Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002622, Tue, 16 Dec 1997 11:14:55 -0800

Subject
Re: Pale Fire: who invented whom (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Charles Nicol <EJNICOL@root.indstate.edu>,
author of the note below, did one of the first
VN dissertations and is a founding father of the Vladimir Nabokov Society,
author of numerous articles, and co-editor of the
collection _Nabokov's Fifth Arc_.
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Ever since Field, in his very-good-for-its-time 1967 book on Nabokov's
fiction, argued that Shade created Kinbote, with a diagram of Shade's
window included, I have cringed every time this argument comes up,
whichever character ends up creating the other (yah, take that,
Don, ol' buddy!). They are co-equal, two sides of a coin. The moon
steals its pale fire from the sun, but that's far from the sun
creating the moon. Indeed, the real question that ought to be
answered is how much Kinbote modifies his Zembla to fit Shade's poem.
Charles Nicol