... Shade is clearly not intended as the sort
of poet who seriously strives to "reach the essence of poetry...to
enter into communication with supreme Reality"
...Shade's
"Two
methods of composing*: A, the kind/ Which goes on solely in the poet’s mind,/
and B,../ when/ He’s in his study writing with a pen. // is the process
deeper with no desk/ To prop the false and hoist the
poetesque**?/"
JM (counterarguments): 1. SO
(119) "John Shade in Pale Fire leads an intense
inner existence, far removed from what you call a joke"; SO
(18)"some of my more responsible characters are given some of my own
ideas. There is John Shade in Pale Fire, the poet. He does borrow some
of my own opinions."
Inspite of Nabokov's words, about certain traces shared
between him and his character John Shade, we know that "poetry is a tall story"
and that Pale Fire is a "good combination" (ie, it contains deception).
We also know that Nabokov used the term "double" to indicate
that which serves two contrasting uses (bathroom & studio) or
else, that Shade was his own cancellation and his own mask..
In my opinion, at certain times, instead of merely considering
Kinbote and Shade as representing a single person (or the author) like in the
Jekyl&Hyde split, we could admit that Shade, himself, is
equally split into an obvious character (provincial poet with a dead
daughter and an enterprising wife) and a hidden essential voice
(Nabokov's?), whose expression is to be found in combinatorial delights, plexed
artistry and styllistic voids or gaps.#
Yesterday I watched a "bizarre fable", dated 1953: "Lili"
directed by Charles Walters, with Mel Ferrer and Leslie Caron. (written by Helen
Deutsch and Paul Gallico), a puppeteer's various puppets representing
various facets of his own personality.
Helen Deutsch (one of the script-writers) has
apparently split Dr. Samuel Johnson into "body" and "mystery" (perhaps, as
I'm now suggesting, that we could proceed with fictional John Shade himself
- but I haven't yet read her 2005 "Loving Dr.
Johnson").
...............................
*- RLSK "the heroes of the book are what
can be loosely called 'methos of composition'." (distinct from
"composing")..."their harmonious fusion will disclose the
landscape as I intend you to see it."
** - poetesque/picturesque Cf. SO (311) 'no desk to prop the false and hoist the
picturesque'
# - additional elements: poetry as deception; serial
selves; "double".. ( found while trying, in vain, to locate the
sentence about the audience wearing masks that reproduce VN's face):
1. SO (11-12) "poetry - the tall
story had been born in the tall grass" "deception is chess, as in art, is only
part of the fame; it's part of the combination... a good combination
should always contain a certain element of
deception."
2. SO (24) "People underestimate the
power of my imagination and my capacity of evolving serial selves in my
writings." Cp. serial selves and Appel's (AL xii/xiii) arguments
concerning Lolita and a parody of R.L.Stevenson's Jekyl & Hyde leading
to the annotator's conclusion that "The 'serial selves' of Pale Fire
'oustrip' Stevenson and a good many other writers..."
Cf. also xxvi on "all reality is a
mask" and the gaps and holes in the narrative, related to Kinbote's
words about Shade: "His whole being
constituted a mask." or "he was his own
cancellation." (suggesting an essence lurking behind the physical
world);
3.related to readers: SO (37) "one also
needs some reverberation, if not response, and a moderate multiplication of
one's self throughout a country or countries"
4. on "doubles": SO (89) "the bathroom
doubled as my study. Here is the Doppelgänger theme for
you."
5. SO (114) "I write for myself in
multiplicate, a not unfamiliar phenomenon on the horizons of shimmering
deserts."
6.. Inspiration and two methods of composing: SO (310)"one sees inspiration accompanying the author (...a nubile
muse)..One and the same person can compose parts of one and the same story or
poem, either in his head or on paper, pencil in hand...Some prefer the
bathutub...the place does not matter much, it is the relationship between the
brain and the hand that poses some odd problems..." ..."by some mute command the
right word flutes and perches on my hand." This is, of course, where inspiration
comes in..."