You wrote: Why do you suppose that "the little parricide" was John Shade? All I got was: "I wish to convey, in making
this reference to Wordsmith briefer than the notes on the Goldsworth and Shade houses, the fact that the college was considerably farther from them than they were from one another. It is probably the first time that the dull pain of distance is rendered through an effect of style and that a topographical idea finds its verbal expression in a series of foreshortened sentences." There are other clues, right? What are they?
The other clues are in Jekyll and Hyde. I just realized that this part of your note was not addressed to me. Nevertheless ... if you accept my hypothesis that there is a relationship between Pale Fire and Jekyll
and Hyde, then you will find it interesting to note that Shade doesn't know what his parents look like. I found it odd -- apparently no one else does.* What is then interesting is to note that Dr Jekyll's younger brother (so to speak), Mr Hyde, destroys all evidence of Jekyll's parents. In a fit of pique, he destroys all letters written from J to his parents, and his (or their, I guess) father's portrait.
I took this and ran with it to the bank. Do you see? the implication, I mean. What I mean is that like Hyde, Shade destroyed -- must have destroyed -- his parents portraits. Why would he do such a thing? Do you see now? I thought it likely that Shade, having killed his mother (his 'younger brother, Kinbote**) couldn't
bear to have any reminders - or perhaps, good old Doctor Colt told Aunt Maude to hyde them (pun intended).
**
Kinbote, as I noted many moons ago, refers to Hyde's first crime in
J & H. And as someone else noticed, perhaps Jerry F?, or possibly Charles from Scandanavia?, that the name
Charles (masc. form of
Caroline) might have been derived from his mother's. I can't recall
now, but I also figured out that she, his mother, was possibly of Russian descent, making Shade the "scholar of Russian descent" at Waindell, commonly supposed to refer to Kinbote. Charles is hardly a Slavic or Scandanavian name - nor is Kinbote either, for that matter. Well, all of this is to be found in the archives, for any who wish to pursue it further.
From: Jansy <jansy@AETERN.US>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Mon, April 29, 2013 10:56:15 AM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Minor points: Surnames and name days
Jansy Mello: inspite of innumerous inspired
angles and photography, or the play inside the play blending fictional reality
and its representation, I disliked enormously the recent production of Anna
Karenina, directed by Joe Wright. The real world of a novelist, at least its
intelligibility, gains consistency by details (caress them) and I missed
them all, inspite of all the luxurious lamps and trinkets.
Jerry Katsell: Perhaps Nabokov, who was capable of
uninhibited, uproarious laughter, would have enjoyed some original details in
the Joe Wright directed Anna Karenina. My favorite moment was during the
race scene when Frou Frou, Vronsky holding on for dear life, crashes into the
orchestra pit. J
Jansy Mello: During this
episode I kept expecting the farcical race horse scene from "My Fair
Lady." The meaty stumbling Frou Frou filled me with
pity.
Abdel Bouazza:
The recollection of children playing among other games hide and seek on
Vladimir’s name-day and forgetting about Peter who was still hiding and
therefore missed the picnic he was looking forward to is from VN’s short story
“A Bad Day” (Obida, 1931) included in Details of a Sunset & Other
Stories.
Jansy Mello: One added information: a celebration on
Vladimir's name-day was described in his short story "A Bad Day." And, of
course, a precise correction by AB: the scene I had in mind was not included
in "Speak,Memory."
Jerry Friedman: I didn't remember Carolyn Kunin's
suggestion "that John Shade is the young miscreant that was judged by Judge
whatsisname (next-door neighbor) with the alphabetic daughters, for having offed
his parents when he was but a wee bairn." This runs into problems with the
timing. The more important one, probably, is that Kinbote's statement that
the little parricide was seven (n. 47-48) would contradict his statement that
Samuel Shade died in 1902 (n. 71), which is when John was three or
four.
Jansy Mello: Why do you suppose that "the little
parricide" was John Shade? All I got was: "I wish to convey,
in making this reference to Wordsmith briefer than the notes on the Goldsworth
and Shade houses, the fact that the college was considerably farther from them
than they were from one another. It is probably the first time that the dull
pain of distance is rendered through an effect of style and that a topographical
idea finds its verbal expression in a series of foreshortened sentences."
There are other clues, right? What are
they?
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