An
off-List exchange with a friend (who works on an original idea concerning the
importance of Botkin ) stimulated me to investigate how many
ascertainable facts omniscient Kinbote inserted in his report about his
creature, Gradus, or "Jacques d’Argus — or Jack Grey,
for that matter (let us not forget Jack
Grey!)." *
We learn that a "formidable thunderstorm had greeted Gradus in
New York on the night of his arrival from
Paris (Monday,
July 20)." and that, on the next day, he "began with the day’s copy of The New York Times. His lips
moving like wrestling worms, he read about all kinds of things. Hrushchov (whom
they spelled "Khrushchev") had abruptly put off a visit to Scandinavia and was to visit Zembla instead (here I tune
in: "Vď nazďvaete sebya zemblerami, you call yourselves Zemblans, a ya vas
nazďvayu zemlyakami, and I call you fellow countrymen!" Laughter and applause).
The United
States was about to launch its first
atom-driven merchant ship (just to annoy the Ruskers, of course. J.G.). Last
night, in Newark, an apartment house at 555 South Street was
hit by a thunderbolt that smashed a TV set and injured two people watching an
actress lost in a violent studio storm (those tormented spirits are terrible!
C.X.K. teste J.S.). The Rachel Jewelry Company in Brooklyn advertised in agate type for a jewelry polisher
who "must have experience on costume jewelry" (oh, Degré had!). The Helman
brothers said they had assisted in the negotiations for the placement of a
sizable note: $11,000,000, Decker Glass Manufacturing Company, Inc., note due
July 1, 1979," and Gradus, grown young again, reread this twice, with the
background gray thought, perhaps, that he would be sixty-four four days after
that (no comment). On another bench he found a Monday issue of the same
newspaper. During a visit to a museum in Whitehorse (Gradus kicked at a pigeon
that came too near), the Queen of England walked to a corner of the White
Animals Room, removed her right glove and, with her back turned to several
evidently observant people, rubbed her forehead and one of her eyes. A pro-Red
revolt had erupted in Iraq. Asked about the Soviet
exhibition at the New York Coliseum, Carl Sandburg, a poet, replied, and I
quote: "They make their appeal on the highest of intellectual levels." A hack
reviewer of new books for tourists, reviewing his own tour through
Norway, said that the fjords were too
famous to need (his) description, and that all Scandinavians loved flowers. And
at a picnic for international children a Zemblan moppet cried to her Japanese
friend: Ufgut, ufgut, velkam ut Semblerland! (Adieu, adieu, till we meet in
Zembla!) I confess it has been a wonderful game — this looking up in the WUL of
various ephemerides over the shadow of a padded shoulder.Jacques d’Argus looked
for a twentieth time at his watch. He strolled like a pigeon with his hands
behind him. " (Pigeon-walking with "his hands
behind him" is a curious image that reminded me of Humbert's verses
in Lolita about squirrels, rabbits, ending with "The snake when he walks holds his hands in his
pockets...". A little before observing G's
movements, CK had him kick a pigeon ...)
Compare
with S.Bachner's references:
Wiscari, "Kruschchev Calls Off Plan for a Visit to
Scandinavia" New York Times, July
21,1959, A1
New
York Times July
20,1959; Prescott, "Books of the Times," The New York Times, July
20,1959,23. Also among the items that appear largely unchanged is a quote from
Carl Sandburg about the Soviet exhibition at the New York Coliseum and the
headline "Iraqi Red Revolt and Army Mutiny Erupt at Kirku," New York
Times, July 20, 1959,10.
"Thirty
Childen Join Picnic of Nations," New York Times, July 20, 1959, 12;
Upset Stomach Troubles Queen...
Kinbote's embelishments that insert Zembla into the
international landscape are easy to spot. VN's criticism of lack of
attention to detail, while describing a hack reviewer of books for tourists in
Norway, makes a "cameo appearance" (?)
........................................................................................................................................................
* I
relied on the information obtained on line, related
to Sally Bachner's book The Prestige of
Violence: American Fiction,1962-2007
University of Geoergia Press, Athens, Georgia 30602 2011. Sally
Bachner's first chapter is dedicated to Nabokov's Zembla ( Pale
Fire's Historical Violence). The information about the New York Times
comes from her notes to the Introduction.
Cf. The Prestige of Violence:
American Fiction, 1962-2007
books.google.com.br/books?isbn=0820338893