Subject
Dmitri Nabokov on the PF Narrator issue
Date
Body
EDITOR's Note. One of the NABOKV-L highlights of 1997 was the spirited
discussion of the PF Narrator question. Dmitri Nabokov here offers some
essential facts that must be central to all subsequent discussion.
NABOKV-L thanks Dmitri Nabokov for his many contributions and wishes him a
splendid 1998.
------------------------------------------------------
TO: NABOKV-L:
A word about PALE FIRE.
Having followed with fascination the intricate discussion of who
invented whom, and gleaned some intriguing peripheral details along the
way, I cannot resist, with malice toward none, quoing the equine mouth.
When the speculation first began many years ago, I asked my father, during
a visit from Monza to Montreux, whether such theories might have any
substance. He laughed a characteristic, friendly laugh and said of course
not -- it would be just as implausible to say Shade and Kinbote had
invented each other. For my part, I expect an e-posting any day suggesting
both were invented by Pnin. Why, Mr. Il'yin et al., must anyone other than
the author have perforce invented anyone, even witin the macrocosm of the
book? And why not, while we're at it, override the Bogomil catharses by
positing that both God and the Devil were invented by Man, and throw in
the Earth and the Universe for good measure? Of course such a
Weltanschauung would bear a separate, obsolescent buzzname, as we all
know.
It is possible, of course, that Father might have perused the more
brilliant dovody [Russ: "arguments" - DBJ], rubbed his chin between thumb
and index, then perhaps pursed his lips as he sometimes did in mock
chagrin, and said "Maybe I didn't realize it and they're right."
But it remains dangerous to take VN's chance, or planted, clues at face
value. Many of his writings -- among them, in particular, he said, was
INVITATION TO A BEHEADING -- contain enigmas with no simple or single
explanations. In the case of PALE FIRE, I suggest paying particular
attention to the most poetic -- and Shakespearean -- sense of the word
"shade," as well as to the surviving fragments of the unfinshed SOLUS REX,
which in large part represented the genesis of PALE FIRE and would have
been Father's last Russian novel had not, as he told me, inspiration been
interrupted by emigration (from wartime France). A translucing othersense
and otherworld (concepts understood in depth by some, uncomprehended and
used unidimensionally by others) are perhaps the most entrancing,
enchanting and exciting traits of Nabokokv's work. Maybe a prerquisite for
reading him should be Eschewing Reduction to Pat and Flat 101.
DN
discussion of the PF Narrator question. Dmitri Nabokov here offers some
essential facts that must be central to all subsequent discussion.
NABOKV-L thanks Dmitri Nabokov for his many contributions and wishes him a
splendid 1998.
------------------------------------------------------
TO: NABOKV-L:
A word about PALE FIRE.
Having followed with fascination the intricate discussion of who
invented whom, and gleaned some intriguing peripheral details along the
way, I cannot resist, with malice toward none, quoing the equine mouth.
When the speculation first began many years ago, I asked my father, during
a visit from Monza to Montreux, whether such theories might have any
substance. He laughed a characteristic, friendly laugh and said of course
not -- it would be just as implausible to say Shade and Kinbote had
invented each other. For my part, I expect an e-posting any day suggesting
both were invented by Pnin. Why, Mr. Il'yin et al., must anyone other than
the author have perforce invented anyone, even witin the macrocosm of the
book? And why not, while we're at it, override the Bogomil catharses by
positing that both God and the Devil were invented by Man, and throw in
the Earth and the Universe for good measure? Of course such a
Weltanschauung would bear a separate, obsolescent buzzname, as we all
know.
It is possible, of course, that Father might have perused the more
brilliant dovody [Russ: "arguments" - DBJ], rubbed his chin between thumb
and index, then perhaps pursed his lips as he sometimes did in mock
chagrin, and said "Maybe I didn't realize it and they're right."
But it remains dangerous to take VN's chance, or planted, clues at face
value. Many of his writings -- among them, in particular, he said, was
INVITATION TO A BEHEADING -- contain enigmas with no simple or single
explanations. In the case of PALE FIRE, I suggest paying particular
attention to the most poetic -- and Shakespearean -- sense of the word
"shade," as well as to the surviving fragments of the unfinshed SOLUS REX,
which in large part represented the genesis of PALE FIRE and would have
been Father's last Russian novel had not, as he told me, inspiration been
interrupted by emigration (from wartime France). A translucing othersense
and otherworld (concepts understood in depth by some, uncomprehended and
used unidimensionally by others) are perhaps the most entrancing,
enchanting and exciting traits of Nabokokv's work. Maybe a prerquisite for
reading him should be Eschewing Reduction to Pat and Flat 101.
DN