from Alexey Sklyarenko:
I read with great interest Matt Roth &
Tiffany DeRewal's article in NOJ. Although I'm not a Pale Fire
specialist, the article seems to me a major event in the Pale Fire
scholarship, being a kind of synthesis of Carolyn Kunin's
multiple personality and Brian Boyd's Shadean theories. But just
like the authors call Pale Fire "a near-perfect
work of art", their article can be called "a near-flawless piece of
criticism". I have permitted myself to point out a few minor errors
that don't undermine the authors' theory and that could have been
easily avoided.
Prince Vseslav of Polotsk (the alternative
transliteration "Polock" is incorrect) and Volkh (not "Volx"!) Vseslavovich are
two different men. While the former, Prince Vseslav Brechislavovich, is a real
person, the Kievan prince who lived in the XIth century and who is
mentioned in Slovo o polku Igoreve, the latter, Volkh (this
name comes not from volk, "wolf", but from volkhv,
"magician, sourcerer") Vseslav'evich, is a hero of Russian folklore, son of
Marfa Vseslav'evna by a snake. You can see here the bylina (Russian
traditional heroic poem) about him included in Kirsha Danilov's
collection: http://feb-web.ru/feb/byliny/texts/bpu/bpu-089-.htm (in
Russian). It is probably irrelevant, but Kirsha = sharik ("little sphere")*
= riksha ("rickshaw")
One might be tempted to hear New Eye in
New Wye, the Appalachian town in Pale Fire (1962), but The
Eye, the English version of Nabokov's Soglyadatay (1930),
appeared only in 1965. Until then Nabokov hardly knew what new
title he will give to his old Russian novella.
The authors of the article speak a lot of The
Eye and Despair but don't even mention Solus Rex,
Nabokov's last Russian novel that was to remain unfinished (its two
chapters, Solus Rex and Ultima Thule were published
as separate stories in 1940 and 1942, respectively). It is
much closer to Pale Fire than any other work by Nabokov. The
artist Sineusov,** the hero of Ultima Thule, and K. (the king
in chess notation), the hero of Solus Rex (which is set in a distant
northern island), seem to be one and the same person. K.'s first cousin, Prince
Adulf, the only son of King Gafon and heir to the throne who is to be
assassinated by extremists, is eclectic in his sexual tastes. Adam Falter, a
character in Ultima Thule, is a medium, like Hazel Shade in
Pale Fire. There are many more parallels.
These comments will do for now.
*Sharik is the name of the dog that is
surgically transformed into a human being in Bulgakov's
story Sobach'e serdtse ("The Dog's Heart", 1926). Whether VN knew
this story (it was first published only in the 1980s, but the author had read it
in Moscow to a number of fellow writers, some of whom, like
Zamyatin, might later emigrate) is a tantalizing
question.
**The name Sineusov hints at Sineus, the
legendary Varangian prince who is said to have come to Russia with Ryurik.
Whether Sineus comes from siniy us (Russian from "blue moustache hair")
or sine hus (corrupted old-Swedish for "his kin") is a different
question.