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split personality etc.
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Dear participants of our small discussion:
I mostly agree with very convincing argument by Jerry, I would
add to it a bit (from slightly different angle).
Let's not forget that the PF is a litterary work - and Nabokov
(in difference from, say, Dostoievsky) is a writer with excellent
self-control. He may have some private obsessions but
he says mostly what he planned to tell.
The conjecture that he wants to tell us a story
of a triple split personality - just in a very coded and obscure way,
would mean that we have a puzzle to show our cleverness in the
process of decoding, with not very interesting final result
(to me, the story of inner battles
between 3 parts of a split personality, if we take it as a
true meaning of the story, is void). It would belong to
the category much criticized by Nabokov himself, like "crime stories".
Even the variant of explanation mentioned in a very sarcastic way
by Kinbote in the end (an old poet killed by one madman trying
to kill another who imagined himself a king) seems to me much
deeper. Have we not seen enough madmans killing poets? And then the true
king (not of Zembla!) is Shade. There is by the way a hint
that Gradus was not
tryng to hit Kinbote after all (and he was not Gradus).
If Kinbote's story of Zembla is derived
from childish romance of Zenda he is an impostor, not king,
he sometimes feels it and himself is playing with danger - gives
us hints that may help to discover that he is an impostor.
The outbursts of true poetry in his story of Zembla make it only
more human and "poignant". It seems often that he felt in love
with Shade (a bit strange for one part of split personality
w.r.t. another).
I don't say that it is the main possible explanation, only that
even this explanation seems deeper that the variant with split
personality, and Nabokov, as the author, surely did take care
of that.
Best regards,
Sergei Soloviev
P.S. If there is a split personality it is rather the personality
of author himself who created Shade and his poem, Kinbote and even
Gradus. Two split personalities would be too much.
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I mostly agree with very convincing argument by Jerry, I would
add to it a bit (from slightly different angle).
Let's not forget that the PF is a litterary work - and Nabokov
(in difference from, say, Dostoievsky) is a writer with excellent
self-control. He may have some private obsessions but
he says mostly what he planned to tell.
The conjecture that he wants to tell us a story
of a triple split personality - just in a very coded and obscure way,
would mean that we have a puzzle to show our cleverness in the
process of decoding, with not very interesting final result
(to me, the story of inner battles
between 3 parts of a split personality, if we take it as a
true meaning of the story, is void). It would belong to
the category much criticized by Nabokov himself, like "crime stories".
Even the variant of explanation mentioned in a very sarcastic way
by Kinbote in the end (an old poet killed by one madman trying
to kill another who imagined himself a king) seems to me much
deeper. Have we not seen enough madmans killing poets? And then the true
king (not of Zembla!) is Shade. There is by the way a hint
that Gradus was not
tryng to hit Kinbote after all (and he was not Gradus).
If Kinbote's story of Zembla is derived
from childish romance of Zenda he is an impostor, not king,
he sometimes feels it and himself is playing with danger - gives
us hints that may help to discover that he is an impostor.
The outbursts of true poetry in his story of Zembla make it only
more human and "poignant". It seems often that he felt in love
with Shade (a bit strange for one part of split personality
w.r.t. another).
I don't say that it is the main possible explanation, only that
even this explanation seems deeper that the variant with split
personality, and Nabokov, as the author, surely did take care
of that.
Best regards,
Sergei Soloviev
P.S. If there is a split personality it is rather the personality
of author himself who created Shade and his poem, Kinbote and even
Gradus. Two split personalities would be too much.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm