When you say you 'do not know how to account' etc., you mean that this is further evidence against the multiple personality theory? If so, I agree. Multiple personalities take a lot of the fun out of a very fun reading experience. Of course, it could be argued that the multiple personality syndrome is characterized by exactly this ability to encapsulate the diff. personas.
A problem I've always had is with the figure of Gradus. If Kinbote is insane, then who is this fellow? If Gradus is a real assasin, then it follows that Kinbote isn't insane and IS the exiled king. No?
On Nov 13, 2006, at 4:28 PM, Anthony Stadlen wrote:
On yet another hand, I still do not know how to account even for such a central feature as Kinbote's having a "Zemblan translation of Timon of Athens" and referring unseeingly to the exact passage from which Shade, in the English original, gets his title.
It would be nice to be able to see this as "perfectly straightforward" and "joll[y]".