Subject
Re: PALE FIRE: Kinbote & "The X-Files" (fwd)
Date
Body
The episode in question is called "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" and was
written by Darin Morgan. Morgan has often mentioned VN as being a primary
influence.
>From: Seth Young <ayoung@email.gc.cuny.edu
>
>
>I hate to admit that I'm an "X Files" addict; nevertheless! a la Kinbote,
>confessions sometimes slip out. As far as the 'Lord Kinbote' episode's
>relation to _Pale Fire_, I am of the opinion that Chris Carter, who is in
>the habit of throwing this or that allusion into his programs (e.g., the
>last rerun in which Dostoevsky syndrome is mentioned), is probably aware
>of Nabokov's character(s). Whether the allusion is anything other than a
>kind of name-drop, that is, whether Carter intended "Kinbote" as a clue to
>the structure of the episode or not,--I leave that for others to decide.
>Although, it is possible to see a kind of similarity between _Pale
>Fire_ and the "X Files" episode, inasmuch as the viewer (this viewer, at
>any rate) of the episode is confronted with a kind of en abyme situation
>(the aliens being abducted by aliens; who are the "real" aliens?) in which
>the up/down, "real"/fictional seems to fall prey to mirror-play. -Seth
>Young
written by Darin Morgan. Morgan has often mentioned VN as being a primary
influence.
>From: Seth Young <ayoung@email.gc.cuny.edu
>
>
>I hate to admit that I'm an "X Files" addict; nevertheless! a la Kinbote,
>confessions sometimes slip out. As far as the 'Lord Kinbote' episode's
>relation to _Pale Fire_, I am of the opinion that Chris Carter, who is in
>the habit of throwing this or that allusion into his programs (e.g., the
>last rerun in which Dostoevsky syndrome is mentioned), is probably aware
>of Nabokov's character(s). Whether the allusion is anything other than a
>kind of name-drop, that is, whether Carter intended "Kinbote" as a clue to
>the structure of the episode or not,--I leave that for others to decide.
>Although, it is possible to see a kind of similarity between _Pale
>Fire_ and the "X Files" episode, inasmuch as the viewer (this viewer, at
>any rate) of the episode is confronted with a kind of en abyme situation
>(the aliens being abducted by aliens; who are the "real" aliens?) in which
>the up/down, "real"/fictional seems to fall prey to mirror-play. -Seth
>Young