NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part three)
Jasper Fidget
jasper at hatguild.org
Fri Aug 22 13:57:19 CDT 2003
pg 89
This passage expands on the theme of spying on Shade, giving various
conditions and the manner in which Kinbote sees him: at night as a
reflection from a mirror, "in the forenoon, lurking in the ruptured
shadows", "on a hot day, among the vines of a small arborlike portico"
culminating in "[Shade's] plump cherubic fist propping and crimpling his
temple." One gets the sense this is Kinbote's religious triptych of John
Shade -- he can "distinguish the expression of passionate interest, rapture
and reverence" on the poet (echoing the description of the Zemblan
minister), and is certain that "at *that* moment Our Lord was with him."
pg 90
On a "hot, black, blustery night," Kinbote invades the rear of Shade's house
and "experiences a queer sense of relief" (keep your jokes to yourself) when
he finds it dark there -- again implying that he knows the wrongness of his
behavior. Then he spots "a faint square of light under the window", the
word square implying chess again, and that the position of the board has
changed with this foray: Kinbote's "black, blustery [k]night" attacking the
white king and queen on their side of the board. Positioned in a "box
hedge" (box = square, hedge as in "hedge knight"), Kinbote knocks over a
garbage can lid, prompting Sybil to close the window (the white queen moves
between the black knight and the white king). Kinbote retreats back to his
"cheerless domicile with a heavy heart and a puzzled mind" (90) (he's seen
Shade reading Canto Two to Sybil but doesn't realize it). If this is a
chess-problem (a puzzle), one gets the sense of Kinbote as the player trying
to devise a strategy for his black pieces to mate the white king
(literally!).
He's seen the solution but doesn't recognize it until: "the puzzle was
solved a few days later"; Kinbote returns to the rear of the house (at dusk)
and this time finds the door ajar. It's interesting that Kinbote's
intrusion to the rear of the Shades' house seems easier this time, almost
casual, as if he's getting used to it.
K demonstrates his misogyny by describing Sybil's response to the poem as
having "so rapt a look on her face that one might have supposed she had just
thought up a new recipe." Shade cannot restrain a rare expression of
annoyance with Kinbote, uttering "an unprintable oath" (90).
pg 90
"Sybil hated the wind"
Just an odd interesting detail -- I don't really know what to make of it.
pg 90
"St. Swithin's Day"
July 15th. St. Swithin was the Bishop of Winchester (died 862), a counselor
to Egbert, King of the West Saxons (d. 839), and tutor of Egbert's son
Ethelwulf. By his request he was buried outside the north wall of his
cathedral so that passers-by could walk over his grave and rain could fall
on it. A century later, his body was moved inside the cathedral and, legend
has it, a great storm ensued, signaling the saint's displeasure and linking
him to the weather. A superstition grew around his day that if it rained,
then 40 days of perfect weather would follow, if not then 40 days of rain
would come:
St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14357c.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/weather/st_swithins_day_2.shtml
pg 90
"/promnad vespert mid J.S./" Zemblan for "evening walk with J.S." (I took it
in High School).
pg 92
"the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero"
A fictitious fraternity? See pg 27 for K's recollection of the photograph
of Shade and Kinbote at Prof C's house looking out over this lake and on
into eternity. Omega summons the biblical passage concerning Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end -- God and transcendence of the infinite,
and time. "Ozero" is Russian for lake, so we have a volume of time and of
space bordering a lake: omega, the end, and zero, the nothing; thus
suggesting the obvious Hazel connections.
"Indian names garbled"
Native American folklore describes the creation of New York's Finger Lakes
as the handprint of a god on the land. There are 11 Finger Lakes (borders,
bookends again): Conesus Lake, Hemlock Lake, Canadice Lake, Honeoye Lake,
Canandaigua Lake, Keuka Lake, Seneca Lake, Cayuga Lake, Oswasco Lake,
Skaneateles Lake, and Otisco Lake.
http://www.ohwy.com/ny/f/fingerla.htm
pg 92-93
The final passage in this note is probably my favorite from the book.
Kinbote describes the setting as if gliding through it, reaching into
hyperbole: "Here are the great mansions of madness, the impeccably planned
dormitories", "the magnificent palace of Administration", "the prisonlike
edifice containing our classrooms and offices"; he passes through the
university along the avenue of Shakespeare trees -- then an odd disorienting
intrusion: "a distant droning sound" -- then on through "a hint of a haze,
the turquoise dome of the Observatory" which pushes him upward through
"wisps and pale plumes of cirrus," then back down to the sports facilities,
"the poplar-curtained Roman-tiered football field, deserted on summer days
[like this one] except for a dreamy-eyed youngster flying" -- then another
hyphenated intrusion: "on a long control line, in a droning circle" -- to an
unexpected final phrase: "a motor-powered model plane" and the note's last
paragraph: "Dear Jesus, do something."
How to explain Kinbote's final reaction to this passage? His father -- or
at least Charles' father -- King Alfin dies in a plane crash (pg 104), but
I'm inclined to think that detail is inspired by this scene (and indeed on
pg 126 there's a Zembla version of this passage). It seems more likely that
Kinbote has interiorized the sensation of that tethered model plane trapped
in that endless vicious circle. The prose prior to its mention has much the
feel of an airplane looping about and above the university, around the
buildings, along the tree lines, up toward the sky and back toward the
ground, almost as if searching for something unknown or unknowable, its
early allusion ("a distant droning sound") a premonition of what it will
find and a vague self-awareness (Kinbote aware of his deviant behavior but
unable to stop it), finally discovering only itself "on a long control line
in a droning circle" -- realizing then and too late that the search was an
illusion of volition, and that the real goal should have been escape. "Dear
Jesus, do something": somebody save me.
--Jasper Fidget++
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