Subject
Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3408 PALE FIRE
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 8:30 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3408
>
> pynchon-l-digest Monday, July 14 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3408
>
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 07:49:36 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cyhc-law.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF -- no need to relate to Nabokov....?
>
> From: s~Z
> >>In addition to the alchemy of introducing Pale Fire to the Pynchon-L,
> stretching the rules of what is appropriate subject matter for a list
> dedicated to the works of Thomas Pynchon, we also have the chemistry of
> the
> offerings of an unmoderated list appearing on a moderated list. Will any
> good come of this?<<
>
>
> And the inevitable physics of return posts to an unmoderated list...
> V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 10:55:40 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (1)
>
> The Foreword acts in some ways as sort of an overture for the novel; all
the
> themes are more or less here in miniature, paraded around on the eloquent
> madness of Kinbote's prose. The first few pages take the reader from an
> initial sense of normalcy -- an academic introduction to a work of
> literature by a critical scholar -- through gradual stages of
disorientation
> until it becomes clear that Kinbote isn't what he pretends to be. The
> narrator's personality, complete with its delusions, mad convictions, and
> persecution mania, intrudes upon the writing, batters its form, but also
> moves the narrative forward.
>
> The first such intrusions are subtle: the "amusing birds", the odd and
> inexplicable "your favorite" and "shocking tour de force" in paragraph
two,
> the first-person pronoun and shift in diction in the next paragraph, none
of
> which are enough to keep the sudden intrusion at the end of that paragraph
> from being completely jarring: "There is a very loud amusement park right
in
> front of my present lodgings," much as it must be for Kinbote, given that
> *it* has intruded into the text, has taken the narrator over for a moment.
> Plainly, the circumstances of K's composition, and those of his mind, will
> continue to influence the story. See page 28 where he complains: "that
> carrousel [is] inside and outside my head."
>
> The amusement park has several other implications: 1) Kinbote is not quite
> right in the head; 2) the text we read has not been professionally edited
or
> proofed -- seeming like a manuscript; and 3) Kinbote is also a character
in
> this work.
>
> The normally rigid border between art and life -- the circumstances in
which
> art is created -- have been blurred, vividly and abruptly, very *loudly*
as
> it were. In parallel, one of Kinbote's main themes is his striving to
merge
> with art, to enter the poem, to become a fairy tale, mirrored by his
> obsessive attempts to intrude on Shade's personal life.
>
> Page 13:
> "Pale Fire, a poem in heroic couplets, of nine hundred ninety-nine lines,
> divided into four cantos": a poem in heroic couplets with 999 lines? One
> may be rightfully perplexed before the end of the first sentence. Boyd
> points out it's like saying "that a family has nine children, all twins"
> (_Magic of Artistic Discovery_, 17).
>
> Pale Fire is at once the name of the poem, the name of what Kinbote offers
> as the larger work, and ultimately the name of VN's work.
>
> Kinbote with this volume presents "Pale Fire" the poem to the public for
the
> first time. Here begins a theme about the role and function of criticism
> for art and within art. One might construe it as a particularly dim view,
> but is it really? VN had his share of grumbles in relation to critics,
but
> has published his own critical work on Pushkin.
>
> John Francis Shade --> John Francis Key: why is the key missing from the
> name? (Hiding in the shade?) The key to what? Where's the key to John
> Shade?
>
> Obviously much can be made of the name "Shade". It reminds one of "Haze"
> from Lolita; it has a sense of secrecy and ambiguity. It can (and will
be)
> linked to "shadow". A shade is also something you might pull down in
front
> of a window, frustrating all the little Kinbotes out there. Windows are
an
> important prop in PF, as is other kinds of glass.
>
> Wordsworth is implied through "New Wye" (see Forward - Notes); WW wants to
> end the 18th century, destroy the heroic couplet, and writes to himself of
> himself like Shade.
>
> Sybil's name (see Forward - Notes), had the three main stages of western
> movement in it: Sybil (Scandinavia) --> Irondell (France) --> Shade
> (America).
>
> Canto One: 166 lines on 13 index cards. Kinbote is amused by the birds.
He
> might have also noted the preponderance of trees in Canto One: larch(16),
> hickory(34), no tree(43), shagbark(49).
>
> Canto Two: 334 lines on 27 index cards. This is "your favorite". Whose
> favorite? Is Kinbote predicting the reader's response? Or is he speaking
> to someone in particular? (Proponents of the Shade-wrote-it-all theory --
> the "Shadeans" -- will claim the pronoun refers to Sybil since Canto Two
has
> mostly to do with her and Hazel, and because VN refers to his wife VИra in
> this manner in Speak Memory.)
>
> Canto Three: 334 lines on 27 index cards. "That shocking tour de force".
> Why shocking? Presumably to Kinbote because of its ruminations on God and
> afterlife?
>
> Canto Four: 166 lines (-1) on 13 index cards. "the last four [cards] give
a
> Corrected Draft instead of a Fair Copy." Second indication that all is
not
> well at the end of the poem's composition.
>
> Page 14:
> On page 14 we have our first example of Kinbote asserting his own
certainty
> about Shade's poem in the face of dubious evidence. The last third of the
> text of Canto 4, we are told, is "extremely rough in appearance, teeming
> with devastating erasures and cataclysmic insertions," but these strong
> adjectives notwithstanding, Kinbote insists the text is "beautifully
> accurate." Indeed, it is exactly their questionable quality that seems to
> make Kinbote all the more certain -- a man more in tune with his own
beliefs
> and convictions than with facts and evidence. Or perhaps this is
Kinbote's
> "tell", the indication we as readers will have that he might be bluffing,
or
> even lying. He retreats into more colorful language at these moments:
"the
> limpid depths under its confused surface", and acquires an accusatory
tone:
> "compel yourself to open your eyes".
>
> By the second page then, Kinbote has become querulous and argumentative,
> very different from the narrator of the first page, and this sets the tone
> for his conflict over the manuscript and his role as the poem's
commentator.
>
> "None can say how long John Shade planned his poem to be, but it is not
> improbable that what he left represents only a small fraction of the
> composition he saw in a glass, darkly."
>
> An attack by K's opposition in regard to Shade's intention for "Pale
Fire",
> that Prof H. uses the word "none" must be particularly grating to K.,
given
> his tenuous hold on being a real person. Also note another glass
reference,
> and this time obscured, unknowable.
>
> akaJasperFidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:08:11 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (3)
>
> Page 16-17:
> "another person ([Shade's] former literary agent) has wondered with a
sneer
> if Mrs. Shade's tremulous signature might not have been penned 'in some
> peculiar kind of red ink.'"
>
> Red is the color most associated with King Charles II (see 133 for
> instance). Also, a "peculiar kind of red ink" implies a deal with the
> devil.
>
> Page 17:
> "One of our sillier Zemblan proverbs says: _the lost glove is happy_." Th
is
> is the first reference to Zembla.
>
> Next paragraph, "historical personage" is the first reference to K's
> elevated importance.
>
> "As mentioned, I think, in my last note to the poem." (pg 17). More
> evidence the Foreword was written last.
>
> Page 18:
> "I alone am responsible for any mistakes in my commentary." Kinbote's
> acknowledgement is further evidence that his manuscript has not been
> proof-read or edited by anyone other than himself.
>
> "my cave in Cedarn": Kinbote's present whereabouts and the first (very
> veiled) allusion to _Timon of Athens_ (see p. 79)
>
> "the Goldsworthian chБteau": See C. 12, p. 76 for Kinbote's rented home in
> Zembla.
>
> Page 20:
> Kinbote's first attempted meeting with the Shades is a failed intrusion,
> setting the stage for K's impotent desire to shove himself into their life
> (preferably when the wife's away).
>
> Page 21:
> The reference to the girl that Kinbote implies Shade is having an affair
> with. Also see p. 228.
>
> Page 22:
> "two ping-pong tables in my basement": a mirrored pair and another example
> of a synthesis of two parts. Ping-pong is associated with sex with young
> boys for Kinbote, often describing them as ping-pong partners. Something
> about the sound of the words "ping" and "pong" I think, but I'm not sure I
> wish to pursue this idea....
>
> "Main Hall (or now Shade Hall, alas)" -- it's unclear whether Kinbote
> bemoans the reminder that Shade is dead or that it's not now named Kinbote
> Hall or perhaps Zembla Hall.
>
> "I wanted to buy some chocolate-coated cookies" -- one gets the sense
> Kinbote buys all sorts of stuff lure young boys home.
>
> "From the inside of the supermarket, through a plate-glass window, I saw
the
> old chap pop into a liquor store."
>
> Another glass window. This is actually the first time we catch Kinbote
> spying on Shade, and it's not from the Goldsworth house.
>
> "A comfortable burp told me he had a flask of brandy concealed about his
> warmly coated person."
>
> Shade, tippler, is not permitted by Sybil to drink, so he hides liquor
from
> her (on his bookshelf behind the bust of Dante if I recall correctly).
>
> Page 23:
> "Henceforth I began seeing more and more of my celebrated neighbor. The
> view from one of my windows kept providing me with first-rate
entertainment,
> especially when I was on the wait for some tardy guest."
>
> Now Kinbote has begun spying on Shade in earnest. I find it interesting
> that this act is linked to waiting for one of his lovers to show up, as if
> spying on Shade is a voyeuristic sublimation of his sexual desire.
> Kinbote's attitude toward Shade is made sexual in a number of places (e.g.
> see note to 991, page 287, 2nd paragraph).
>
> "From the second story of my house the Shades' living-room window remained
> clearly visible so long as the branches of the deciduous trees between us
> were still bare"
>
> The first reference (immediate upon his beginning to spy on them) to
> Kinbote's having to vie with nature in order to conduct his voyeurism (see
> also p. 86, etc). Is Kinbote's behavior made to seem therefore
"unnatural"?
> At odds with the natural patterns of the world?
>
> "One knew that bedtime was closing in with all its terrors"
>
> The first reference to Kinbote's trouble with the night and his paranoid
> fears of assassination. This can be treated in a number of ways: true
> paranoia, simple yearning for Shade's company, simple loneliness,
isolation,
> despair.
>
> Page 24:
> "And sometimes Sybil Shade would trip by with the velocity and swinging
arms
> of one flouncing out in a fit of temper"
>
> Here really begins the theme of Kinbote's jealousy toward Sybil and his
> misogyny. On 18 he refers to her as a misguided widow, but his reason is
> explained in the context of his ongoing struggle to publish the
manuscript.
> Now it's grown into something more, and later it will only get more
intense
> (see 91 for instance: "so rapt a look on her face that one might have
> supposed she had just thought up a new recipe.").
>
> "the riddle of her behavior was entirely solved one night when by dialing
> their number and watching their window at the same time I magically
induced
> her to go through the hasty and quite innocent motions that had puzzled
me."
>
>
> Kinbote playing with the Shades' as a cat with a mouse; a first and rather
> ominous indication that his sense of their existence is as it pertains to
> himself, machiavellian and solipsistic. This too gets worse.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:08:03 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (2)
>
> Page 15:
> Another contrast between Shade and Kinbote on p. 15: Kinbote has a
> "long-limbed gait", while Shade has a "jerky shuffle". For contrasts
> between K and S, we have the following (by the end of the Foreword):
>
> Kinbote: distracted, crazed, unstructured, homosexual, vegetarian,
> prose-oriented, religious, Zemblan.
>
> Shade: meticulous, ordered, structured, heterosexual, carnivorous,
> poetry-oriented, agnostic, American.
>
> In terms of appearance, they are each the opposite of their writing.
> Kinbote is a reversal, a *mirror* of Shade.
>
> Thesis: Shade -- writes the poem.
> Antithesis: Kinbote -- writes the commentary.
> Synthesis: VN??? -- writes _Pale Fire_.... But also Gradus.
>
> It's a full-time occupation picking out mirrored pairs and their
> syntheses/transformations in this book. At the very start we have a poem
> and a commentary (although the latter would seem to depend on the former,
we
> have them both at once), Shade and Kinbote are in many ways mirror images,
> and often there will be some third part that supplies the synthesis (for
> instance Gradus as the third part to the Shade-Kinbote pair -- see Index).
> Is it the wings that make the butterfly? Could the butterfly exist
without
> the body? Could tennis exist without the net?
>
> Also involved with the mirroring is the process of combining the parts in
to
> some new whole, as with VN's _Speak Memory_ quote concerning the spiral.
> K's advice to merge the commentary and the poem (manually!), or otherwise
> purchase "two copies of the same work which can then be placed in adjacent
> positions". (pg. 28). Hegelian dialectic -- thesis & antithesis =
synthesis
>
> For VN's quotes on spirals and synthesis see:
> http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0306&msg=81867&sort=date
>
> "died July 21" (pg 13)
> "hearing my poor friend's own voice proclaim on the evening of July 21 the
> end" (pg 15).
> VN's father died on July 21
>
> K asserts on p. 15 that only one line of the poem remained to be written,
> and that it was intended to be identical to line 1. Given the way this
> assertion is set up, with K and S's apparent friendship, the reader is
> likely to assume the veracity of this statement.
>
> The poem, as described by Kinbote on p. 15, would be structurally
> symmetrical if the final line had been added. Thus more mirrors: the last
> line mirroring the first, Cantos One and Two mirroring Cantos Three and
Four
> as halves (as with a butterfly), but also in size: Canto One mirroring
Canto
> Four and Canto Two mirroring Canto Three (a mirror within a mirror).
>
> Does the missing final line make "Pale Fire" structurally unsound? "Pale
> Fire" is a spiral, falling in on or out of itself. Note too that the last
> line of the index: "Zembla, a distant northern land" (315) is also
> incomplete: there are no page number references.
>
> Page 15:
> "deform the faces of his crystal" (15)
> "He consulted his wrist watch. A snowflake settled upon it. 'Crystal to
> crystal,' said Shade." (22)
> Also see line 12 of "Pale Fire": "Upon that snow, out in that crystal
land!"
>
> Crystals supply a linkage between structure and time. They are a simple
> example of how the patterns discovered in the natural world may be
employed
> in order to locate and define abstract concepts. A crystal will also
cause
> refraction when light passes through it, and this furthers the idea of
> filtration in PF, of things mutating when passing through filters like
> translators, commentators, historians, the very act of communication from
> one to another.
>
> "(See my note to line 991.)" The only cross-reference in the Foreword. A
> reader who follows it and the subsequent ones from that note returns with
a
> very different impression of Kinbote and PF than if they had not. There
is
> therefore a kind of bifurcation of readers that takes place here. Also a
> kind of filtration or refraction of the audience.
>
> This cross-reference is also the first of several indications that the
> Foreword has been written last or close to last, after the Commentary.
This
> becomes somewhat significant later, as contradictions begin appearing.
>
> Page 16:
> "and that on publication day the manuscript would be handed over to the
> Library of Congress for permanent preservation."
>
> This idea of permanent preservation must be attractive to Kinbote. If
"Pale
> Fire" is to forever preserve Zembla and its former King, then something
> else, some other container, must preserve the physical matter of the book.
> He travels to the Library of Congress at some point later, perhaps to look
> over the site of his future entombment.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:08:11 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (4)
>
> Page 25:
> "I overheard a young instructor in a green velvet jacket, whom I shall
> mercifully call Gerald Emerald, carelessly saying in answer to something
the
> secretary had asked: 'I guess Mr. Shade has already left with the Great
> Beaver.'"
>
> Here we meet Gerald Emerald for the first time. There's something about
> Emerald.... He seems more important than the amount of text he's given.
> Kinbote has a particularly fierce amount of animosity toward him; it's
> implied in the index that some brief tryst took place between them:
> "[Kinbote's] loathing for a person who makes advances, and then betrays a
> noble and naОve heart, telling foul stories about his victim and pursuing
> him with brutal practical jokes" (309); Emerald is linked to the greater
> shadow that gives Gradus the general location of King Charles: "He [the
> shadow] was a merry, perhaps overmerry, fellow in a green velvet jacket.
> Nobody liked him" (255); Emerald produces the photograph of Charles II for
> Kinbote's Wordsmith colleagues (267); he reads best-sellers (lowbrow to
> Kinbote) and takes Gradus to the Goldsworth chБteau (283) -- thus also
> giving Gradus the *specific* location of King Charles. There's also some
> evidence that Emerald himself is Zemblan (see 268-269 where Emerald
spreads
> his palms before offering to shake hands, a Zemblan custom linked to
Gradus
> on page 197). I don't know where this all leads, there's just *something*
> about Emerald.... If anyone has an idea about his real name and identity
I
> would love to hear it.
>
> Page 26:
> The description of Shade as "his own cancellation." On page 176 Oswin
> Bretwit is described in similar terms.
>
> "I have one photograph of him."
>
> A present tense passage frozen in the image of the photograph, where one
of
> Kinbote's hands remains "half-raised -- not to pat Shade on the shoulder
as
> seems to be the intention, but to remove my sunglasses which, however, it
> never reached in *that* life, the life of the picture", quickly digressing
> into the betrayal of bad Bob, but returning on the next page: "He is
looking
> from the terrace (of Prof. C.'s house on that March evening) at the
distant
> lake. I am looking at him. I am witnessing a unique physiological
> phenomenon: John Shade perceiving and transforming the world, taking it in
> and taking it apart, re-combining its elements in the very process of
> storing them up so as to produce at some unspecified date an organic
> miracle, a fusion of image and music, a line of verse."
>
> One of my favorite passages in PF; Shade is given VN's own sense of what
> makes good fiction: magic, combining the elements of the world to create
> art. We later learn much more about that lake, and about other lakes off
in
> other distances. This one is really "three conjoined lakes called Omega,
> Ozero, and Zero" (p. 92), so when Shade looks out from Prof. C's terrace,
> he's looking out beyond time, beyond Omega, beyond the Zero [allusion for
> Doug]; from that frozen moment in the photograph off into eternity. See
> also, Gulf of Surprise on 138, and Dim Gulf on line 957.
>
> Page 27:
> "bad Bob": Bob is a mirror name, two 'b's surrounding an 'o', has the feel
> of a butterfly, in this case two, since "bad" is another mirror word. See
> more Bob on p. 97
>
> Page 28:
> "I stared at [the conjurer's] powdered cheeks, at the magical flower in
his
> buttonhole where it had passed through a succession of different colors
and
> had now become fixed as a white carnation"
>
> White is associated with creative forces, while black is associated with
> destructive forces (see p. 15). Rainbows of colors are employed as
> transformations from one state to another.
>
> "Shade's poem is, indeed, that sudden flourish of magic."
>
> Page 28-29
> "Let me state that without my notes Shade's text simply has no human
reality
> at all since the human reality of such a poem as his [...] has to depend
> entirely on the reality of its author and his surroundings, attachments
and
> so forth, a reality that only my notes can provide"
>
> Synthesis of poem and commentary; the commentary provides the patterns
that
> are essential to the essence of the poem, but could not exist without it;
> each side is unfinished, but the synthesis makes them whole. A metaphor
for
> love/marriage? Still it is interesting that Kinbote feels compelled to
> insist upon the "human reality" that his contribution makes.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 08:07:15 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (2)
>
> > Page 18:
> > "[Sybil] and her changeful moods".
>
> http://www.legendsmagazine.net/102/sybil.htm
>
> Sybil Dorsett, commonly known only by her first name, to this day remains
one
> of the greatest documented cases of multiple personality disorder (MSD) in
the
> psychology field. The first ever case to be psycho-analyzed rather than
simply
> treated, and one of the largest personality collections ever contained
within a
> single human being (sixteen differentiating "selves"), Sybil is an amazing
case
> and one that has spawned a major look at previously-discredited MSD
afflictions
> in the medical field. Due to the years that Dr. Wilbur spent with Sybil
and the
> huge collections of data and psycho-analysis information that she
collected on
> her, it was Sybil's case that brought about a revolution in the psychology
> field - and spawned revelations on the idea of "I" ("id") and theological
> discussion as well.
>
>
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:21:01 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (2)
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David Morris [mailto:fqmorris@yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 11:07 AM
> > To: Jasper Fidget; pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: Re: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (2)
> >
> >
> >
> > > Page 18:
> > > "[Sybil] and her changeful moods".
> >
> > http://www.legendsmagazine.net/102/sybil.htm
> >
> > Sybil Dorsett, commonly known only by her first name, to this day
remains
> > one
> > of the greatest documented cases of multiple personality disorder (MSD)
in
> > the
> > psychology field. The first ever case to be psycho-analyzed rather than
> > simply
> > treated, and one of the largest personality collections ever contained
> > within a
> > single human being (sixteen differentiating "selves"), Sybil is an
amazing
> > case
> > and one that has spawned a major look at previously-discredited MSD
> > afflictions
> > in the medical field. Due to the years that Dr. Wilbur spent with Sybil
> > and the
> > huge collections of data and psycho-analysis information that she
> > collected on
> > her, it was Sybil's case that brought about a revolution in the
psychology
> > field - and spawned revelations on the idea of "I" ("id") and
theological
> > discussion as well.
> >
>
> I was going to accuse you of attempting to violate the laws of time and
> precedence, but then I found this:
>
> Case of Sybil Dorsett - True Story Portrayed by Sally Field in Film
"Sybil".
> Brief History: - 1954 - Sybil Began Work on Master's Degree at Columbia
U. -
> She Experienced Blackouts and Amnesia that Grew Longer. - She Came to
> Attention of a Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Psychiatrist). - During a Therapy
> Session, There was a Sudden Change in Personality, and she Began to Act
Like
> a Little Girl. -Later, Other Personalities Emerged -- 16 in All !! - Some
of
> the Personalities were Children, Some Adults, and Some Even Male. Why Did
> This Condition Occur?- Anyone Remember the Story? Unfortunately, Evidence
> Suggested Sybil Had Been Systematically Abused and Tortured by Her
> Schizophrenic Mother From as Early as the Age of 3! Apparently, Creating
New
> Personalities Was a Way that Sybil Could "Cope" with the Trauma She Had to
> Endure ...Over a Period of Years, Dr. Wilbur Was Able to Help Sybil
> "Integrate" the 16 Personalities Into a New & Whole Personality.
>
> http://www.umpi.maine.edu/~saloa/gpchp5.html
>
> Who knows if VN would have had access to this information at the time of
> PF's composition, but an interesting connection nonetheless.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:20:11 -0400
> From: The Great Quail <quail@libyrinth.com>
> Subject: NPPF: Is Pale Fire a good poem? + The future K-List
>
> Jasper writes,
>
> > If removed from the surrounding
> > commentary, would "Pale Fire" by John Shade be worth reading?
>
> I think so; but I also think it is important to remember that the poem
"Pale
> Fire" is presented as the *final* and *unedited* work of a "beloved"
> American poet. (And possibly even incomplete.)
>
> In the world of PF created by Nabokov, John Shade may be resting a bit on
> his laurels. Additionally, his devotees would have an inherent,
> already-built-in *interest* in the subject: "Oooh, Shade goes
confessional!
> Discusses his daughter's suicide! Talks about his own creative process!"
>
> In other words, in the universe of the novel, "Pale Fire" is automatically
a
> "better" poem than it is in our world, with more credibility and
> possibilities for engagement. There is a greater context available to
enrich
> it. Additionally, it is presented without the final editing, revisions, or
> even conclusions that might have been imposed by a living John Shade. If
> this scenario were actually real, critics would probably address its
> "problems" in the same way they talk about "Turandot," "Lulu," and "Eyes
> Wide Shut."
>
> > Kinbote's contribution to the poem almost certainly
> > gives it greater value than it would have had on its own,
>
> Partially because the poem *is* innately more interesting to Kinbote than
to
> us. (Not to mention, of course, that we get a few extra levels of
enjoyment
> out of his own misinterpretations and relationship with the poet.)
>
> > Shade is ranked as a great poet in
> > Pale-Fire-Land, "one oozy footstep behind Robert Frost" (48) and worthy
of
> > having the name of Main Hall at Wordsmith changed to honor him after his
> > death.
>
> Well, so we are told -- but, by Shade and Kinbote themselves. The former
may
> be writing ironically or even conceitedly, the latter is delusional.
>
> > is there any
> > reasonable reason for us to believe that someone with Kinbote's claimed
or
> > implied background would be capable of writing something as impressive
as
> > the Commentary? Morris says "Charles Kinbote, if he exists, is either a
> > deposed Zemblan monarch, an insane Zemblan scholar, or an extremely
insane
> > Russian scholar. None of these back-stories seems likely to produce the
> > astonishing literary gifts apparent in the commentary." (3).
>
> With respect to J. Morris, I find this pretty smug and assuming. Why
> couldn't an insane and obsessed Russian scholar write the commentary?
Sounds
> like an Ivory Tower bias to me.
>
> Imagine, for a second, that the novel "Pale Fire" is actually real, a
> legitimate manuscript containing poem and delusional commentary, existing
in
> a world without Nabokov. I suggest that Kinbote would earn a small place
in
> literary legend. Of course he would be seen as selfish and crazy and so
on,
> but I bet he would be studied -- after all, his prose certainly is stylish
> and interesting, even if unpolished, pedantic, cranky and eccentric. Hell,
I
> bet there'd even be a few books of Kinbotean criticism, a "Kinbote
> Reappraisal" some decades after his death, and eventually, maybe even a
Web
> site and a Mailing List....
>
> - --Quail
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:21:44 -0400
> From: <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: Re: NPPF: Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> There actually is a nugget of evidence in the foreword that the text was
published as Kinbote describes, or at least that it was set in type and
prepared for publication.
>
> (Just to be clear: although I'm describing an aspect of the physical book
and its production here, I mean to stay within the boundaries of the
fiction.)
>
> It's one of those odd interjections: "Insert before a professional," p 18.
This is clearly a proofreading note that was set in type by mistake. The
next sentence shows that it was followed in correcting the text. ("A
professional proofreader...").
>
> Curiously, it would have taken three people to create this error (or maybe
two, I guess, if one of them was a typesetter with a very short attention
span). Someone, presumably Kinbote or the jobbed-in proofreader, but also
possibly an editor in the publisher's offices, wrote the note on the page
proof. A second person, sitting at a typesetting keyboard, made the
correction. A third looked at the same proof, mistook the instruction for a
text insertion, and keyed it in.
>
> I think this can be read as evidence that with respect to the publishing
process, some of the things Kinbote says are happening really are.
>
> Don Corathers
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 08:23:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Malignd <malignd@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (3)
>
> <<Page 18: "I alone am responsible for any mistakes in
> my commentary." Kinbote's acknowledgement is further
> evidence that his manuscript has not been proof-read
> or edited by anyone other than himself.>>
>
> Not entirely true, is it?
>
> He says the poem has been proofed, if not the
> commentary.
>
> And the very next sentence: "insert before a
> professional." Followed by "A professional ..."
>
> - --suggests he expects the commentary will be proofed
> and edited as (but also that it hasn't been).
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
> http://sbc.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
>> To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
> with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 8:30 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3408
>
> pynchon-l-digest Monday, July 14 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3408
>
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 07:49:36 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cyhc-law.com>
> Subject: RE: NPPF -- no need to relate to Nabokov....?
>
> From: s~Z
> >>In addition to the alchemy of introducing Pale Fire to the Pynchon-L,
> stretching the rules of what is appropriate subject matter for a list
> dedicated to the works of Thomas Pynchon, we also have the chemistry of
> the
> offerings of an unmoderated list appearing on a moderated list. Will any
> good come of this?<<
>
>
> And the inevitable physics of return posts to an unmoderated list...
> V.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 10:55:40 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (1)
>
> The Foreword acts in some ways as sort of an overture for the novel; all
the
> themes are more or less here in miniature, paraded around on the eloquent
> madness of Kinbote's prose. The first few pages take the reader from an
> initial sense of normalcy -- an academic introduction to a work of
> literature by a critical scholar -- through gradual stages of
disorientation
> until it becomes clear that Kinbote isn't what he pretends to be. The
> narrator's personality, complete with its delusions, mad convictions, and
> persecution mania, intrudes upon the writing, batters its form, but also
> moves the narrative forward.
>
> The first such intrusions are subtle: the "amusing birds", the odd and
> inexplicable "your favorite" and "shocking tour de force" in paragraph
two,
> the first-person pronoun and shift in diction in the next paragraph, none
of
> which are enough to keep the sudden intrusion at the end of that paragraph
> from being completely jarring: "There is a very loud amusement park right
in
> front of my present lodgings," much as it must be for Kinbote, given that
> *it* has intruded into the text, has taken the narrator over for a moment.
> Plainly, the circumstances of K's composition, and those of his mind, will
> continue to influence the story. See page 28 where he complains: "that
> carrousel [is] inside and outside my head."
>
> The amusement park has several other implications: 1) Kinbote is not quite
> right in the head; 2) the text we read has not been professionally edited
or
> proofed -- seeming like a manuscript; and 3) Kinbote is also a character
in
> this work.
>
> The normally rigid border between art and life -- the circumstances in
which
> art is created -- have been blurred, vividly and abruptly, very *loudly*
as
> it were. In parallel, one of Kinbote's main themes is his striving to
merge
> with art, to enter the poem, to become a fairy tale, mirrored by his
> obsessive attempts to intrude on Shade's personal life.
>
> Page 13:
> "Pale Fire, a poem in heroic couplets, of nine hundred ninety-nine lines,
> divided into four cantos": a poem in heroic couplets with 999 lines? One
> may be rightfully perplexed before the end of the first sentence. Boyd
> points out it's like saying "that a family has nine children, all twins"
> (_Magic of Artistic Discovery_, 17).
>
> Pale Fire is at once the name of the poem, the name of what Kinbote offers
> as the larger work, and ultimately the name of VN's work.
>
> Kinbote with this volume presents "Pale Fire" the poem to the public for
the
> first time. Here begins a theme about the role and function of criticism
> for art and within art. One might construe it as a particularly dim view,
> but is it really? VN had his share of grumbles in relation to critics,
but
> has published his own critical work on Pushkin.
>
> John Francis Shade --> John Francis Key: why is the key missing from the
> name? (Hiding in the shade?) The key to what? Where's the key to John
> Shade?
>
> Obviously much can be made of the name "Shade". It reminds one of "Haze"
> from Lolita; it has a sense of secrecy and ambiguity. It can (and will
be)
> linked to "shadow". A shade is also something you might pull down in
front
> of a window, frustrating all the little Kinbotes out there. Windows are
an
> important prop in PF, as is other kinds of glass.
>
> Wordsworth is implied through "New Wye" (see Forward - Notes); WW wants to
> end the 18th century, destroy the heroic couplet, and writes to himself of
> himself like Shade.
>
> Sybil's name (see Forward - Notes), had the three main stages of western
> movement in it: Sybil (Scandinavia) --> Irondell (France) --> Shade
> (America).
>
> Canto One: 166 lines on 13 index cards. Kinbote is amused by the birds.
He
> might have also noted the preponderance of trees in Canto One: larch(16),
> hickory(34), no tree(43), shagbark(49).
>
> Canto Two: 334 lines on 27 index cards. This is "your favorite". Whose
> favorite? Is Kinbote predicting the reader's response? Or is he speaking
> to someone in particular? (Proponents of the Shade-wrote-it-all theory --
> the "Shadeans" -- will claim the pronoun refers to Sybil since Canto Two
has
> mostly to do with her and Hazel, and because VN refers to his wife VИra in
> this manner in Speak Memory.)
>
> Canto Three: 334 lines on 27 index cards. "That shocking tour de force".
> Why shocking? Presumably to Kinbote because of its ruminations on God and
> afterlife?
>
> Canto Four: 166 lines (-1) on 13 index cards. "the last four [cards] give
a
> Corrected Draft instead of a Fair Copy." Second indication that all is
not
> well at the end of the poem's composition.
>
> Page 14:
> On page 14 we have our first example of Kinbote asserting his own
certainty
> about Shade's poem in the face of dubious evidence. The last third of the
> text of Canto 4, we are told, is "extremely rough in appearance, teeming
> with devastating erasures and cataclysmic insertions," but these strong
> adjectives notwithstanding, Kinbote insists the text is "beautifully
> accurate." Indeed, it is exactly their questionable quality that seems to
> make Kinbote all the more certain -- a man more in tune with his own
beliefs
> and convictions than with facts and evidence. Or perhaps this is
Kinbote's
> "tell", the indication we as readers will have that he might be bluffing,
or
> even lying. He retreats into more colorful language at these moments:
"the
> limpid depths under its confused surface", and acquires an accusatory
tone:
> "compel yourself to open your eyes".
>
> By the second page then, Kinbote has become querulous and argumentative,
> very different from the narrator of the first page, and this sets the tone
> for his conflict over the manuscript and his role as the poem's
commentator.
>
> "None can say how long John Shade planned his poem to be, but it is not
> improbable that what he left represents only a small fraction of the
> composition he saw in a glass, darkly."
>
> An attack by K's opposition in regard to Shade's intention for "Pale
Fire",
> that Prof H. uses the word "none" must be particularly grating to K.,
given
> his tenuous hold on being a real person. Also note another glass
reference,
> and this time obscured, unknowable.
>
> akaJasperFidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:08:11 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (3)
>
> Page 16-17:
> "another person ([Shade's] former literary agent) has wondered with a
sneer
> if Mrs. Shade's tremulous signature might not have been penned 'in some
> peculiar kind of red ink.'"
>
> Red is the color most associated with King Charles II (see 133 for
> instance). Also, a "peculiar kind of red ink" implies a deal with the
> devil.
>
> Page 17:
> "One of our sillier Zemblan proverbs says: _the lost glove is happy_." Th
is
> is the first reference to Zembla.
>
> Next paragraph, "historical personage" is the first reference to K's
> elevated importance.
>
> "As mentioned, I think, in my last note to the poem." (pg 17). More
> evidence the Foreword was written last.
>
> Page 18:
> "I alone am responsible for any mistakes in my commentary." Kinbote's
> acknowledgement is further evidence that his manuscript has not been
> proof-read or edited by anyone other than himself.
>
> "my cave in Cedarn": Kinbote's present whereabouts and the first (very
> veiled) allusion to _Timon of Athens_ (see p. 79)
>
> "the Goldsworthian chБteau": See C. 12, p. 76 for Kinbote's rented home in
> Zembla.
>
> Page 20:
> Kinbote's first attempted meeting with the Shades is a failed intrusion,
> setting the stage for K's impotent desire to shove himself into their life
> (preferably when the wife's away).
>
> Page 21:
> The reference to the girl that Kinbote implies Shade is having an affair
> with. Also see p. 228.
>
> Page 22:
> "two ping-pong tables in my basement": a mirrored pair and another example
> of a synthesis of two parts. Ping-pong is associated with sex with young
> boys for Kinbote, often describing them as ping-pong partners. Something
> about the sound of the words "ping" and "pong" I think, but I'm not sure I
> wish to pursue this idea....
>
> "Main Hall (or now Shade Hall, alas)" -- it's unclear whether Kinbote
> bemoans the reminder that Shade is dead or that it's not now named Kinbote
> Hall or perhaps Zembla Hall.
>
> "I wanted to buy some chocolate-coated cookies" -- one gets the sense
> Kinbote buys all sorts of stuff lure young boys home.
>
> "From the inside of the supermarket, through a plate-glass window, I saw
the
> old chap pop into a liquor store."
>
> Another glass window. This is actually the first time we catch Kinbote
> spying on Shade, and it's not from the Goldsworth house.
>
> "A comfortable burp told me he had a flask of brandy concealed about his
> warmly coated person."
>
> Shade, tippler, is not permitted by Sybil to drink, so he hides liquor
from
> her (on his bookshelf behind the bust of Dante if I recall correctly).
>
> Page 23:
> "Henceforth I began seeing more and more of my celebrated neighbor. The
> view from one of my windows kept providing me with first-rate
entertainment,
> especially when I was on the wait for some tardy guest."
>
> Now Kinbote has begun spying on Shade in earnest. I find it interesting
> that this act is linked to waiting for one of his lovers to show up, as if
> spying on Shade is a voyeuristic sublimation of his sexual desire.
> Kinbote's attitude toward Shade is made sexual in a number of places (e.g.
> see note to 991, page 287, 2nd paragraph).
>
> "From the second story of my house the Shades' living-room window remained
> clearly visible so long as the branches of the deciduous trees between us
> were still bare"
>
> The first reference (immediate upon his beginning to spy on them) to
> Kinbote's having to vie with nature in order to conduct his voyeurism (see
> also p. 86, etc). Is Kinbote's behavior made to seem therefore
"unnatural"?
> At odds with the natural patterns of the world?
>
> "One knew that bedtime was closing in with all its terrors"
>
> The first reference to Kinbote's trouble with the night and his paranoid
> fears of assassination. This can be treated in a number of ways: true
> paranoia, simple yearning for Shade's company, simple loneliness,
isolation,
> despair.
>
> Page 24:
> "And sometimes Sybil Shade would trip by with the velocity and swinging
arms
> of one flouncing out in a fit of temper"
>
> Here really begins the theme of Kinbote's jealousy toward Sybil and his
> misogyny. On 18 he refers to her as a misguided widow, but his reason is
> explained in the context of his ongoing struggle to publish the
manuscript.
> Now it's grown into something more, and later it will only get more
intense
> (see 91 for instance: "so rapt a look on her face that one might have
> supposed she had just thought up a new recipe.").
>
> "the riddle of her behavior was entirely solved one night when by dialing
> their number and watching their window at the same time I magically
induced
> her to go through the hasty and quite innocent motions that had puzzled
me."
>
>
> Kinbote playing with the Shades' as a cat with a mouse; a first and rather
> ominous indication that his sense of their existence is as it pertains to
> himself, machiavellian and solipsistic. This too gets worse.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:08:03 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (2)
>
> Page 15:
> Another contrast between Shade and Kinbote on p. 15: Kinbote has a
> "long-limbed gait", while Shade has a "jerky shuffle". For contrasts
> between K and S, we have the following (by the end of the Foreword):
>
> Kinbote: distracted, crazed, unstructured, homosexual, vegetarian,
> prose-oriented, religious, Zemblan.
>
> Shade: meticulous, ordered, structured, heterosexual, carnivorous,
> poetry-oriented, agnostic, American.
>
> In terms of appearance, they are each the opposite of their writing.
> Kinbote is a reversal, a *mirror* of Shade.
>
> Thesis: Shade -- writes the poem.
> Antithesis: Kinbote -- writes the commentary.
> Synthesis: VN??? -- writes _Pale Fire_.... But also Gradus.
>
> It's a full-time occupation picking out mirrored pairs and their
> syntheses/transformations in this book. At the very start we have a poem
> and a commentary (although the latter would seem to depend on the former,
we
> have them both at once), Shade and Kinbote are in many ways mirror images,
> and often there will be some third part that supplies the synthesis (for
> instance Gradus as the third part to the Shade-Kinbote pair -- see Index).
> Is it the wings that make the butterfly? Could the butterfly exist
without
> the body? Could tennis exist without the net?
>
> Also involved with the mirroring is the process of combining the parts in
to
> some new whole, as with VN's _Speak Memory_ quote concerning the spiral.
> K's advice to merge the commentary and the poem (manually!), or otherwise
> purchase "two copies of the same work which can then be placed in adjacent
> positions". (pg. 28). Hegelian dialectic -- thesis & antithesis =
synthesis
>
> For VN's quotes on spirals and synthesis see:
> http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0306&msg=81867&sort=date
>
> "died July 21" (pg 13)
> "hearing my poor friend's own voice proclaim on the evening of July 21 the
> end" (pg 15).
> VN's father died on July 21
>
> K asserts on p. 15 that only one line of the poem remained to be written,
> and that it was intended to be identical to line 1. Given the way this
> assertion is set up, with K and S's apparent friendship, the reader is
> likely to assume the veracity of this statement.
>
> The poem, as described by Kinbote on p. 15, would be structurally
> symmetrical if the final line had been added. Thus more mirrors: the last
> line mirroring the first, Cantos One and Two mirroring Cantos Three and
Four
> as halves (as with a butterfly), but also in size: Canto One mirroring
Canto
> Four and Canto Two mirroring Canto Three (a mirror within a mirror).
>
> Does the missing final line make "Pale Fire" structurally unsound? "Pale
> Fire" is a spiral, falling in on or out of itself. Note too that the last
> line of the index: "Zembla, a distant northern land" (315) is also
> incomplete: there are no page number references.
>
> Page 15:
> "deform the faces of his crystal" (15)
> "He consulted his wrist watch. A snowflake settled upon it. 'Crystal to
> crystal,' said Shade." (22)
> Also see line 12 of "Pale Fire": "Upon that snow, out in that crystal
land!"
>
> Crystals supply a linkage between structure and time. They are a simple
> example of how the patterns discovered in the natural world may be
employed
> in order to locate and define abstract concepts. A crystal will also
cause
> refraction when light passes through it, and this furthers the idea of
> filtration in PF, of things mutating when passing through filters like
> translators, commentators, historians, the very act of communication from
> one to another.
>
> "(See my note to line 991.)" The only cross-reference in the Foreword. A
> reader who follows it and the subsequent ones from that note returns with
a
> very different impression of Kinbote and PF than if they had not. There
is
> therefore a kind of bifurcation of readers that takes place here. Also a
> kind of filtration or refraction of the audience.
>
> This cross-reference is also the first of several indications that the
> Foreword has been written last or close to last, after the Commentary.
This
> becomes somewhat significant later, as contradictions begin appearing.
>
> Page 16:
> "and that on publication day the manuscript would be handed over to the
> Library of Congress for permanent preservation."
>
> This idea of permanent preservation must be attractive to Kinbote. If
"Pale
> Fire" is to forever preserve Zembla and its former King, then something
> else, some other container, must preserve the physical matter of the book.
> He travels to the Library of Congress at some point later, perhaps to look
> over the site of his future entombment.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:08:11 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (4)
>
> Page 25:
> "I overheard a young instructor in a green velvet jacket, whom I shall
> mercifully call Gerald Emerald, carelessly saying in answer to something
the
> secretary had asked: 'I guess Mr. Shade has already left with the Great
> Beaver.'"
>
> Here we meet Gerald Emerald for the first time. There's something about
> Emerald.... He seems more important than the amount of text he's given.
> Kinbote has a particularly fierce amount of animosity toward him; it's
> implied in the index that some brief tryst took place between them:
> "[Kinbote's] loathing for a person who makes advances, and then betrays a
> noble and naОve heart, telling foul stories about his victim and pursuing
> him with brutal practical jokes" (309); Emerald is linked to the greater
> shadow that gives Gradus the general location of King Charles: "He [the
> shadow] was a merry, perhaps overmerry, fellow in a green velvet jacket.
> Nobody liked him" (255); Emerald produces the photograph of Charles II for
> Kinbote's Wordsmith colleagues (267); he reads best-sellers (lowbrow to
> Kinbote) and takes Gradus to the Goldsworth chБteau (283) -- thus also
> giving Gradus the *specific* location of King Charles. There's also some
> evidence that Emerald himself is Zemblan (see 268-269 where Emerald
spreads
> his palms before offering to shake hands, a Zemblan custom linked to
Gradus
> on page 197). I don't know where this all leads, there's just *something*
> about Emerald.... If anyone has an idea about his real name and identity
I
> would love to hear it.
>
> Page 26:
> The description of Shade as "his own cancellation." On page 176 Oswin
> Bretwit is described in similar terms.
>
> "I have one photograph of him."
>
> A present tense passage frozen in the image of the photograph, where one
of
> Kinbote's hands remains "half-raised -- not to pat Shade on the shoulder
as
> seems to be the intention, but to remove my sunglasses which, however, it
> never reached in *that* life, the life of the picture", quickly digressing
> into the betrayal of bad Bob, but returning on the next page: "He is
looking
> from the terrace (of Prof. C.'s house on that March evening) at the
distant
> lake. I am looking at him. I am witnessing a unique physiological
> phenomenon: John Shade perceiving and transforming the world, taking it in
> and taking it apart, re-combining its elements in the very process of
> storing them up so as to produce at some unspecified date an organic
> miracle, a fusion of image and music, a line of verse."
>
> One of my favorite passages in PF; Shade is given VN's own sense of what
> makes good fiction: magic, combining the elements of the world to create
> art. We later learn much more about that lake, and about other lakes off
in
> other distances. This one is really "three conjoined lakes called Omega,
> Ozero, and Zero" (p. 92), so when Shade looks out from Prof. C's terrace,
> he's looking out beyond time, beyond Omega, beyond the Zero [allusion for
> Doug]; from that frozen moment in the photograph off into eternity. See
> also, Gulf of Surprise on 138, and Dim Gulf on line 957.
>
> Page 27:
> "bad Bob": Bob is a mirror name, two 'b's surrounding an 'o', has the feel
> of a butterfly, in this case two, since "bad" is another mirror word. See
> more Bob on p. 97
>
> Page 28:
> "I stared at [the conjurer's] powdered cheeks, at the magical flower in
his
> buttonhole where it had passed through a succession of different colors
and
> had now become fixed as a white carnation"
>
> White is associated with creative forces, while black is associated with
> destructive forces (see p. 15). Rainbows of colors are employed as
> transformations from one state to another.
>
> "Shade's poem is, indeed, that sudden flourish of magic."
>
> Page 28-29
> "Let me state that without my notes Shade's text simply has no human
reality
> at all since the human reality of such a poem as his [...] has to depend
> entirely on the reality of its author and his surroundings, attachments
and
> so forth, a reality that only my notes can provide"
>
> Synthesis of poem and commentary; the commentary provides the patterns
that
> are essential to the essence of the poem, but could not exist without it;
> each side is unfinished, but the synthesis makes them whole. A metaphor
for
> love/marriage? Still it is interesting that Kinbote feels compelled to
> insist upon the "human reality" that his contribution makes.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 08:07:15 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (2)
>
> > Page 18:
> > "[Sybil] and her changeful moods".
>
> http://www.legendsmagazine.net/102/sybil.htm
>
> Sybil Dorsett, commonly known only by her first name, to this day remains
one
> of the greatest documented cases of multiple personality disorder (MSD) in
the
> psychology field. The first ever case to be psycho-analyzed rather than
simply
> treated, and one of the largest personality collections ever contained
within a
> single human being (sixteen differentiating "selves"), Sybil is an amazing
case
> and one that has spawned a major look at previously-discredited MSD
afflictions
> in the medical field. Due to the years that Dr. Wilbur spent with Sybil
and the
> huge collections of data and psycho-analysis information that she
collected on
> her, it was Sybil's case that brought about a revolution in the psychology
> field - and spawned revelations on the idea of "I" ("id") and theological
> discussion as well.
>
>
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:21:01 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (2)
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David Morris [mailto:fqmorris@yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 11:07 AM
> > To: Jasper Fidget; pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: Re: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (2)
> >
> >
> >
> > > Page 18:
> > > "[Sybil] and her changeful moods".
> >
> > http://www.legendsmagazine.net/102/sybil.htm
> >
> > Sybil Dorsett, commonly known only by her first name, to this day
remains
> > one
> > of the greatest documented cases of multiple personality disorder (MSD)
in
> > the
> > psychology field. The first ever case to be psycho-analyzed rather than
> > simply
> > treated, and one of the largest personality collections ever contained
> > within a
> > single human being (sixteen differentiating "selves"), Sybil is an
amazing
> > case
> > and one that has spawned a major look at previously-discredited MSD
> > afflictions
> > in the medical field. Due to the years that Dr. Wilbur spent with Sybil
> > and the
> > huge collections of data and psycho-analysis information that she
> > collected on
> > her, it was Sybil's case that brought about a revolution in the
psychology
> > field - and spawned revelations on the idea of "I" ("id") and
theological
> > discussion as well.
> >
>
> I was going to accuse you of attempting to violate the laws of time and
> precedence, but then I found this:
>
> Case of Sybil Dorsett - True Story Portrayed by Sally Field in Film
"Sybil".
> Brief History: - 1954 - Sybil Began Work on Master's Degree at Columbia
U. -
> She Experienced Blackouts and Amnesia that Grew Longer. - She Came to
> Attention of a Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Psychiatrist). - During a Therapy
> Session, There was a Sudden Change in Personality, and she Began to Act
Like
> a Little Girl. -Later, Other Personalities Emerged -- 16 in All !! - Some
of
> the Personalities were Children, Some Adults, and Some Even Male. Why Did
> This Condition Occur?- Anyone Remember the Story? Unfortunately, Evidence
> Suggested Sybil Had Been Systematically Abused and Tortured by Her
> Schizophrenic Mother From as Early as the Age of 3! Apparently, Creating
New
> Personalities Was a Way that Sybil Could "Cope" with the Trauma She Had to
> Endure ...Over a Period of Years, Dr. Wilbur Was Able to Help Sybil
> "Integrate" the 16 Personalities Into a New & Whole Personality.
>
> http://www.umpi.maine.edu/~saloa/gpchp5.html
>
> Who knows if VN would have had access to this information at the time of
> PF's composition, but an interesting connection nonetheless.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:20:11 -0400
> From: The Great Quail <quail@libyrinth.com>
> Subject: NPPF: Is Pale Fire a good poem? + The future K-List
>
> Jasper writes,
>
> > If removed from the surrounding
> > commentary, would "Pale Fire" by John Shade be worth reading?
>
> I think so; but I also think it is important to remember that the poem
"Pale
> Fire" is presented as the *final* and *unedited* work of a "beloved"
> American poet. (And possibly even incomplete.)
>
> In the world of PF created by Nabokov, John Shade may be resting a bit on
> his laurels. Additionally, his devotees would have an inherent,
> already-built-in *interest* in the subject: "Oooh, Shade goes
confessional!
> Discusses his daughter's suicide! Talks about his own creative process!"
>
> In other words, in the universe of the novel, "Pale Fire" is automatically
a
> "better" poem than it is in our world, with more credibility and
> possibilities for engagement. There is a greater context available to
enrich
> it. Additionally, it is presented without the final editing, revisions, or
> even conclusions that might have been imposed by a living John Shade. If
> this scenario were actually real, critics would probably address its
> "problems" in the same way they talk about "Turandot," "Lulu," and "Eyes
> Wide Shut."
>
> > Kinbote's contribution to the poem almost certainly
> > gives it greater value than it would have had on its own,
>
> Partially because the poem *is* innately more interesting to Kinbote than
to
> us. (Not to mention, of course, that we get a few extra levels of
enjoyment
> out of his own misinterpretations and relationship with the poet.)
>
> > Shade is ranked as a great poet in
> > Pale-Fire-Land, "one oozy footstep behind Robert Frost" (48) and worthy
of
> > having the name of Main Hall at Wordsmith changed to honor him after his
> > death.
>
> Well, so we are told -- but, by Shade and Kinbote themselves. The former
may
> be writing ironically or even conceitedly, the latter is delusional.
>
> > is there any
> > reasonable reason for us to believe that someone with Kinbote's claimed
or
> > implied background would be capable of writing something as impressive
as
> > the Commentary? Morris says "Charles Kinbote, if he exists, is either a
> > deposed Zemblan monarch, an insane Zemblan scholar, or an extremely
insane
> > Russian scholar. None of these back-stories seems likely to produce the
> > astonishing literary gifts apparent in the commentary." (3).
>
> With respect to J. Morris, I find this pretty smug and assuming. Why
> couldn't an insane and obsessed Russian scholar write the commentary?
Sounds
> like an Ivory Tower bias to me.
>
> Imagine, for a second, that the novel "Pale Fire" is actually real, a
> legitimate manuscript containing poem and delusional commentary, existing
in
> a world without Nabokov. I suggest that Kinbote would earn a small place
in
> literary legend. Of course he would be seen as selfish and crazy and so
on,
> but I bet he would be studied -- after all, his prose certainly is stylish
> and interesting, even if unpolished, pedantic, cranky and eccentric. Hell,
I
> bet there'd even be a few books of Kinbotean criticism, a "Kinbote
> Reappraisal" some decades after his death, and eventually, maybe even a
Web
> site and a Mailing List....
>
> - --Quail
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:21:44 -0400
> From: <gumbo@fuse.net>
> Subject: Re: Re: NPPF: Preliminary: The Epigraph
>
> There actually is a nugget of evidence in the foreword that the text was
published as Kinbote describes, or at least that it was set in type and
prepared for publication.
>
> (Just to be clear: although I'm describing an aspect of the physical book
and its production here, I mean to stay within the boundaries of the
fiction.)
>
> It's one of those odd interjections: "Insert before a professional," p 18.
This is clearly a proofreading note that was set in type by mistake. The
next sentence shows that it was followed in correcting the text. ("A
professional proofreader...").
>
> Curiously, it would have taken three people to create this error (or maybe
two, I guess, if one of them was a typesetter with a very short attention
span). Someone, presumably Kinbote or the jobbed-in proofreader, but also
possibly an editor in the publisher's offices, wrote the note on the page
proof. A second person, sitting at a typesetting keyboard, made the
correction. A third looked at the same proof, mistook the instruction for a
text insertion, and keyed it in.
>
> I think this can be read as evidence that with respect to the publishing
process, some of the things Kinbote says are happening really are.
>
> Don Corathers
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 08:23:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Malignd <malignd@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF - Foreword - Summary / Commentary (3)
>
> <<Page 18: "I alone am responsible for any mistakes in
> my commentary." Kinbote's acknowledgement is further
> evidence that his manuscript has not been proof-read
> or edited by anyone other than himself.>>
>
> Not entirely true, is it?
>
> He says the poem has been proofed, if not the
> commentary.
>
> And the very next sentence: "insert before a
> professional." Followed by "A professional ..."
>
> - --suggests he expects the commentary will be proofed
> and edited as (but also that it hasn't been).
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
> http://sbc.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
>> To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
> with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.