Fw: Pale Fire and D.F.Wallace's novel (fwd)

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

Dkipen at aol.com writes:
> One correlation between Infinite Jest and Pale Fire comes to mind: Their
> titles are both quotations from the same play.

Err, . . . not quite. Pale Fire comes from Timon of Athens, Infinite
Jest from Hamlet.  However, the original poster would have done better
to look to the source in Timon of Athens for the relation of Shade to
Kinbote. From memory (no not the Zemblan translation but the original)
`The moon's a thief for her pale fire she steals from the sun . . . '
The contrast is between the direct light of the sun and the pale fire
of of the moon's stolen, reflected light. The question is which one of
the two, Shade or Kinbite, is the sun-king and which one is trying to
steal the king's light to obtain some reflected glory. In most
respects Kinbote must be viewed as the thief but in a sense Shade is
stealing Kinbote's fire too. There are lots of ramifications not the
least of which is how this dichotomy reflects the schism (raskol?)
which divided Nabokov's Russian and American lives. Which were the
glory years in the sun and which the shadow years lived in pale
imitation of the other's splendour. America's brightness and youth,
it's sassy Lolita luxury, appears pretty sunny but when confronted
with Nabokov's nostalgia for the pre-Soviet empire it looks like a
cheap and tawdry imitation of a cultured civilization. It's not pale
as opposed to fire, it's a `yellow disc about the size of a guinea
piece' as opposed to `Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty'.

And to inject a little Pynchon into things (not seen too much lately
on the list) I'd be interested to know what thoughts people have re
the presence of the Sun and Moon (or their respective deities Selena
and Apollo) in GR. Perhaps M&D's astronomical observations also bear
on these deities?


Andrew Dinn
-----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.