NPPF Comm2: Often -- some notes

[Jasper Fidget]

pg.96
"sometimes, armed with the judge's shotgun, I dared beard the terrors on the
terrace."

Kinbote replaces the more common "face" with "beard."  He wears a beard of
course, but it's not just a pun.  OED says the verb form of "beard" can mean
figuratively to "oppose openly, defy; attack audaciously," and as in such
phrases as "beard the lion in his den," to "attack someone on his or her own
ground or subject."  Thus it's a somewhat stronger version of "face," which
OED defines as to "confront, look at or towards."

Also, a mid 20th century US slang form of the word "beard" is: "A person who
completes a bet or other transaction on behalf of another in order to
conceal the identity of the principal; a front man."  In a sense then
Kinbote could be a kind of beard for Botkin.  Another US slang form for
"beard" is "A woman who accompanies a homosexual man as an escort to a
social occasion, in order to help him conceal his homosexuality."  This
one's from the late 20th century though, so probably didn't exist at the
time.

pg 97
"back to Zembla, Rodnaya Zembla, to face there a dazzling decanter and a row
of judges exulting in their inquisitorial chairs?"

This makes me think of Kafka -- I forget if it's been mentioned but
Kinbote's name starts with the letter 'K' (you didn't know that did you?) as
do those of the central characters in Kafka's novels.

pg 97
"At times I thought that only by self-destruction could I hope to cheat the
relentlessly advancing assassins who were in me, in my eardrums, in my
pulse, in my skull, rather than on that constant highway looping up over me
and around my heart"

I could be wrong but I think this is K's first allusion to suicide.  He says
that the assassins were *in* him, in his skull -- he is to be his own
assassin.  Also the image of the highway is interesting, as it passes over
him and around his heart but not through him, as the assassin's bullet
passes Kinbote and enters through John Shade's heart.

pg. 97 "Bob's return to Candida's or Dee's former bed."

Bob fits into the house alphabetically, as does Balthasar, Prince of Loam.
Do we ever get the gardener's real name?

Jasper