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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 10:53 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3500
>
> pynchon-l-digest Friday, August 22 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3500
>
>> Date: 22 Aug 2003 05:35:46 -0400
> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm(1) Temptation to synchronize
>
> On Fri, 2003-08-22 at 00:28, Don Corathers wrote:
> > On the second page of his Commentary (p 74), Kinbote writes: "I do not
doubt
> > that our poet would have understod his annotator's temptation to
synchronize
> > a certain fateful fact, the departure from Zembla of the would-be
regicide
> > Gradus, with the date [that Shade began work on Pale Fire]." It is a
clear
> > signal that the editor Kinbote will not scruple to let the facts get in
the
> > way of a good story. On this occasion he resists the temptation, though,
and
> > in the next sentence acknowledges that Gradus actually left Onhava four
days
> > later.
> >
> > But in his very next note, Kinbote gives us two lines from a
"disjointed,
> > half-obliterated draft which I am not at all sure I have deciphered
> > properly." They are conveniently referential to Kinbote and the deposed
> > king--unlike anything else in the 999-line poem--and Kinbote will later
> > admit that he fabricated them.
> >
> > Kinbote's unreliability, both as a narrator and an editor, projects a
corona
> > of indeterminacy around this entire enterprise. (I mean, more so than
> > usual.) Clearly delusional and an admitted embellisher, the author of
the
> > Commentary says he had exclusive possession of the index-card manuscript
for
> > a time. Everything we know about Shade and his poem is mediated through
> > Kinbote. Do you trust this guy even a little bit? How much? Why?
> >
> > Don Corathers
>
> Kinbote's all we've got.
>
> From the start of Kinbote's input it's certainly pretty obvious (and
> gets ever more obvious as time passes) that we are not going to hear
> only straight facts about Shade and his poem. At least in part and
> probably mainly we are going to be told a very fanciful story, one
> seemingly about something quite separate from what the poem is about.
> In other words it's not the usual sort of commentary an editor would
> normally provide. Yet commentary it is (I devoutly believe).Speaking for
> myself I intend to treat Kinbote's words not as unreliable but as merely
> as in an unusual form. I expect to learn much about Shade's poem and
> his world from Kinbote's commentary. I think we can do this if we hold
> our mouths right (as the saying goes).
>
> P.
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:30:53 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: Notes C.1-4 - C.42
>
> C.1-4
> pg 73
> "a bird knocking itself out": Kinbote assumes the bird has not died,
> although this is not stated explicitly in the poem.
>
> "We can visualize John Shade in his early boyhood": Kinbote assumes that
> Shade is a boy when the event with the bird takes place, although -- again
> - -- this is not explicit.
>
> "a young New Wye gardener": see Foreword, PF 998, etc
>
> C.12
> pg 74
> "a domestic anti-Karlist": K links Sybil to the Zemblan revolutionaries
who
> have dethroned him and are determined to kill him. "anti-Karlist" =
> anti-Charles, so anti-Kinbote in particular to anything else. Does
Sybil's
> animosity cause Kinbote to invent the anti-Karlists as part of the
> germination for the Zemblan story? Or is he just figuratively comparing
her
> to those others he considers his enemies? (One compelling reading of the
> early New Wye sections of Kinbote's Commentary notes the elements that
might
> have been used as generative sources for the Zemblan fantasy.)
>
> pg 75
> "his impregnable fortress and my humble home": elsewhere the humbled home
is
> a chateau and a castle (pg 19, 20). Kinbote transforms the Goldstein
house
> into whatever best suits his narrative intent.
>
> pg 75
> "Parachuting had become a popular sport": parachuting == escaping? What's
> the deal with Zemblans and parachuting? It's a pretty odd national
pastime.
> A person travels with limited volition from a moving origin to an
uncertain
> destination. One can steer to an extent but one cannot return. Death is
a
> distinct possibility.
>
> pg 75
> "/Sosed/ (Zembla's gigantic neighbor)": USSR
>
> pg 75
> "Conchologists": conchology: "The branch of zoology that deals with shells
> and shellfish" (OED). Kinbote's example of "special research" and
"personal
> culture" on the part of kings -- listening to internal echoes?
>
> http://coa.acnatsci.org/conchnet/
>
> pg 76
> "Southey's Lingo-Grande ('Dear Stumparumper,' etc)": I have no idea other
> than Lingo-Grande == Great (or large) Language (or lick)? "Dear
> Stumparumper" sounds German, der StЭmper (blunderer) and der Rumpf (body,
> torso) maybe?
>
> pg 76
> "Hodinski": my (old) notes indicate that Hodinski is connected to "The
Song
> of Igor's Campaign" but I can't fathom why at the moment (anyone?).
Anyway
> and just in case:
>
> VN translated the Old Russian epic "The Song of Igor's Campaign" (~1187)
in
> 1953, and maintains in his notes that early Russian material was linked by
> the Vikings to early Scottish / Celtic literature.
>
> http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/NABOKOW/slovo.txt
> http://www.cossackweb.com/slovo/slovo.htm
> http://aquatory.mccinet.ru/song/
>
> "The Kongs-skugg-sio": Kinbote is correct, it means "The Royal Mirror,"
but
> "Skugg" alone means "shade, shadow." It is a 13th century Old Icelandic
> history that ends with a conflict between Archbishop Eystein and his king,
> and with Eystein's exit to England. See pg 130 for Eystein.
>
> http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq55.html
>
> I tracked Hodinski to this place:
>
> http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/libauthor4.htm
>
> which is a pretty interesting collection of books that only appear in
other
> books. They have several dozen for VN but only a few for Pynchon (all
from
> COL49 -- they obviously need help!).
>
> pg 76
> "Coriolanus Lane" (where Charles Xavier lives while slumming at the
lectern
> of Zembla U):
>
> Plutarch's Coriolanus (75 CE): Life of Coriolanus
> http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/coriolan.html
>
http://www.mostweb.cc/Classics/Plutarch/PlutarchsLives/PlutarchsLives14.html
>
> Shakespeare's _Tragedy of Coriolanus_ (1608), a play about political
unrest
> and class warfare (probably S's most political work) in which Caius
Martius
> wins the name Coriolanus as reward for his great deeds in battle. In
order
> to secure consul status, Coriolanus must go out and win the consent of the
> Roman citizens (who are angry over a grain shortage), which doesn't go
well
> and results his in his exile from Rome. He then teams up with the
> Volscians, masses an army, and lays siege to his old hometown, making him
a
> Volscian hero, but is later assassinated by Aufidius, a jealous rival.
>
> http://the-tech.mit.edu/shakespeare/coriolanus/
>
> C.17
> pg 78
> "distant dim Zembla": Zembla is still dim at this point in the
narrative --
> it hasn't been fully created yet.
>
> pg 80
> "a Zemblan poetical version of /Timon/":
>
> Immediately noteworthy re the Timon quote is that compared to the original
> all the genders are reversed (this theme returns, for instance "with sexes
> reversed" on p.83 and "boy-girls and girl-boys" on p.104). Conmal also
> replaces the key phrase "pale fire" with "silvery light" -- interesting
that
> Kinbote should have chosen these particular four lines.
>
>
> C.42
> pg 80
> "I could make out the outlines of some of my images in the shape his
genius
> might give them; by mid-June I felt sure at last that he would recreate in
a
> poem the dazzling Zembla burning in my brain." ...
>
> Kinbote has this expectation of what he'll find in Shade's poem, as if the
> ideas that dominate his mind should also dominate the poet's. VN comments
> in _Strong Opinions_ regarding the "middlebrow or the upper Philistine"
who
> "likes to recognize his own thoughts and throws in those of the author"
> (41), and Kinbote's expectations may imply those of some critics who gave
> negative reviews of VN because of a lack of "ideas" (see p 275 for "A hack
> reviewer of new books" which may refer to Orville Prescott who panned
> _Lolita_ in the NY Times in 1958).
>
> Also interesting is the notion that Kinbote is constructing an artificial
> pattern of references for Shade (and also for the reader), in contrast to
> the natural patterns that Shade seeks in his poem.
>
> pg 81
> "pale and diaphanous final phase": another echo of the title which K
admits
> "cannot be regarded as a direct echo of my narrative".
>
> pg 81
> "have caught myself borrowing a kind of opalescent light from my poet's
> fiery orb, and unconsciously aping the prose style of his own critical
> essays.": this passage is often offered up in the Shade-wrote-it arguments
> in response to the question over whether Shade's prose style could be as
> good as Kinbote's (in which case why didn't he write prose?).
>
> pg 81
> "control exercised upon my poet by a domestic censor and God knows whom
> else": K again implies that Sybil has coerced her husband into removing
> Zembla references from his poem. The "God knows whom else" is
interesting,
> though -- what might K be thinking of?
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:38:12 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part one)
>
> C.47-48
> pg 82
> "the 'frame house on its square of green' was five miles west of the
Wordsmith campus but only fifty yards or so distant from my east windows"
>
> A clearer picture of the setting is evolved in this Note -- the Goldsworth
residence is west of Shade's, and a chess pattern is superimposed (see
"rented castle" on pg. 20 and "white-and-black" on pg. 82). Kinbote as the
black pieces and Shade as the white, this idea will return.
>
> pg 82
> "charming, charmingly vague lady": Sylvia O'Donnell (246-), and see also
"Alfin the Vague" on pg 101, K/C's father.
>
> pg 82
> "[The Goldsworth house] was an old, dismal, white-and-black, half-timbered
house, of the type termed /wodnaggen/ in my country":
>
> The Old English "wod" means "wood" (as in a stand of trees somewhere
between a grove and a forest in size), also something (usually a ship) made
from wood (as well as "to go, advance, move onward" ("[He] wod ц╬a ц╟urh
ц╟one wц╕lrec;" --Beowulf)), so presumably /wodnaggen/ could mean "wood
cabin"; but also the Anglo-Saxon "wod" [wй d] meaning "mad" or "raving like
a maniac."
>
> "Naggen" is a woodland village in Sweden where guests "reside in comfort
at Bц╓verhyddan (The Beaver Lodge)" and may "take part in a thrilling beaver
hunt in a 17,000 hectare hunting ground".
>
> http://www.ange.se/4.ab444f391a09e107fff7848.html
>
> Also apparently means "to abide" in Hebrew (?), but also the Low German
"(g)naggen" means "to irritate, provoke" (evolves into "nag"), so
"wodnaggen" might be "irritate to madness." Alternatively, let "naggen" ==
noggin and you have "crazy in the head". Also "wod" leads to "Wodin",
Wotan, Odin, the Norse boss god, so /wodnaggen/ could be "to provoke the
god". Also, the Indo-European "wod" is a variant of "wed" for the modern
English "wet".
>
> http://www.wordreference.com/English/definition.asp?en=Wood
> http://koapp.narod.ru/english/diction/book5n.htm
>
> In Bede's _Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation_ (as translated
into Anglo Saxon by King Alfred the Great, who will become more significant
later), the word "wod" is applied to Eadbald, son of St. Aethelbert (540-616
CE), King of Kent. Eadbald, according to Bede, "not only refused to embrace
the faith of Christ, but was also defiled with such a sort of fornication,
as the apostle testifies, was not heard of, even among the Gentiles; for he
kept his father's wife." Bede continues: "Nor did the perfidious king
escape without Divine punishment and correction; for he was troubled with
frequent fits of madness, and possessed by an evil spirit." (Bede, Book II,
Chapter 5).
>
> http://www.ccel.org/b/bede/history/htm/iii.htm#iii
> http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book2.html
> http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/Bede_Miller.pdf
>
>
> pg 83
> "Alphina (9), Betty (10), Candida (12), and Dee (14)":
>
> Here the invention of Zembla may (or may not) evolve (or begin), as
Kinbote translates the objects in the Goldsworth house into his fantasy.
Boyd writes:
>
> "'Alphina' and 'Betty' all but embody the first two letters of the Greek
alphabet, and the reversed order of daughters and letters implies a
deliberate countdown, a comically confident case of family planning. But
the girls' names also oddly prefigure the names of the four principals of
the Zemblan royal family, in descending order of age, King Alfin, Queen
Blenda, their son Charles and his queen Disa. The unique 'Alphina'
especially seems to have inspired the equally unprecedented 'Alfin,' to
serve as a starting point, as her name implies, for the whole Zemblan saga,
and the first character Kinbote introduces in his first long Zemblan note is
indeed Alfin the Vague" (_Magic of Artistic Discovery_, 97).
>
> See also pg 295 where K hides the manuscript in the Goldsworth closet, and
exits "as if it had been the end of a secret passage that had taken me all
the way out of my enchanted castle and right from Zembla to /this/ Arcady."
Boyd writes, "has the Goldsworth closet somehow expanded in Kinbote's mind
to become the Zemblan closet leading to the secret passage that makes
possible the King's escape?" (ibid, 98).
>
> The "reversed order" also makes me think of the "reversed footprints" (pg
34, 78).
>
> pg 83
> "Mrs. G. resembling Malenkov": Georgi Malenkov (1902Б─⌠1988), premier of
the Soviet Union after Stalin (1953-1955) and perhaps the most progressive
Soviet leader before Gorbachev. Forced to resign by Khrushchev.
>
> http://members.fortunecity.com/stalinmao/Soviet/Malenkov/Malenkov.html
> (Mrs. G must have been a handsome woman!)
> http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/georgy_malenkov.php3
>
> Malenkov may be something of a Coriolanus figure as he was a soldier
betrayed by comrades, and was forced to resign his office due to the failure
of his government's agricultural policy.
>
> pg. 83
> "her intellectual interests were fully developed, going as they did from
Amber to Zen":
>
> "[...] suggests Kathleen Winsor's _Forever Amber_ (1944), a
steamy-for-the-time historical blockbuster [...] of romantic intrigues
centering on the court of England's Charles II" (ibid, 98), noted by VN in a
1964 letter to his French translator, Maurice-Edgar Coindreau. "Zen" may
suggest J.D. Salinger and his "then-recent stories about the Glass family,
which chime in curious harmony with Zembla, that 'crystal land' (C.12, 74)
whose revolution 'flickered first' in its Glass Factory (C.130, 120)" (Boyd,
98).
>
> Boyd finishes this section by arguing, "In the solitude of the Goldsworth
castle, doubly dislocated from the Russia of his birth and the Scandinavia
where he had felt sexually free, still harrowed by a sense of persecution
but exhilarated to have a great American poet for neighbor and occasional
companion, the dangerously egomaniacal Kinbote rapidly develops a fantasy
that sublimates his past and will carry him forever into the future, if only
he can persuade Shade to turn his vision into verse. [...] the alphabetic
hints of the Goldsworth chateau consolidate in his mind until they form the
almost entirely self-enclosed delusions that in the Index guide us
methodically through Zembla from A to Z" (ibid, 98).
>
>
> pg 83
> "a morocco-bound album in which the judge had lovingly pasted the life
histories and pictures of people he had sent to prison or condemned to
death: [...] the close-set merciless eyes of a homicidal maniac (somewhat
resembling, I admit, the late Jacques d'Argus)":
>
> Jacques d'Argus, of course, is a pseudonym for Jakob Gradus, helping to
set up the strong theory that Jack Grey was aiming for Judge Goldsworth when
he shot John Shade (who resembles Judge Goldsworth). See also pg 85: "this
or that beast lying in prison and positively dying of /raghdirst/ (thirst
for revenge) [...]"
>
> pg 84
> "the diet of the black cat": see epigraph.
>
> pg 85
> "/damnum infectum/": In Roman law, "damage (damnum) not done, but
apprehended," "damage which [a person] has reason to fear."
>
>
http://www.ku.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Damnum.html
>
> Jasper Fidget
> (I'll try to get the rest of C.47-48 done later today or tomorrow)
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 16:41:13 +0100
> From: "James Kyllo" <jkyllo@clara.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes C.1-4 - C.42
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jasper Fidget <jasper@hatguild.org>
>
>
> >pg 76
> >"Coriolanus Lane" (where Charles Xavier lives while slumming at the
lectern
> >of Zembla U):
>
>
> and this is where we learn the King's middle name ; Charles Xavier ie
> Charles X. One of several references to exiled or insane kings. Charles
X
> of France, before coming to the throne, was exiled from the outbreak of
the
> French Revolution until the restoration in 1814. He became King in 1824,
> but abdicated in 1829 and died in Illyria
>
>
> James
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 17:38:16 +0200
> From: "Otto" <ottosell@yahoo.de>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm(1) Temptation to synchronize
>
> I think everything K. says has to be read very carefully and maybe even
> turned upside down to get any "truth" out of it. For example he tells
about
> that gardener he's interested in (p. 61) and sends us to his notes to line
> 998 (pp. 228-29) where he asserts that the man was "impotent" so that he
> could only have the "aesthetic pleasure of watching him" doing the garden
> work. I believe it's very likely that the gardener simply wasn't
homosexual
> and has rejected K.'s advances.
>
> Otto
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Mackin" <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> To: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 11:35 AM
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm(1) Temptation to synchronize
>
>
> > On Fri, 2003-08-22 at 00:28, Don Corathers wrote:
> > > On the second page of his Commentary (p 74), Kinbote writes: "I do not
> doubt
> > > that our poet would have understod his annotator's temptation to
> synchronize
> > > a certain fateful fact, the departure from Zembla of the would-be
> regicide
> > > Gradus, with the date [that Shade began work on Pale Fire]." It is a
> clear
> > > signal that the editor Kinbote will not scruple to let the facts get
in
> the
> > > way of a good story. On this occasion he resists the temptation,
though,
> and
> > > in the next sentence acknowledges that Gradus actually left Onhava
four
> days
> > > later.
> > >
> > > But in his very next note, Kinbote gives us two lines from a
> "disjointed,
> > > half-obliterated draft which I am not at all sure I have deciphered
> > > properly." They are conveniently referential to Kinbote and the
deposed
> > > king--unlike anything else in the 999-line poem--and Kinbote will
later
> > > admit that he fabricated them.
> > >
> > > Kinbote's unreliability, both as a narrator and an editor, projects a
> corona
> > > of indeterminacy around this entire enterprise. (I mean, more so than
> > > usual.) Clearly delusional and an admitted embellisher, the author of
> the
> > > Commentary says he had exclusive possession of the index-card
manuscript
> for
> > > a time. Everything we know about Shade and his poem is mediated
through
> > > Kinbote. Do you trust this guy even a little bit? How much? Why?
> > >
> > > Don Corathers
> >
> > Kinbote's all we've got.
> >
> > From the start of Kinbote's input it's certainly pretty obvious (and
> > gets ever more obvious as time passes) that we are not going to hear
> > only straight facts about Shade and his poem. At least in part and
> > probably mainly we are going to be told a very fanciful story, one
> > seemingly about something quite separate from what the poem is about.
> > In other words it's not the usual sort of commentary an editor would
> > normally provide. Yet commentary it is (I devoutly believe).Speaking for
> > myself I intend to treat Kinbote's words not as unreliable but as merely
> > as in an unusual form. I expect to learn much about Shade's poem and
> > his world from Kinbote's commentary. I think we can do this if we hold
> > our mouths right (as the saying goes).
> >
> > P.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
.
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 10:53 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3500
>
> pynchon-l-digest Friday, August 22 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3500
>
>> Date: 22 Aug 2003 05:35:46 -0400
> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm(1) Temptation to synchronize
>
> On Fri, 2003-08-22 at 00:28, Don Corathers wrote:
> > On the second page of his Commentary (p 74), Kinbote writes: "I do not
doubt
> > that our poet would have understod his annotator's temptation to
synchronize
> > a certain fateful fact, the departure from Zembla of the would-be
regicide
> > Gradus, with the date [that Shade began work on Pale Fire]." It is a
clear
> > signal that the editor Kinbote will not scruple to let the facts get in
the
> > way of a good story. On this occasion he resists the temptation, though,
and
> > in the next sentence acknowledges that Gradus actually left Onhava four
days
> > later.
> >
> > But in his very next note, Kinbote gives us two lines from a
"disjointed,
> > half-obliterated draft which I am not at all sure I have deciphered
> > properly." They are conveniently referential to Kinbote and the deposed
> > king--unlike anything else in the 999-line poem--and Kinbote will later
> > admit that he fabricated them.
> >
> > Kinbote's unreliability, both as a narrator and an editor, projects a
corona
> > of indeterminacy around this entire enterprise. (I mean, more so than
> > usual.) Clearly delusional and an admitted embellisher, the author of
the
> > Commentary says he had exclusive possession of the index-card manuscript
for
> > a time. Everything we know about Shade and his poem is mediated through
> > Kinbote. Do you trust this guy even a little bit? How much? Why?
> >
> > Don Corathers
>
> Kinbote's all we've got.
>
> From the start of Kinbote's input it's certainly pretty obvious (and
> gets ever more obvious as time passes) that we are not going to hear
> only straight facts about Shade and his poem. At least in part and
> probably mainly we are going to be told a very fanciful story, one
> seemingly about something quite separate from what the poem is about.
> In other words it's not the usual sort of commentary an editor would
> normally provide. Yet commentary it is (I devoutly believe).Speaking for
> myself I intend to treat Kinbote's words not as unreliable but as merely
> as in an unusual form. I expect to learn much about Shade's poem and
> his world from Kinbote's commentary. I think we can do this if we hold
> our mouths right (as the saying goes).
>
> P.
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:30:53 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: Notes C.1-4 - C.42
>
> C.1-4
> pg 73
> "a bird knocking itself out": Kinbote assumes the bird has not died,
> although this is not stated explicitly in the poem.
>
> "We can visualize John Shade in his early boyhood": Kinbote assumes that
> Shade is a boy when the event with the bird takes place, although -- again
> - -- this is not explicit.
>
> "a young New Wye gardener": see Foreword, PF 998, etc
>
> C.12
> pg 74
> "a domestic anti-Karlist": K links Sybil to the Zemblan revolutionaries
who
> have dethroned him and are determined to kill him. "anti-Karlist" =
> anti-Charles, so anti-Kinbote in particular to anything else. Does
Sybil's
> animosity cause Kinbote to invent the anti-Karlists as part of the
> germination for the Zemblan story? Or is he just figuratively comparing
her
> to those others he considers his enemies? (One compelling reading of the
> early New Wye sections of Kinbote's Commentary notes the elements that
might
> have been used as generative sources for the Zemblan fantasy.)
>
> pg 75
> "his impregnable fortress and my humble home": elsewhere the humbled home
is
> a chateau and a castle (pg 19, 20). Kinbote transforms the Goldstein
house
> into whatever best suits his narrative intent.
>
> pg 75
> "Parachuting had become a popular sport": parachuting == escaping? What's
> the deal with Zemblans and parachuting? It's a pretty odd national
pastime.
> A person travels with limited volition from a moving origin to an
uncertain
> destination. One can steer to an extent but one cannot return. Death is
a
> distinct possibility.
>
> pg 75
> "/Sosed/ (Zembla's gigantic neighbor)": USSR
>
> pg 75
> "Conchologists": conchology: "The branch of zoology that deals with shells
> and shellfish" (OED). Kinbote's example of "special research" and
"personal
> culture" on the part of kings -- listening to internal echoes?
>
> http://coa.acnatsci.org/conchnet/
>
> pg 76
> "Southey's Lingo-Grande ('Dear Stumparumper,' etc)": I have no idea other
> than Lingo-Grande == Great (or large) Language (or lick)? "Dear
> Stumparumper" sounds German, der StЭmper (blunderer) and der Rumpf (body,
> torso) maybe?
>
> pg 76
> "Hodinski": my (old) notes indicate that Hodinski is connected to "The
Song
> of Igor's Campaign" but I can't fathom why at the moment (anyone?).
Anyway
> and just in case:
>
> VN translated the Old Russian epic "The Song of Igor's Campaign" (~1187)
in
> 1953, and maintains in his notes that early Russian material was linked by
> the Vikings to early Scottish / Celtic literature.
>
> http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/NABOKOW/slovo.txt
> http://www.cossackweb.com/slovo/slovo.htm
> http://aquatory.mccinet.ru/song/
>
> "The Kongs-skugg-sio": Kinbote is correct, it means "The Royal Mirror,"
but
> "Skugg" alone means "shade, shadow." It is a 13th century Old Icelandic
> history that ends with a conflict between Archbishop Eystein and his king,
> and with Eystein's exit to England. See pg 130 for Eystein.
>
> http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq55.html
>
> I tracked Hodinski to this place:
>
> http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/libauthor4.htm
>
> which is a pretty interesting collection of books that only appear in
other
> books. They have several dozen for VN but only a few for Pynchon (all
from
> COL49 -- they obviously need help!).
>
> pg 76
> "Coriolanus Lane" (where Charles Xavier lives while slumming at the
lectern
> of Zembla U):
>
> Plutarch's Coriolanus (75 CE): Life of Coriolanus
> http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/coriolan.html
>
http://www.mostweb.cc/Classics/Plutarch/PlutarchsLives/PlutarchsLives14.html
>
> Shakespeare's _Tragedy of Coriolanus_ (1608), a play about political
unrest
> and class warfare (probably S's most political work) in which Caius
Martius
> wins the name Coriolanus as reward for his great deeds in battle. In
order
> to secure consul status, Coriolanus must go out and win the consent of the
> Roman citizens (who are angry over a grain shortage), which doesn't go
well
> and results his in his exile from Rome. He then teams up with the
> Volscians, masses an army, and lays siege to his old hometown, making him
a
> Volscian hero, but is later assassinated by Aufidius, a jealous rival.
>
> http://the-tech.mit.edu/shakespeare/coriolanus/
>
> C.17
> pg 78
> "distant dim Zembla": Zembla is still dim at this point in the
narrative --
> it hasn't been fully created yet.
>
> pg 80
> "a Zemblan poetical version of /Timon/":
>
> Immediately noteworthy re the Timon quote is that compared to the original
> all the genders are reversed (this theme returns, for instance "with sexes
> reversed" on p.83 and "boy-girls and girl-boys" on p.104). Conmal also
> replaces the key phrase "pale fire" with "silvery light" -- interesting
that
> Kinbote should have chosen these particular four lines.
>
>
> C.42
> pg 80
> "I could make out the outlines of some of my images in the shape his
genius
> might give them; by mid-June I felt sure at last that he would recreate in
a
> poem the dazzling Zembla burning in my brain." ...
>
> Kinbote has this expectation of what he'll find in Shade's poem, as if the
> ideas that dominate his mind should also dominate the poet's. VN comments
> in _Strong Opinions_ regarding the "middlebrow or the upper Philistine"
who
> "likes to recognize his own thoughts and throws in those of the author"
> (41), and Kinbote's expectations may imply those of some critics who gave
> negative reviews of VN because of a lack of "ideas" (see p 275 for "A hack
> reviewer of new books" which may refer to Orville Prescott who panned
> _Lolita_ in the NY Times in 1958).
>
> Also interesting is the notion that Kinbote is constructing an artificial
> pattern of references for Shade (and also for the reader), in contrast to
> the natural patterns that Shade seeks in his poem.
>
> pg 81
> "pale and diaphanous final phase": another echo of the title which K
admits
> "cannot be regarded as a direct echo of my narrative".
>
> pg 81
> "have caught myself borrowing a kind of opalescent light from my poet's
> fiery orb, and unconsciously aping the prose style of his own critical
> essays.": this passage is often offered up in the Shade-wrote-it arguments
> in response to the question over whether Shade's prose style could be as
> good as Kinbote's (in which case why didn't he write prose?).
>
> pg 81
> "control exercised upon my poet by a domestic censor and God knows whom
> else": K again implies that Sybil has coerced her husband into removing
> Zembla references from his poem. The "God knows whom else" is
interesting,
> though -- what might K be thinking of?
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:38:12 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part one)
>
> C.47-48
> pg 82
> "the 'frame house on its square of green' was five miles west of the
Wordsmith campus but only fifty yards or so distant from my east windows"
>
> A clearer picture of the setting is evolved in this Note -- the Goldsworth
residence is west of Shade's, and a chess pattern is superimposed (see
"rented castle" on pg. 20 and "white-and-black" on pg. 82). Kinbote as the
black pieces and Shade as the white, this idea will return.
>
> pg 82
> "charming, charmingly vague lady": Sylvia O'Donnell (246-), and see also
"Alfin the Vague" on pg 101, K/C's father.
>
> pg 82
> "[The Goldsworth house] was an old, dismal, white-and-black, half-timbered
house, of the type termed /wodnaggen/ in my country":
>
> The Old English "wod" means "wood" (as in a stand of trees somewhere
between a grove and a forest in size), also something (usually a ship) made
from wood (as well as "to go, advance, move onward" ("[He] wod ц╬a ц╟urh
ц╟one wц╕lrec;" --Beowulf)), so presumably /wodnaggen/ could mean "wood
cabin"; but also the Anglo-Saxon "wod" [wй d] meaning "mad" or "raving like
a maniac."
>
> "Naggen" is a woodland village in Sweden where guests "reside in comfort
at Bц╓verhyddan (The Beaver Lodge)" and may "take part in a thrilling beaver
hunt in a 17,000 hectare hunting ground".
>
> http://www.ange.se/4.ab444f391a09e107fff7848.html
>
> Also apparently means "to abide" in Hebrew (?), but also the Low German
"(g)naggen" means "to irritate, provoke" (evolves into "nag"), so
"wodnaggen" might be "irritate to madness." Alternatively, let "naggen" ==
noggin and you have "crazy in the head". Also "wod" leads to "Wodin",
Wotan, Odin, the Norse boss god, so /wodnaggen/ could be "to provoke the
god". Also, the Indo-European "wod" is a variant of "wed" for the modern
English "wet".
>
> http://www.wordreference.com/English/definition.asp?en=Wood
> http://koapp.narod.ru/english/diction/book5n.htm
>
> In Bede's _Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation_ (as translated
into Anglo Saxon by King Alfred the Great, who will become more significant
later), the word "wod" is applied to Eadbald, son of St. Aethelbert (540-616
CE), King of Kent. Eadbald, according to Bede, "not only refused to embrace
the faith of Christ, but was also defiled with such a sort of fornication,
as the apostle testifies, was not heard of, even among the Gentiles; for he
kept his father's wife." Bede continues: "Nor did the perfidious king
escape without Divine punishment and correction; for he was troubled with
frequent fits of madness, and possessed by an evil spirit." (Bede, Book II,
Chapter 5).
>
> http://www.ccel.org/b/bede/history/htm/iii.htm#iii
> http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book2.html
> http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/Bede_Miller.pdf
>
>
> pg 83
> "Alphina (9), Betty (10), Candida (12), and Dee (14)":
>
> Here the invention of Zembla may (or may not) evolve (or begin), as
Kinbote translates the objects in the Goldsworth house into his fantasy.
Boyd writes:
>
> "'Alphina' and 'Betty' all but embody the first two letters of the Greek
alphabet, and the reversed order of daughters and letters implies a
deliberate countdown, a comically confident case of family planning. But
the girls' names also oddly prefigure the names of the four principals of
the Zemblan royal family, in descending order of age, King Alfin, Queen
Blenda, their son Charles and his queen Disa. The unique 'Alphina'
especially seems to have inspired the equally unprecedented 'Alfin,' to
serve as a starting point, as her name implies, for the whole Zemblan saga,
and the first character Kinbote introduces in his first long Zemblan note is
indeed Alfin the Vague" (_Magic of Artistic Discovery_, 97).
>
> See also pg 295 where K hides the manuscript in the Goldsworth closet, and
exits "as if it had been the end of a secret passage that had taken me all
the way out of my enchanted castle and right from Zembla to /this/ Arcady."
Boyd writes, "has the Goldsworth closet somehow expanded in Kinbote's mind
to become the Zemblan closet leading to the secret passage that makes
possible the King's escape?" (ibid, 98).
>
> The "reversed order" also makes me think of the "reversed footprints" (pg
34, 78).
>
> pg 83
> "Mrs. G. resembling Malenkov": Georgi Malenkov (1902Б─⌠1988), premier of
the Soviet Union after Stalin (1953-1955) and perhaps the most progressive
Soviet leader before Gorbachev. Forced to resign by Khrushchev.
>
> http://members.fortunecity.com/stalinmao/Soviet/Malenkov/Malenkov.html
> (Mrs. G must have been a handsome woman!)
> http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/georgy_malenkov.php3
>
> Malenkov may be something of a Coriolanus figure as he was a soldier
betrayed by comrades, and was forced to resign his office due to the failure
of his government's agricultural policy.
>
> pg. 83
> "her intellectual interests were fully developed, going as they did from
Amber to Zen":
>
> "[...] suggests Kathleen Winsor's _Forever Amber_ (1944), a
steamy-for-the-time historical blockbuster [...] of romantic intrigues
centering on the court of England's Charles II" (ibid, 98), noted by VN in a
1964 letter to his French translator, Maurice-Edgar Coindreau. "Zen" may
suggest J.D. Salinger and his "then-recent stories about the Glass family,
which chime in curious harmony with Zembla, that 'crystal land' (C.12, 74)
whose revolution 'flickered first' in its Glass Factory (C.130, 120)" (Boyd,
98).
>
> Boyd finishes this section by arguing, "In the solitude of the Goldsworth
castle, doubly dislocated from the Russia of his birth and the Scandinavia
where he had felt sexually free, still harrowed by a sense of persecution
but exhilarated to have a great American poet for neighbor and occasional
companion, the dangerously egomaniacal Kinbote rapidly develops a fantasy
that sublimates his past and will carry him forever into the future, if only
he can persuade Shade to turn his vision into verse. [...] the alphabetic
hints of the Goldsworth chateau consolidate in his mind until they form the
almost entirely self-enclosed delusions that in the Index guide us
methodically through Zembla from A to Z" (ibid, 98).
>
>
> pg 83
> "a morocco-bound album in which the judge had lovingly pasted the life
histories and pictures of people he had sent to prison or condemned to
death: [...] the close-set merciless eyes of a homicidal maniac (somewhat
resembling, I admit, the late Jacques d'Argus)":
>
> Jacques d'Argus, of course, is a pseudonym for Jakob Gradus, helping to
set up the strong theory that Jack Grey was aiming for Judge Goldsworth when
he shot John Shade (who resembles Judge Goldsworth). See also pg 85: "this
or that beast lying in prison and positively dying of /raghdirst/ (thirst
for revenge) [...]"
>
> pg 84
> "the diet of the black cat": see epigraph.
>
> pg 85
> "/damnum infectum/": In Roman law, "damage (damnum) not done, but
apprehended," "damage which [a person] has reason to fear."
>
>
http://www.ku.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Damnum.html
>
> Jasper Fidget
> (I'll try to get the rest of C.47-48 done later today or tomorrow)
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 16:41:13 +0100
> From: "James Kyllo" <jkyllo@clara.net>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes C.1-4 - C.42
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jasper Fidget <jasper@hatguild.org>
>
>
> >pg 76
> >"Coriolanus Lane" (where Charles Xavier lives while slumming at the
lectern
> >of Zembla U):
>
>
> and this is where we learn the King's middle name ; Charles Xavier ie
> Charles X. One of several references to exiled or insane kings. Charles
X
> of France, before coming to the throne, was exiled from the outbreak of
the
> French Revolution until the restoration in 1814. He became King in 1824,
> but abdicated in 1829 and died in Illyria
>
>
> James
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 17:38:16 +0200
> From: "Otto" <ottosell@yahoo.de>
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm(1) Temptation to synchronize
>
> I think everything K. says has to be read very carefully and maybe even
> turned upside down to get any "truth" out of it. For example he tells
about
> that gardener he's interested in (p. 61) and sends us to his notes to line
> 998 (pp. 228-29) where he asserts that the man was "impotent" so that he
> could only have the "aesthetic pleasure of watching him" doing the garden
> work. I believe it's very likely that the gardener simply wasn't
homosexual
> and has rejected K.'s advances.
>
> Otto
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Mackin" <paul.mackin@verizon.net>
> To: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 11:35 AM
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm(1) Temptation to synchronize
>
>
> > On Fri, 2003-08-22 at 00:28, Don Corathers wrote:
> > > On the second page of his Commentary (p 74), Kinbote writes: "I do not
> doubt
> > > that our poet would have understod his annotator's temptation to
> synchronize
> > > a certain fateful fact, the departure from Zembla of the would-be
> regicide
> > > Gradus, with the date [that Shade began work on Pale Fire]." It is a
> clear
> > > signal that the editor Kinbote will not scruple to let the facts get
in
> the
> > > way of a good story. On this occasion he resists the temptation,
though,
> and
> > > in the next sentence acknowledges that Gradus actually left Onhava
four
> days
> > > later.
> > >
> > > But in his very next note, Kinbote gives us two lines from a
> "disjointed,
> > > half-obliterated draft which I am not at all sure I have deciphered
> > > properly." They are conveniently referential to Kinbote and the
deposed
> > > king--unlike anything else in the 999-line poem--and Kinbote will
later
> > > admit that he fabricated them.
> > >
> > > Kinbote's unreliability, both as a narrator and an editor, projects a
> corona
> > > of indeterminacy around this entire enterprise. (I mean, more so than
> > > usual.) Clearly delusional and an admitted embellisher, the author of
> the
> > > Commentary says he had exclusive possession of the index-card
manuscript
> for
> > > a time. Everything we know about Shade and his poem is mediated
through
> > > Kinbote. Do you trust this guy even a little bit? How much? Why?
> > >
> > > Don Corathers
> >
> > Kinbote's all we've got.
> >
> > From the start of Kinbote's input it's certainly pretty obvious (and
> > gets ever more obvious as time passes) that we are not going to hear
> > only straight facts about Shade and his poem. At least in part and
> > probably mainly we are going to be told a very fanciful story, one
> > seemingly about something quite separate from what the poem is about.
> > In other words it's not the usual sort of commentary an editor would
> > normally provide. Yet commentary it is (I devoutly believe).Speaking for
> > myself I intend to treat Kinbote's words not as unreliable but as merely
> > as in an unusual form. I expect to learn much about Shade's poem and
> > his world from Kinbote's commentary. I think we can do this if we hold
> > our mouths right (as the saying goes).
> >
> > P.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
.