Jerry wrote: " I assume New Wye is "pale fire" reflecting our world and Zembla has the same relationship to
New Wye. Above that, I'm glad others have suggested that Nabokov is saying our world is the reflection of a higher one,but what's below that? If it's the representational artists with which Kinbote provides Zembla--Eystein, Arnor, Hodinski the forger, maybe Conmal--they all seem to raise interesting points about art and "reality". Arnor uses a real cup and shoe to find the real girl to match his imagination, while Hodinski's creations may well have been taken for reality.But there I run out of ideas. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

1. No one in our most recent discussion of Pale Fire has dwelled on the anagram "New Wye" and "Yewshade"( and its big mountain as a "snowy form" but, perhaps, no other fountain) or the sounds present in them: "why" and "you" associated with "shade". I see some "reflection" going on here but, apparently, unrelated to Zembla ( that's why I returned to this subject).

2. JF mentioned forgers and magicians together with a question about someone's opinion that if "our world is the reflection of a higher one, but what's below that." Shade mentioned both heaven ( with Turk's delights and lyres and talks) and hell ( Flemish), while wondering on "how to keep sane in spiral types of space" ( what's up, what's down? What means " a higher state" (line 509)?

While still in the mood of "anamorphoses" I discovered that I kept another toy (beside the decorated cup with a silver saucer) which I ignored also belonged to the "anamorphotic" category. It is called "Mirage" ( and must be easily available in the States, since manufactured by American Opti-Gone International) , an Instant 3-D Hologram maker. It consists of two convex shining receptacles, similar to a pan with its lid but the latter has a hole in the middle. When one places an object inside the pan it hovers "above" it as if it were "real", as real as Eystein's velvets ( there was something similar in Spielberg's "A.I" and now there are all those "virtual reality" instruments we can experiment with ). A kind of mirage, but never a "fake".Is it "higher", "lower", "above", "below" or, like a rainbow, it lies "nowhere" but remains discernible and photographable? The effects of VN's writings on me are often comparable to a "rainbow" and more "real" than Tchekov's black monk or Kinbote/Gradus, but still " art in Zembla"...