NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part two)

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 12:36 AM
Subject: Re: NPPF: Notes C.47-48 (part two)


> on 23/8/03 4:56 AM, Jasper Fidget wrote:
>
> > "I have no desire to twist and batter an unambiguous /apparatus
> > criticus/ into the monstrous semblance of a novel."
> >
> > apparatus criticus: "A collection of material, as variant readings and
> > other palaeographical and critical matter, for the textual study of a
> > document." (OED)
> >
> > VN seems to be commenting on his current project itself through the
> > irony of Kinbote's assertion.
>
> I agree. And the bit just before this is interesting too, Kinbote noting
> how Shade "did not bring up ... ridiculous stories about the terrifying
> shadows that Judge Goldsworth's gown threw across the underworld,
> or about this or that beast lying in prison and positively dying of
> *raghdirst* (thirst for revenge) -- crass banalities circulated by the
> scurrilous and the heartless
> -- by all those for whom romance, remoteness, sealskin-lined scarlet
> skies, the darkening dunes of a fabulous kingdom, simply do not exist."
>
> Kinbote here seems to be responding to the suggestion that it was Jack
> Grey seeking revenge on Judge Goldsmith who was Shade's slayer,
> suggestions which would refute his own tale of Jakob Gradus,
> would-be assassin tracking down the Zemblan king.
> While it demonstrates an awareness on Kinbote's part of
> alternative explanations to the one he's pitching in the Commentary
> (and the
> fact that these explanations have been made), and a defensive attitude
> towards same, it also reveals Kinbote's absolute self-centredness. He
> displays no concern for the fact that Shade was murdered (by whoever),
> only
> that Shade ("my sweet old friend") was being thoughtful towards him,
> Kinbote, in never mentioning the stories about those criminals who had
> been
> sentenced by Judge Goldsworth, such as Jack Grey, who were out for
> revenge.
> But there's also a flaw in Kinbote's logic, because Shade not bringing up
> those particular stories couldn't have been out of consideration for
> Kinbote, because the plot to kill someone (whether it was Grey's or
> Gradus's) was not revealed until *after* Shade was shot.
>

I pretty much agree to the above. Kinbote is unreliable, inconsistent and
his logic has flaws. He's a storyteller of an old-fashioned style claiming
to tell the truth, but passed by modern literature (_Ulysses_) that has made
the *ordinary* man to be the hero which once only kings or princes (or
disguised princes and kings, _Oedipus Rex_) could be.

> There is, I think, also a touch of Nabokov the imaginative artist, Nabokov
> the exile from pre-Revolutionary Russia, in this wistful précis of "a
> fabulous kingdom" lost.
>
> best
>

Yes, but in this he's mocking himself a little bit, knowing that in
pre-Revolutionary Russia the poor weren't getting a little bit richer
and the rich weren't getting a little bit poorer like in that fairytale
he calls Kinbote's Law (Notes to Line 12).

Otto