Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0018984, Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:41:37 -0200

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[NABOKOV-L] An amusing contrast in PF's lines about "human life"
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Someone quoted Nabokov in a blog and chose to represent him through Kinbote.
After I compared Shade's words ( in a poem) with Kinbote's (a footnote), I decidedly preferred CK's.
When I set both lines side by side I realized something I hadn't noticed before: Shade writes a poem about "life as a poem," whereas Kinbote's footnote is about "life as a footnote" Neat.
Kinbote's rendering is equally applicable to TOoL, although who authors the "unfinished masterpiece" remains undisclosable.

Man's life as commentary to abstruse

Unfinished poem. Note for further use.

(John Shade, PF,lines 939-40)



".our poet suggests here that human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece."

(Charles Kinbote, footnote to lines 939-40)




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