Stan K-Bootle: "I suppose one
could argue from this that the “number of personalities” exhibited by J&H
depends on the definition of “personalities” and in what sense they can be
“counted.” I don’t really mind, pace VN, if we just take J’s as the starting
personality, with H’s as the final extreme, giving a count two as, I think, the
average layperson digs the plot [...]but, again, we
don’t admit to an infinite number, X%-J + (100 – X)%-H, of personalities with X
ranging from 99 to 1[ ...] My next ACM Queue col.
(due out soon) is titled One Peut-Être, Two Peut-Être, Three Peut-Être,
More. ."
JM: How does this saying go in
English: "um é pouco, dois é bom, tres é demais"(one is insufficient, two is
efficient, three is difícil sorte)?
It might combine with VN's importance
given to One*, in relation to puzzled references
to sacred couples and a "holy ghost" ( but I cannot
imagine Gradus as the paraclete, but Kinbote/VN mentioned a "more
efficient Gradus," meaning Death)
Should I'd been blessed with a talent to
write short-stories I'd develop a web of plots,
following the myriad discoveries about Pale Fire (each and
everyone already copyrighted
recquiring their maneuvring into "readymades"), using
quantum-literature to hyperlink them into parallel worlds and
simultaneous contradicting realities. Perhaps as
a starting personality I'll choose Gerald Emerald: he feels green and
putatively respectueux enough.
*, for example, as Kinbote prefaces: "Nay, I shall even
assert (as our shadows still walk without us) that there remained to be written
only one line of the poem (namely verse 1000) which would have been identical to
line 1[...] and damn that music. Knowing Shade's combinational turn of mind...I
cannot imagine that he intended to deform the faces of his crystal by meddling
with its predictable growth." (PF,Forward)
Here we get a self-contained whole ("predicatable growth"), every number
exceeding One as either undesirable or repetitious, perhaps comprising a
symmetrical balance when it's Art ( 1000=1)**, and a mysterious "our
shadows still walk with us," since John Shade is dead ( is he indeed,
Carolyn?) - who comprises Kinbote's OUR?
**Query: As it happens when we write about "alternatives" (only two can be
cited), using "either" in a sentence is equally limiting? No
threesomes?