NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph

[jbor]

>>> And is it Nabokov's epigraph, or Kinbote's?
>> 
>> Well, it precedes the Index of Contents and Kinbote's Foreword, and it
>> occupies the same space in the text between the title page and these as
> does
>> Nabokov's dedication of the novel to Véra, so ...

on 11/7/03 2:39 PM, Don Corathers wrote:

> Well, yeah. But where does the fiction begin? The dedication is inarguably
> Nabokov's. The table of contents is both Nabokov's and Kinbote's: it
> describes both Pale Fire, A Novel by Vladimir Nabokov, and Pale Fire, A Poem
> in Four Cantos by John Slade, with commentary by Charles Kinbote. I think
> that leaves the epigraph in a kind of ambiguous middle ground.

Perhaps. I think that Nabokov clearly acknowledges his authorship of the
novel at the outset, and the dedication and epigraph are positioned in their
conventional spots, which is why I view them as the author's rather than his
character's. Further, I don't think the picture you present below quite
matches with what we come to know about Kinbote or his state of mind as he
takes flight, Shade's poem in hand, and composes his Foreword and Commentary
to it. And the specific quote he chooses, if indeed we assume Kinbote did
choose it, isn't particularly flattering to either Johnson or Boswell (nor
thus to himself or Shade), nor does it correlate much to the whole debacle
as he perceives or imagines it. For one thing, Kinbote believes himself to
be of equal or greater stature than Shade in the general scheme of things,
and would cast Shade as his own Boswell (or panegyrist), if but he could,
rather than vice versa. In fact, he overtly eschews the role of Shade's
biographer (eg. see "Commentary: Line 71").

All that said, it's a possibility of course, and worth considering. I just
think that it allows Kinbote greater self-awareness and a healthier sense of
humour than the rest of the novel would actually warrant.

NB also Kinbote's remarks about Judge Goldsworth's cat (see "Commentary:
Lines 47-48"). These don't relate to the Epigraph, nor do they betray a
consciousness of it, at all. The shooting of Shade, like Judge Goldsworth's
cat, resonates only very superficially with the novel's Epigraph imo.

best

> Which is interesting. It's a nice picture, Kinbote at the end of his
> literary labor having a scotch and choosing the epigraph, imagining himself
> as Slade's Boswell and, at the same time, Hodge the unshot cat.