NPPF - Preliminary - Pale Fire

[cfalbert]

Be careful here........one of the sillier tacks taken in Nabokovian analysis
is one where critics ask "Did N. intend for Shade to be a "worse" poet than
the author?" My question is, could N. make Shade a better poet than himself?

It may be that PF is a "great poem" in parts, and less so in others.....It
is hard to argue that those first few lines aren't a remarkable
achievement........not only is the metaphor singularly fecund (PI), but it
scans exquisitely......(Boyd, at one point, suggests that these lines
constitute a substantial contribution to the art)

It does appear at times to respectfully "mimic" the English Romanticists,
and at others, almost lampoon Frost........

keep those pheasant tracks in mind at all times.....

love,
cfa


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper at hatguild.org>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 12:37 PM
Subject: RE: NPPF - Preliminary - Pale Fire


> 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
>
>