OK, I'll bite after finishing the movie -- I didn't hear a "ditch" and books.google.com shows "ditch" on pages 106, 126 and 133 -- not counting the "fold or furrow" in the poem -- what are we talking about here? Gotta I thought of  "Botkin" as more of a clumsy pretense than an alternate personality, but I'm ready to be persuaded...I will say the film, or thinking of the film and book at the same time, does make me think that Kinbote and Shade could be seen as two parts of the same literary mind, but I don't know if that really holds up or it's just a fleeting impression.
Tim Henderson

On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 9:44 PM, Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net> wrote:

There are word-clues throughout Pale Fire that link it with those works, which you'll notice have the theme of multiple personality in common.  

- the word "kinbote" is a link to Jekyll and Hyde; 
- the words "parahelion" and  "cresset" are links to another work I didn't mention, Hogg's Confessions of a Sinner;
- Sybil Vane is the actress who is loved and destroyed by Dorian Gray, and
- the repeated word "ditch" is a link to the book "The Three Faces of Eve."  This word may also appear in the movie - - I'll be listening with interest tomorrow!

Carolyn

Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.