Ada (was: Uchronias.)

[David Morris]

Turning the Pynchon list into the Nabokov list:

--- William Zantzinger <williamzantzinger at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> --- Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Spoiler alert?  Well, I read it as a sort of alternate history, or, perhaps
more precisely, alternate historical (allohistorical) fantasy (flying carpets
et al.), where Russia colonized North America rather than, well, everybody
else.  Something like that ...

Well that wasn't a spoiler because it's clear early on that America and Russia
are one, and it's set in a time called post "The Great Reaction" (presumably
reaction to a previous era when technology got out of hand and was thus
suppressed), and I think the flying carpets are actually supposed to be gliders
(but possibly were more that that previous to the Great Reaction).  But I
suspect this may all be "surface" with an underlying other reality, a mythical
place already alluded to, but not yet elaborated upon, as the "Terror of
Terra," a source of madness.  I see Terra as maybe being OUR reality, and the
entire memoir as being the imaginations of a schitzophrenic, but I'm way ahead
of the actual text with this surmise.  My suspisions are the result of learning
about the hidden "author" of *Pale Fire*.
 
>  there was some talk of pale fire. I tried to read that one again but that
book is torture. ada is pure pleasure. I recommend reading ada twice and
tossing pale fire in the fire.

>From what I've picked up on the web, Pale Fire is a very intricate puzzle with
a maybe indeterminate solution.  Kinbote may or may not exist.   Shade may or
may not be the author of the total book.  And I can't begin to list the
conundrums that spin off from there.  I dropped it my first time round (without
a clue that these puzzles lay inside) when the poetry section began (shallow
me), but I've been advised to skip or skim that part to get back to the
unfolding drama.  Those that have dug into it say it's intricacies are worth
the effort.

David Morris




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