[Simon Rowberry sends the following.  -- SES]

 

Kerri Pierce said:
'I believe you also have to look at the function the missing last line fulfills in the novel as a whole.
Namely, it allows Kinbote a "way in."'

Doesn't the commentary as a whole, misrepresenting the poem, allow Kinbote a "way in", rather than
his suggestion of a final line?

Surely an interesting question here is why did Kinbote not insert this variant onto the end of the
poem if he truly thought it was Shade's conclusion? We have seen earlier in the novel, in the note to
lines 403-404, that Kinbote has edited parts of the poem, by his admission: 'I have italicized the
Hazel theme'. Does this not suggest that he has taken editorial liberties at other points too?

As far as Shade's intentions for conclusions, the couplet, 'Man's life as commentary to
abstruse/Unfinished poem. Note for further use' and the mention of 999 as a friend in Shade's poem
'The Nature of Electricity' suggest that, as some people have argued, the poem is intentionally left
incomplete.

Best,
Simon