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[NABOKOV-L] [QUERIES] Kinbote's chronologies and addresses
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I - After I checked Math Roth's discussion with Carolyn Kunin in the Nab-L archives (19 Oct 2006), in which he considers: "In C.949 Kinbote analyzes the character of Gradus. In one section, he imagines a trial (Gradus versus the Crown), during which he says, I suppose in the voice of the prosecutor, 'we may concede, doctor, that our half-man was also half-mad'..." I started to have second thoughts concerning Kinbote's note mentioning a "doctor". It had seemed to me, at first, that Kinbote was addressing an imaginary audience in a Humbert-like way although, in this case, his arguments swayed on behalf of the "half man...half mad" Gradus.*
For me the intrusion of this "voice" remains unexplained: does it indicate anything other than Kinbote's own madness? (in the second example the doctor is called in to opine about Gradus's innards, in a scenery of psychotic delusion on Kinbote's part, not Gradus's).
II - Kinbote writes, in the Foreword: "A few days later, as I was about to leave Parthenocissus Hall**--or Main Hall (or now Shade Hall, alas). Later, in his commentaries, we read: "A car, he was told, would take him to the Campus Hotel which was a few minutes' walk from the Main Hall (now Shade Hall)"
Wasn't this homage to John Shade too quick? It must have taken place in less than two months, before Kinbote went to his Cedarn cave. I don't remember any special festivities and re-innaugurations of the plaque having been mentioned by Kinbote anywhere.
Perhaps anyone can help me to contextualize these two items?
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* "Gradus is now much nearer to us in space and time...his human incompleteness ...we may concede, doctor, that our half-man was also half mad" and "My own opinion, which I would like the doctor to confirm, is that the French sandwich was engaged in an intestinal internecine war..."
Compare to Shade: "But, Doctor, I was dead!/ He smiled. "Not quite: just half a shade." Or Kinbote's note to it: "Another fine example of our poet's special brand of combinational magic. The subtle pun here turns on two additional meanings of "shade"...The doctor is made to suggest that not only did Shade retain in his trance half of his identity but that he was also half a ghost. Knowing the particular medical man who treated my friend at the time, I venture to add that he is far too stodgy to have displayed any such wit."
** - In former Nab-L discussions there's Victor Fet's August 2006 observation that "Partenocissus is a Latin name for creepers -- ivies of grape family (Vitaceae), of Asian and North American origin. In Russian it is called "devichii vinograd" (maiden's grape), which is of course a connection both to maidens (or virginity) and Gradus!".
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For me the intrusion of this "voice" remains unexplained: does it indicate anything other than Kinbote's own madness? (in the second example the doctor is called in to opine about Gradus's innards, in a scenery of psychotic delusion on Kinbote's part, not Gradus's).
II - Kinbote writes, in the Foreword: "A few days later, as I was about to leave Parthenocissus Hall**--or Main Hall (or now Shade Hall, alas). Later, in his commentaries, we read: "A car, he was told, would take him to the Campus Hotel which was a few minutes' walk from the Main Hall (now Shade Hall)"
Wasn't this homage to John Shade too quick? It must have taken place in less than two months, before Kinbote went to his Cedarn cave. I don't remember any special festivities and re-innaugurations of the plaque having been mentioned by Kinbote anywhere.
Perhaps anyone can help me to contextualize these two items?
..................................................................................................................................
* "Gradus is now much nearer to us in space and time...his human incompleteness ...we may concede, doctor, that our half-man was also half mad" and "My own opinion, which I would like the doctor to confirm, is that the French sandwich was engaged in an intestinal internecine war..."
Compare to Shade: "But, Doctor, I was dead!/ He smiled. "Not quite: just half a shade." Or Kinbote's note to it: "Another fine example of our poet's special brand of combinational magic. The subtle pun here turns on two additional meanings of "shade"...The doctor is made to suggest that not only did Shade retain in his trance half of his identity but that he was also half a ghost. Knowing the particular medical man who treated my friend at the time, I venture to add that he is far too stodgy to have displayed any such wit."
** - In former Nab-L discussions there's Victor Fet's August 2006 observation that "Partenocissus is a Latin name for creepers -- ivies of grape family (Vitaceae), of Asian and North American origin. In Russian it is called "devichii vinograd" (maiden's grape), which is of course a connection both to maidens (or virginity) and Gradus!".
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/