There were many mistakes in my " Birthdates and
calendars" posting and I wish to bring up a few of them although I run
the risk of making it get even worse:
1.Kinbote didn't describe himself as the moon
"circling" the sun when he wrote "caught myself
borrowing a kind of opalescent light from my poet's fiery
orb."
Although he concretely orbited the poet's house
( he banged against garbage cans once), at night his movements
quite often were restricted to the windows which he could
use, or watch. Besides, the radiance of the
moon is not a direct result of the fiery sun, is it?
2. The sentence "against the pale ink of the zenith, mentioned at
nightfall, suggests that at that moment imaginary Gradus might have seen
"something pale" marking that
imaginary place.
Kinbote informed us about the exact day,
month and year, also Gradus' location. It might not be too difficult to
discover if it could have
been the moon.
If not the moon, what could it
be?
3.Seeing Kinbote as "a moon" ( and a lunatic to
boot) when the entire book, and Shade's poem in particular, are "Pale Fire", was
incorrect.
We also read about day and night [there's even
Dr.
Nattochdag, head of the department to which CK "was
attached"; "Nattochdag
(whom I saw every day in his office)"; "good
old Nattochdag (whom I continued to see every day)"; that distinguished Zemblan scholar Oscar
Nattochdag"],
and the movements of the sun over windows and gardens.
Might Nabokov have somehow indicated his authorial
place ( at the zenith?) by a peculiar geometrical arrangement of sun,
moon and orbiting planet?