Dear Gary Lipon,

This interesting train of thought lead me to think in a new direction. Instead of the reading order (that is, disorder) proposed by Kinbote, it might behoove the reader to follow the reading of the poem with a re-reading of Kinbote's preface, where the disintegration into madness continues unabated. Hadn't thought of that before - - thank you. I'm not sure why you refer to the last part of the poem as "epilogue or envoy" - - I should rather call it "metamorphosis."

Carolyn Kunin

On May 1, 2010, at 3:47 PM, Gary Lipon wrote:

It seems to me that one might summarize Pale Fire, the poem, as follows:

Canto 1: Shade's early life,

Canto 2: eschatological commitment, Maud's stroke & commitment, Hazel's story

Canto 3: Shade's grief and attempts to heal and find meaning to, or in, life. (IPH, and the White Fountain)

Canto 4: Proclamation of great insight,

description of two methods of composition, one of which is compulsive,

travails of shaving,

epilogue or envoy.

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