Date:         Tue, 3 Oct 2006 09:49:54 -0800
Reply-To:     Vladimir Nabokov Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Vladimir Nabokov Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From:         Carolyn Kunin <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      J&H not the only clue to PF puzzle solution
In-Reply-To:  <002301c6e63d$fcfa1840$6501a8c0@jansy01>
Content-type: multipart/alternative;

I have the impression that your hypothesis concerning the identity of CK and
JS would become richer and more workable as a thing Nabokovian, if RLS's
novel and allegories were less emphasized.

Dear Jansy,

All I can say in my own defense is that I took my clues from Pale Fire.
There are many references to the Jekyll and Hyde story in Pale Fire,
starting with the name Kinbote. VN's lecture on J&H seems to make reference
to PF, too - - for just one example Hyde is described as a tape-worm,  a
parasite of Jekyll just as Kinbote is described as a botfly, a parasite of
Shade.

But you are right. This is only one among other clues that lead me to the
multiple-personality solution.
There are for example references to hypnotism, which I have read was
"anathema to Freud" but  indispensable  in the studies of multiple
personality - - trilby, autoneurypnological ,  and John [?] Coates  pointing
to James Braid* who invented the word "hypnosis" to replace the older and
scientifically inappropriate terms mesmerism and magnetism.
There are also references to "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Three
Faces of Eve" - - not to mention Alice through the Looking Glass, in which
Alice often puzzles over her own identity.

My argument is that other many sets of literary and historical of references
in the novel did not seem to me to solve the puzzle, whereas these
multiple-personality references , along with the hidden-in-plain-sight
references to "strokes" and the brilliant depiction of cerebral stroke as
the escape-from-Zembla, and the "G, K, S" [yes, Jerry - - alphabetical, of
course]  did combine to form a key which fit and turned in the lock.

Carolyn

* Does anyone besides me remember Coates & Braid thread and notions?