NPPF - preliminary

[The Great Quail]

MalignD writes,

> 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.   

My "Everyman's Library" edition of "Pale Fire" contains an introduction by
Richard Rorty. Most of this introduction is spent comparing "Lolita" and
"Pale Fire" -- Rorty makes some good points about Nabokov placing his
readers into a skewed POV, but I think he's utterly off base in finding any
sympathy with Kinbote. Rorty contends that Shade is essentially not very
engaging, and that the reader's interest really lies with Kinbote, even to
the point in sharing disappointment that Kinbote's tale of Zembla does not
appear in the final poem. I for one loathed Kinbote from the beginning, and
felt a lot of sympathy for Shade....unlike in "Lolita," where I really did
feel sympathy for the admittedly monstrous Humbert....

Anyway, you may wish to check out the essay....

--Quail