NPPF - Preliminary - Pale Fire

[Jasper Fidget]

So lyrically I guess it's a strong poem then?  But is "Pale Fire" a *good*
poem?  Does it really merit a book-length commentary and index?  Is John
Shade a *good* poet, or is he, as Kernan writes, "the belated writer who has
no authentic voice of his own but merely echoes earlier stronger writers"?
(Alvin B. Kernan, "Reading Zemblan: The Audience Disappears in _Pale
Fire_").

akaJasperFidget

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elainemmbell at aol.com [mailto:Elainemmbell at aol.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 11:03 AM
> To: jasper at hatguild.org; pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: NPPF - Preliminary - Pale Fire
> 
> In a message dated 7/7/2003 9:47:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jasper at hatguild.org writes:
> 
> 
> 
> 	(someone with better poetry voodoo might explain their purpose,
> although I
> 	recall being told it has to do with attempting to guide or ease the
> reader's
> 	eye through transitions)
> 
> 
> 
> Punctuation and indentation decisions in poetry do function as Jasper
> suggests but also provide the musical timing and cadence of the work.  For
> instance, in Canto One, lines 22-24:
> 
> "Reading from left to right in winter's code:
> A dot, an arrow pointing back; repeat:
> Dot, arrow pointing back...A pheasant's feet!"
> 
> You can "hear" the stop at :, the quarter-stop at , and the half-stop at:
> followed by the rhythmic stop at the second:  then the actual repeat picks
> up the implied rhythm only to trip into the kind of trill implied by the
> ellipsis rounding up to the double stop at the final !
> 
> Whereas in lines 245-246 of Canto Two use the indentation rhythm to make
> the line "Lafontaine was wrong:" the equivalent in beats as the apparently
> longer next line:
> "Dead is the mandible, alive the song."  The combination of a long opening
> indent plus a colon stop stretches the line with fewer syllables into the
> same time signature as the longer line.
> 
> In my conjure woman's humble interpretation, that is.
> Elaine M.M. Bell, Writer
> (860) 523-9225