NPPF Comm2: Parents, part 2

[Jasper Fidget]

> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of Don Corathers

> One that practically leaps off the page is the story of 
> Alfin's death by crashing an airplane into a building. It's a 
> perfect reflection (excuse me) of the action described in the 
> first two lines of "Pale Fire," and we know that Kinbote read 
> the poem before he wrote about the death of Alfin. (Since 
> Kinbote didn't read "Pale Fire" until after the murder, this 
> particular item should probably go into a sub-pile: 
> embellishments of the Charles II story that Kinbote made 
> after Shade's death. We know that Kinbote told at least part 
> of Alfin's biography to Shade because he relates, with a 
> whiff of a sense of betrayal, that Shade retold in the 
> faculty lounge the story of Alfin losing an emperor.)
> 
> Of course, if as some believe John Shade had a hand in 
> Kinbote's work, the account of Alfin's death resonates with 
> the poem in a different way.
> 
> In either case, it is significant that within three pages we 
> are given a connection between John Shade's father and the 
> waxwing (Bombycilla shadei), and reminded of the bird's fatal 
> smack into the glass, and then shown Charles Kinbote's father 
> crashing an airplane into the scaffolding around a new hotel, 
> his fist raised in triumph.
> 
> "that very last photograph (Christmas 1918)..." The 
> photograph would have been made only a few days before 
> Alfin's death. It contains yet another image of flight 
> ("little monoplane of chocolate") and also, oddly, the 
> likeness of the face that Kinbote/Charles, although he 
> describes the rest of the picture as if he is holding it in 
> his hand, is "unable to recall."
>

This is certainly one of those curious connections (one of the twists in the
mobius strip) between poem and commentary.  If the inspiration for Alfin's
death story is the opening of the poem (which seems valid), then Kinbote
could not have related it to Shade prior to reading "Pale Fire."  Similarly
Shade's inability to "evoke" his parents seems an inspiration for Alfin's
cognomen "the Vague," but then how is it that Shade is able to relate the
emperor story which derives from Alfin's absentmindedness?  Since it seems
reasonable to believe in Kinbote's disappointment at the poem's lack of
Zemblan references (and thus that he did indeed relate those stories to
Shade), the implication is that there are two sets of Zembla narratives: one
before Shade's death, and another after.  If so, it demonstrates an effort
on Kinbote's part to adapt his story to Shade's poem after finding out that
Shade did not adapt his poem to Kinbote's story.

This passage is also a connection between two of the narrative piles (or
columns?), where "a very special monoplane" (p 103) in the Zembla pile has a
similarity to "motor-powered model plane" in the New Wye section ending
C.47-48 (p 93).  Kinbote calls Alfin's monoplane his "bird of doom"
(reminding me of the Butterfly of Doom), while the model plane causes him to
beg "Dear Jesus, do something."

It also adds to the artificial vs natural contrast between Kinbote and
Shade: Kinbote's mechanical bird vs. Shade's natural one.

The index states that Alfin was "at one time" interested in "sea shells,"
which makes me think of Conchologists on p 75.

Kinbote ascribes vagueness to at least two other characters: "[Sylvia
O'Donnell] had in common with Fleur de Fyler a vagueness of manner" (p 248).



Jasper