Mr. Friedman,
Your note had no salutation, but the subject line names me, and I believe I alone recently called Kinbote a fundamentalist Christian, so I will respond to your points one by one ...
True, fundamentalists aren’t casual about homosexuality. Because the bible is considered the single demonstration of the voice of God, and the bible seems to speak out against homosexuality, the fundamentalist at worship is obliged to denounce homosexuality. So they engage in other games, practices and punishments that well educated or, at least, very perceptive persons can see at a glance are so saturated with homosexuality, that the Sunday school superintendent, the pastor, or head deacon is always very surprised when they are at last confronted, sometimes by the police.
I will describe further along why I do not think fundamentalists spend time studying the Bible (nor official doctrine and devotions, since I’m thinking of "fundamentalist Catholics"). In a religious argument, fundamentalists, Protestant and Catholic alike rely much less on the Bible as proof than they do on what the priest or pastor of their church has hollered at them. In difficult situations, they do not turn to the Bible as much as they do prayer. The modern prayer liturgy goes something like this: “Holy God! Get me out of this situation and I swear to Christ I’ll never do a damn thing wrong again as long as I live! Kinbote’s four-word prayer is of the distinctly modern type. Fundamentalists do tend to "give God the glory," and not infrequently give God a good chunk of the money, as well, by tithing (10%). The church, however, is not over burdened with taxes in America, and I think, in making out your tax returns, a good CPA can help you make those church contributions work pretty hard for you. A win-win situation.
In my direct experience, and in my reading, fundamentalists when caught out of bounds rarely if ever reproach themselves. They will, however, genuinely forgive and pray for those who persecuteth them.
I was not thinking of fundamentalist Catholics. Too little of their teachings come from the Bible for them to be “fundamentalist” in my eyes. I was thinking of post-apocalyptic Protestant fundamentalist evangelicals. But I can briefly tell you one anecdote about a repressed Catholic fundamentalist, told me by a good friend. When my friend was a boy of about thirteen, he and a male friend were invited to stay overnight at the rustic cottage of one of their church's priests. On the drive to the rural cabin, the priest brought out some gay pornography from the glove box which he handed it out to the boys. The priest said the photos were a demonstration of the exuberant celebration young men were entitled to do as male children of God.
At the cottage, the priest suggested swimming. As the boys changed into their swim suits in a ramshackle bathhouse, the priest knocked the door open and said he wanted the boys to swim naked. The priest, naked, and not a pretty sight, claimed this was the way God intended boys to swim. One of the boys went in the water without a suit; my friend wore his swimsuit regardless of the priest, of whom he was growing suspicious.
In the water, the priest roughly manhandled the naked boy, all in good, manly horseplay, as God intended, etcetera. My friend kept his distance until the priest came to engage him in the sport, as well. My friend, whose Detroit police officer father had always told his tough son not to let any man touch him, kicked the priest in his unclothed crotch.
That night the boys told the priest that they wanted to sleep outside in a tent (a self-protective gambit the boys had decided on as soon as the swimming was over). Late that night, the boys heard the priest crashing around in the undergrowth nearby, drunkenly muttering about the boys’ “ingratitude” and sinfulness in disobeying a priest. Shortly after the weekend visit was over, my friend quit attending mass, but was ashamed to to tell his parents why.
Years later, when many Catholic diocese were under investigation for child abuse and child molestation, my friend ran into his old priest. My friend confronted him about the summer weekend. The priest angrily denied all, and again attacked my friend’s ingratitude for the lesson I manliness the priest had tried to instill.
At the urging of a police officer, my friend wrote and submitted to his archdiocese a full description of what he had undergone. The priest was shortly afterward removed to the parish of a distant state. There was no talk of censure or even of rehabilitation of the priest. He was simply removed to a different parish where he fulfilled the same duties as before as recreation director for the parish boys.
Most of the evangelicals I have met personally, almost all Protestant, have not read, or are able to intelligently discuss very much at all of the bible. And I do not say this as a bible scholar, merely as a reader. I would say that Catholic priests are the most limited in this regard, often denying the fact (for example), clearly stated in the Gospels and the book of Acts, that Jesus had younger brothers, thus defeating the chief notion of Mariolatry: that the virgin Mary gave birth only to the Savior, and had no knowledge of sex, in that venture or any other. Among Christ’s younger brothers were Josephus, Jesse, and Judas (not of Iscariot).
There are some very fundamentalist high-church Anglicans, but their views, in my experience, are those of highly evolved American semi-Catholics who have come full circle back to the type of people in England who the original pilgrims, who had come to America to leave all the high church fripperies, sinful imagery, and decadent arts behind. In conversation I’ve found Anglicans to be more in touch with C.S. Lewis than with the Bible.
Kinbote’s Zemblan religious practices, particularly his acolyte memories, bear no resemblance to any Christian service I’ve ever seen. VN never claimed to be Christian, and I do not think he heavily researched any Protestant or Catholic religious practices in order to make Charles Kinbote into a “real” one. There would be no place for such a character in Pale Fire.
The young priest episode is on page 88 of my Vintage International paperback of Pale Fire, and is toward the end of the long commentary note to lines 47-48. It begins thus: “Once, decades ago, in my tender and terrible boyhood, I had the occasion of seeing a man in the act of making contact with God.” I do not believe this priest is a New Wye citizen, but the subject of one of Charles Kinbote’s Zemblan childhood memories. Assuming Kinbote had an actual past that was not the creation of another mind.
Kinbote’s Christianity is not conventional, but is a fancy invention based on the hope of a forgiving Christ and a monarch-loving God. I don’t believe Shade is a Christian of any stripe, but is quite possibly a ghost, hovering over the places where his corporeal life was passed, frightened, pained, and fascinated by the idea of death, and still uncertain of how to get on a proper footing in eternity. In the end, Shade’s soul flies free, in defiance of the old expression of a ghost, a shade, being “laid” as in “laid to rest.”
This fearsomely lengthy note comes to you courtesy of the Insomniacs Positive Hope association.
Your servant, sir,
Andrew S. Brown
On 9/7/06 10:16 PM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] A.S. Brown on Kinbote's Christianity
Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2006 14:57:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com> <mailto:jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> <mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
I'm struck by your attribution of fundamentalism to Kinbote, just
as I was by Carolyn's attribution of zealotry. As I understand it,
fundamentalists aren't casual about homosexuality--if they can't
help engaging in it, they try to justify it religiously or reproach
themselves afterwards. They spend time studying the Bible (and
official doctrine and devotions, if you're thinking of
"fundamentalist Catholics"), and in a religious argument, they rely
on it as proof. In difficult situations, they turn to the Bible or
to prayer. (Kinbote gives us one four-word prayer.) They "give
God the glory" when talking about their accomplishments, at least
when they remember to.
Explicitly, "our Zemblan brand of Protestantism is rather closely
related to some of the 'higher' churches of the Anglican
communion" (n. 549). I think high-church Anglicans are far from
fundamentalists.
Kinbote does attend two services one Sunday and does mention his
Christianity several times, but I wouldn't even call him devout,
much less a zealot or a fundamentalist.
I'm not sure what you mean by identifying the young priest. Are
you thinking he's some New Wye character transformed in Kinbote's
delusion?
My main feeling on Kinbote's Christianity is that it's conventional
and contrasts with Shade's superior and original understanding of
the supernatural and the afterlife (whether he's going to heaven or
not). But no doubt I'm missing a lot in the details. (A friend of
mine has the maiden name Rodstein--probably just a coincidence.)
No other Christianity is mentioned in the book, right? (Except the
Pope.)
Jerry Friedman
Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html>
Contact the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Visit Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>