or a break will be
> made and the return to the paragraph is set in a larger type size.
>
> I am interested to know if Nabokov laid out specific instructions for how
> the book was to be type set on press because between editions there are
> also basic similarities like what font was used and how the division
> pages are set (Foreward, Commentary). Do you have any information
> regarding this question? Can you send it out into the NABOKV-L to see
> what other people have to say?
>
> I appreciate any help you may be able to give.
>
> Candy Hooker
> cehooker@artsci.wustl.edu
---------------------------------------------------
Larry Zirlin's response:
I don't see the typeface changes mentioned by Candy Hooker in my Vintage
Paper edition of Pale File, but I have noticed the phenomena in the
series. However, my background in printing and book design tells me that
these size changes are just typographer tricks to fit in corrections
without resetting entire pages. If you can squeeze in a word by
dropping down a 1/2 point size you do it, and only other typographers
and hyper-aware college students will ever notice.
--
Larry Zirlin
Throb baffled and curious brain
throwing out questions and answers
Walt Whitman
http://home.att.net/~larryz/index.html