NPPF: Notes C.1-4 - C.42

[David Morris]

--- Jasper Fidget <jasper at hatguild.org> wrote:
> pg 73
> "a bird knocking itself out": Kinbote assumes the bird has not died, although
this is not stated explicitly in the poem.
> "We can visualize John Shade in his early boyhood": Kinbote assumes that
Shade is a boy when the event with the bird takes place, although -- again --
this is not explicit.

Kinbote's surmises above are contradictory.  First he says "knocked out."  But
then he envisions a young Shade experiencing his first "eschatalogical shock,"
which to my mind would mean a first awareness of death.   It is interesting
that Kinbote would assume the time frame of the slain waxwing to be Shade's
childhood, and there is some (but inconclusive) evidence for this take since
the poem -all Cantos together- have a roughly chronological development.  I
think a good question to tru to answer is WHEN was Shade "the shadow of the
waxwing slain?"

David Morris

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