Subject
Fw: 'pada ata' doesn't add up. Codes in PALE Fire
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 3:10 PM
Subject: 'pada ata' doesn't add up
> I would like to ask the list members if anyone has dealt with this problem
> regarding the spirit message in 'Pale Fire':
>
> Mrs Provost tells Kinbote that Hazel made 80 attempts to get an alphabetic
> response from the light. Of those she got 17 responses. This information
> allows us to realize that this was how Hazel broke the message up into
> 'words,' i.e. she interpreted a non-response as a word-break. However the
> message as transcribed doesn't add up. There should be 63 letters and 17
> breaks, but there are only 61 letters and 16 breaks.
>
> It seems that one word of two letters is missing. I assume this reflects
the
> nature of the poem in couplets of 999 lines in some way. Further than this
I
> haven't been able to go.
>
> Many thanks,
> Carolyn Kunin
>
>
From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 3:10 PM
Subject: 'pada ata' doesn't add up
> I would like to ask the list members if anyone has dealt with this problem
> regarding the spirit message in 'Pale Fire':
>
> Mrs Provost tells Kinbote that Hazel made 80 attempts to get an alphabetic
> response from the light. Of those she got 17 responses. This information
> allows us to realize that this was how Hazel broke the message up into
> 'words,' i.e. she interpreted a non-response as a word-break. However the
> message as transcribed doesn't add up. There should be 63 letters and 17
> breaks, but there are only 61 letters and 16 breaks.
>
> It seems that one word of two letters is missing. I assume this reflects
the
> nature of the poem in couplets of 999 lines in some way. Further than this
I
> haven't been able to go.
>
> Many thanks,
> Carolyn Kunin
>
>