NPPF&VLVL2 Preliminaries: The Epigraphs

[jbor]

on 11/7/03 12:20 AM, Burns, Erik wrote:

> My inner Kinbote prompts me to note that the Epigraph of _Pale Fire_ is
> about a cat having his day.

Aha! Haha. Indeed it is. Early on Jasper asked of the _Pale Fire_ epigraph
from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson: "but if we are to make substitutions,
then which (or who) is Johnson's favorite cat? And why?"

I'd say that the relationship between Nabokov's epigraph and his novel is
more oblique than that between Pynchon's and _Vineland_. For me, Zoyd is the
"dog" ("dogg", "dirty dog", "you dog/old dog" etc) who had his day in the
sun in the 60s when he squired Frenesi and fathered Prairie, and then had
his second "day" in 1984 when he managed to keep things all together in the
face of seemingly insurmountable (and absurdly bizarre and comical)
obstacles which are the main substance of the narrative. With _Pale Fire_ I
get the sense that the satiric connection is between Kinbote (as Boswell)
and Shade (as Johnson), but the specific content of the anecdote doesn't
correlate with the narrative in the same way that the modified proverb or
cliché does in _Vineland_. (In other words, no cat.)

Another difference is in the sources of the epigraphs: I doubt that Nabokov
would ever have considered using a near-contemporary song lyric as a motto,
though there is evidence of that characteristic postmodern splicing together
of artefacts taken from High and low cultures in his work as in, to a far
greater degree, Pynchon's. On the other hand, Pynchon's epigraph stands in a
much less ironic relationship to the narrative which proceeds than Nabokov's
does. (The four section mottos from _GR_ -- a couple of them at least -- are
closer to Nabokov's epigraph in this respect I guess.) All in all, I think
Nabokov's choice of this particular quote is meant to poke fun at Boswell
*and* Johnson, their relationship, their pretensions, the text generated
therefrom and so forth, *as well as* at Kinbote *and* Shade and theirs.

best


This reminds me of the ludicrous account he
gave Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a
young gentleman of good family. 'Sir, when I
heard of him last, he was running about town
shooting cats.' And then in a sort of kindly
reverie, he bethought himself of his own
favourite cat, and said, 'But Hodge shan't be
shot: no, no, Hodge shall not be shot.'"
 
-- James Boswell, the _Life of Samuel Johnson_

Every dog has his day,
and a good dog
   just might have two days.
      
      -- Johnny Copeland