NPPF - preliminary

[MalignD at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/7/03 4:51:02 PM, Erik.Burns at dowjones.com writes:


> <<worth remembering throughout this that _Pale Fire_ was heavily influenced 
> by VN's sudden burst of fame & notoriety after _Lolita_>>
> 
There are some interesting things in your post, but I find things to 
question, one being what do you mean by "influence"?   Pale Fire followed Lolita and 
Nabokov is playful in referring to Lolita in Pale Fire (and I never noticed the 
Haze, L connection, although I feel certain VN did), but I can't quite see 
the "influence" in the relationship between the two books.   

<<in _Lolita_ it's Humbert Humbert chasing Quilty because of Lolita; in _Pale 
Fire_ it's Gradus chasing Kinbote because of Shade (or Kinbote chasing Shade 
because of Gradus - these being almost interchangeable and confused because of 
poor Kinbote's confusion).>>

This seems to me simply wrong; in any case it doesn't easily scan.   It's 
difficult to see Gradus as other than a figment of Kinbote's imaginings.   Jack 
Grey, who kills Shade, has nothing to do with either Kinbote or Shade (prior to 
killing Shade, of course); he mistakes Shade for Judge Goldsworth and kills 
him out of that mistake.
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