This message was originally submitted by alainfchamplain@GMAIL.COM
Who did/do you think Gerald Emerald was referring to when he said “I guess
Mr. Shade has already left with the Great Beaver," in the Foreword?
I always thought the joke was obvious, but I've come across several
theories involving Castor and Pollux, Castro, Shakespearean armor — none of
which have mentioned the heart of the bit.
At this risk of stating the obvious:
Sybil is the Great Beaver.
The first time we read this passage, we may take Kinbote at his word. We
have just heard the story of their first drive home together, and may
assume there would be more to come. We do not yet know the extent of
Kinbote's paranoia.
But in subsequent reads, we're armed with the knowledge of just how little
time Kinbote spent with Shade (we're told of every walk, and certainly of
every drive as well) and we know the pattern of this joke from another
paranoid delusion (halitosis/hallucinations).
We also learn that Sybil "came of Canadian stock," which explains part of
the nickname: the beaver, aka castor canadensis (despite becoming the
national animal of Canada only in 1975, after the publication of PF) has
long been a symbol of Canada. Whether Nabokov also intended a vulgar
misogynist layer, and whether his characters did, I leave open.
Really, whom else would Emerald assume Shade had left with?
Of course, we're still free to make connections between Castor and Kinbote,
since, as with everything else, Kinbote has made this comment about himself
— but that's what makes this a great joke.
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From Barrie Akin
barrie_akin@HOTMAIL.COM
But Kinbote says that he “overheard” that conversation when he entered the English Literature office, implying that the speaker (“Gerald Emerald”) was not aware of his (Kinbote’s) presence.
Kinbote has a “brown beard” with “a rather rich tint” so is it really necessary to look for complications here, when “the Great Beaver” does fit Kinbote rather well?
From Carolyn
chaiselongue@ATT.NET
To the List members,
The Great Beaver refers to the star Castor and by implication the constellation Gemini (Castor and Pollux). There are a number of constellations in Pale Fire, as there are also a number of twins.
Carolyn
from Ljiljana Ćuk
analjiljkuc@GMAIL.COM
In my opinion, the narrator just points to the keyword *Great Bear
*here. (Words
*beaver* and *bear *have the same root), and consequently to the Crown
Jewels.
Does not *overheard* in that example call us to look over head?
You can find a rich but not definitive list of constellations (p. 96) in my
book (which I left open)
https://drsuttonsite.wordpress.com/book-of-revelation-published-in-novi-sad-serbia/
In a few "word golf" moves *Gerald *(Gerwald, *spear-wielder*) leads to
*pale* (lance, stab, stake, pale) i. e. to the clockwork toy on the sky*.*
Ljiljana Ćuk
From Mary Ross
maryross.illustrator@GMAIL.COM
I, for one, really enjoyed and endorse Alain Champlain's interpretation! I
also all the interpretations are probably correct. It seems there are
always multiple meanings to each "clue" VN gives us, and it strikes me that
this is definitely a way to give the reader both a clue AND a false scent.
As Alain notes, t'his fits with Kinbote's other example of social
cluelessness and unfamiliarity with American slang. It also diverts the
reader from getting the "Sybil" connotation, when he thinks it relates to
his beard and great height.
I personally am following the trail of Sybil as major conflict and solution
to the murder mystery (via Jungian tropes as the relation of "anima" to
solving one's psychic issues). If the witty Emerald sees Sybil as a "C---",
then we are clued into the possibility that it is not only K's antipathy
and projection that sees Sybil as a controlling, henpecking harridan.
What could be more devious than Sybil, the beloved *Vanessa atatlanta* Muse
actually being the "butterfly of doom"? In my theory, Sybil and Kinbote are
in cahoots - she gets him to hire Jack Grey to kill Shade. SHE gets
revenge for Shade's affairs and HE gets the manuscript. This, at least is
the murder-mystery part, a twist on "the butler did it". It also makes
sense on the abstract metaphysical-psychological level of the spiral of
meaning.
From Matt Roth
This message was originally submitted by mroth@MESSIAH.EDU
I agree with Barrie Akin that The Great Beaver refers to Kinbote/Botkin. Kinbote seems to understand this himself. Additional confirmation is given via the student skit, where Kinbote is depicted “nibbling raw carrots.” Allusions to constellations may be there, but of course are figurative.
Last week I visited the Tower of London, where several royals met their end, and noted the abundance of ferns growing on the craggy walls. This of course put me in mind of Shade’s image of a king, with hands tied, noting a “rare wall fern.” I suppose up to that point, I had not consciously thought about the accuracy of the image—that a king would be executed in a fortress, and that fortress would be constructed of stone in a manner that would encourage ferns to grow on the walls. No big deal, but a testament to the accuracy and totality of VN’s imagery. Also possible that young VN may have made the connection himself while visiting the Tower in his youth. I’ve attached a picture.
Cheers,
Matt
From MM
mmkcm@COMCAST.NET
There appears to be a consensus here that the "Great Beaver" is a person and not an object. I fail to understand why.
The one person who cannot be the GB is Kinbote. One knows that he's a egomaniac, just the kind of person who, on accidentally overhearing what he takes to be an unflattering nickname, will automatically assume the speaker means him. Like Malviolio and the letter in As You Like It, he manipulates the fragmentary 'evidence' to prove his point -- which by the inexorable law of literature is erroneous.
Why on earth anyone should choose to call Sybil Shade a Great Beaver, or indeed any nickname, salacious or otherwise, defies common sense. She has no direct connection with the college.
In Elizabethan times tall (Great?) hats lined with beaver fur were popular amongst the aristocracy. You can see an example in a famous miniature by Nicholas Hilliard pictured in a Christie's auction catalogue https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/studio-of-nicholas-hilliard-british-1547-1619-5733085-details.aspx. One of its previous owners, the Canadian literary scholar Leslie Hotson, believed that the man portrayed was Shakespeare.
Of course why John Shade might want to take a hat home with him is an even more vexed question. Perhaps he knew the words of that old commercial: If you want to get ahead, get a hat.
What I also want to know is why Kinbote called Gerald Emerald by his name "mercifully". And why the emphasis on greenness (emerald, green jacket)?
-- MM.
From Mary Ross
maryross.illustrator@GMAIL.COM
Mathew, not to take away from your Tower of London post, but I wanted to
add to the "Great Beaver" part of your post:
This is my point, that VN is creating "false scents" and "specious lines of
play" when he offers a hint and then immediately deflects it. The
description of the Great Beaver describes Kinbote, but deviously (and
hilariously - thanks to Alain Champlain) suggests another possibility.
K states in his forward that Shade's murder set off a detonation that
caused so many fish to float up that he is in hiding. What would be so
terrible that he is in hiding and Sybil has fled the country? Has she left
him holding the bag? Is the "plan" that she will not give to K not a
"map", but a plot, and now potential evidence? Why did she sign the
manuscript over to him? Was it in fact signed in some sort of "red ink" ?
VN has successfully made it seem that the Shade marriage was somehow ideal.
What could be more devious than the hackneyed trope of the least suspected
character turn out to be the murderer? Parody is the name of the game. VN
talks about chess plays that take place "off the board". The solution to
the "murder mystery" level of the plot would likely also to be "off the
board" - intuited rather than revealed.
On the psychological level, Carl Jung wrote that the "Shadow" was the
"apprentice piece"; the "Anima" was the "masterpiece". He also described
the anima as a spider in the center of a web (the mandala). The mandala is
a symbol of psychic unity. Shade is on a quest of spiritual knowledge.
Kinbote is on a parallel "Hero's Journey" a la the Jungian Joseph Campbell.
Both, like the waxwing, fail the transcendence they seek. The question is
why? Why is K left as a "Solus Rex"?
From Mary Ross
From maryross.illustrator@GMAIL.COM
Michael,
Sybil apparently regularly drove Shade to and from the University. There
seems to have been the usual sort of collegial social life including wives
at Wordsmith. I would say again that there often seems to be multiple
associations for images in PF - that would fit with the "web of sense", so
it would make sense for the Shakespeare line of play to intersect with the
murder mystery plot, as well as the celestial-astronomical allusions.
I believe Gerald Emerald fits in nicely with the Jungian thread which I am
investigating. My theory is that all the characters are aspects of Botkin's
psyche - Jung called them "archetypes". The Trickster is a major archetype
that "suits" Gerald Emerald - in green. Tricksters in mythology are often
beings like elves, brownies, kobolds, leprechauns etc. The Trickster is the
part of the personal psyche that trips on up, makes a fool of oneself. That
is why Izumradov is the head of the Shadows - Emerald is the 'thorn in the
side" ego-deflator of Kinbote at the University.
from Eric Hyman
Fellow Listees:
I do not want to get involved in the Great Beaver debate, but Malvolio and the letter are in Twelfth Night not As You Like It.
Eric Hyman
Professor of English
Department of English
Kinbote is tall, has…
Kinbote is tall, has delusions of greatness, and has a full, luxuriant brown beard. "Gerald Emerald" is openly disdainful of Kinbote (a visiting professor), but it's unthinkable that a mere instructor in the department would make a crude sexual joke (in the English office!) about Sybil, the wife of a revered senior professor. Incidentally, Shade never "leaves with" Sybil; she picks him up outside the building.
The Stunning Blond
I still believe Kinbote to be the Great Beaver but I do have an alternative candidate.
we know from the Foreward to PF that JS stops Prof. Hurley from saying more about the "Stunning Blond" who haunts Lit. 202. The use of "haunts" obviously points towards Canto III and there is an obvious physical correspondence between the student and the second of the two wives in lines 574 to 588.
We also know from the commentary to line 579 that Kinbote was aware of gossip concerning Shade and the student and (incredibly crassly) sought to dispel the rumours by inviting her to a "party" at which she and the Shades were the only guests. Kinbote says that he doubted if the "confrontation" lasted more than ten minutes.
We also have Matthew Roth's work in NOJ Vol IX on VN's index cards to PF where (page 18) the draft of this passage has rather more to say about Shade and the Student (liaisons in a colleague's office).
Even if we discount this "unused variant" as not relevant to the published work, I think we have enough to know that according to Kinbote there was gossip about Shade and the student. It would be fully in keeping with Kinbote's megalomania for him to believe that a crude reference by Gerald Emerald referred to him when it referred to the blond in the black leotard/ballerina black.
This assumes that "beaver" had the crude connotations in 1959 America that it apparently has in America today. On that I am not competent to express an opinion.
Barrie Akin
Sybil's Revenge
Barrie Akin, I think this could be a possibility (although I still favor Sybil). I believe that the sly mentions of this student and teasings that Shade gets by his colleagues are the "deleterious moves" VN suggests are key to the solution: Sybil's revenge. He also says, "How often I have struggled to bind the terrible force of White's queen so as to avoid a dual solution" (SM p290)
Although he is speaking of chess, we know this applies as well to his writing, and I think maybe specifically to PF. Chapter 14 of SM seems to have lots of hints towards PF. I believe the Queen (Sybil) is at the heart of it.
Anyway, I don't think it possible that the GB is Kinbote for the very logical reason that he hasn't left the campus.
I overheard a young…
I overheard a young instructor m 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.” Of course, I am quite tall, and my brown beard is of a rather rich tint and texture; the silly cognomen evidently applied to me, but was not worth noticing, and after calmly taking the magazine from a pamphlet-cluttered table, I contented myself on my way out with pulling Gerald Emerald's bowtie loose with a deft jerk of my fingers as I passed by him.
Please note the "I guess."
Sam Gwynn, I hadn’t seen…
Sam Gwynn, I hadn’t seen your response for some reason, until now.
I see your point – Emerald doesn’t know for sure if Shade has actually left, nor who with. So the fact that Kinbote is still there (and unseen) might make him still a contender for the Great Beaver.
This does not obviate Sybil or the co-ed from possibility, though. The question, it seems, would be what was Nabokov’s intention? VN has told us that he intends his work to be “deceitful to the point of diabolism” and to send the ultra-sophisticated “expert solver” through roundabout thetic spirals, etc.
An essential part of his diabolic plan, I think, is to be ambiguous; to actually have a complete satisfying solution on each turn of the spiral. The thetic solution works on the surface text level (e.g. the characters are who they appear to be in the ‘real’ world of New Wye, Jack Grey killed Shade thinking he was Judge Goldsworth, the Shades have a happy harmonious marriage, Kinbote is the Great Beaver,etc.)
An antithetic level I am suggesting is that the Shade marriage is not all it seems, Sybil is seeking revenge for John’s affaires and makes a deal with Kinbote: He enlists Jack Grey (who he has seen in Goldsworth’s album) to kill Shade and she gives him the right to the manuscript. She then flees the country while leaving Kinbote “holding the bag”. The detonation that caused “so many fish” to float up surely has to have more reasons for Kinbote to be hiding out beyond just safe-guarding the manuscript.
The synthetic level I am suggesting goes beyond a detective mystery to the Great Mystery – the mystery that John Shade has been seeking. All the hidden references to occultism, the writers and poets all involved in types of occultism and the poems referenced reflect this. This is why I bring in Carl Jung’s theories. He also was involved and interested in the occult and especially alchemy, which is pervasive in Pale Fire. Alchemy’s foremost myth is the story of Atalanta and the meaning of “sacred marriage” and the union of opposites. Ovid titled the myth “The Marriage of Art and Nature”. Ultimately, in my thesis, looking at the Shade marriage leads to the conclusion that there has NOT been a successful union; it is an alchemic failure.
In the end, there is no real transcendence, which is why Kinbote is left a “solus rex”.
So, that’s the short version. I am continuing to amass evidence for this solution/conclusion. See my latest post on the Queen of Spades.
Mary, there is no evidence…
Mary, there is no evidence of "John's affaires" in the novel, notwithstanding the blonde in the leotard whom other faculty members have also admired. Kinbote has spied on the Shades regularly and has witnessed no sign of marital disharmony. To involve him in a murder plot with Sybil, whom he detests and vice-versa, is a bit much. VN is an eminently rational writer who presents worlds of unreason, to be sure, but his gamesmanship, like chess, is grounded in rules. A man who has spent a considerable portion of his life in scientific study can surely recognize and appreciate beauty, but he must also be able to stick a pin into it.
Sam, thanks for responding…
Sam, thanks for responding. I really appreciate having some discussion. I understand that I don't have all the evidence that I'm amassing out there yet, so it may sound outrageous to implicate Sybil. I agree with you that VN would not write without rules to the game. I believe he has given us the rules when he states that it is a game between author and reader and that there are "thetic" levels and deceits and "specious lines of play", etc. He lets us know via the "pheasant's feet" and other references to Sherlock Holmes that this is a mystery novel, "most elegantly solved"; we are to "find what the sailor has hidden", etc. He also mentions "fairy chess" where moves can take place off the board.
He was not above breaking the rules just a bit, either.
“…in matters of construction I tried to conform, whenever possible, to classical rules, …I was always ready to sacrifice purity of form to the exigencies of fantastic content, causing form to bulge and burst like a sponge-bag containing a small furious devil” (VN, Speak Memory, P.289)
As for the possible "affaire", why would VN even hint at this, unless it was a necessary element? Why DO the other profs tease Shade? Why did John and Sybil leave post haste when the girl showed up to Kinbote's dinner party?
All that is there to see and make inferences from on the plot level. There are many other between-the-lines indications on the plot level that all may not be right with the Shade marriage, which I can't get into right now.
Then, on other thematic rather than plot levels, such as alchemy and alchemy's emphasis on "sacred marriage", and other hidden levels of astrology and Tarot, Cartomancy (Queen of Spades, particularly) that all point to conflict between the masculine and feminine principles. I also contend that Carl Jung's theories of conflict and resolution with the contra-sex archetypes, anima and animus, reveals much in the way of a solution that ultimately can encompass the various thematic and plot levels.
I think the most clever "conjuring" trick (keeping attention on what only the right hand is doing) that VN has accomplished is to make the readers feel that because they can think they see through Kinbote, that they can therefore see the real Shades.