NPPF Preliminary - biography

[The Great Quail]

Jasper asks,

> Why do we write biographies in the first
> place?

Because, generally speaking, nothing in the world is more interesting than
human beings. Obsessions such as butterfly collecting and hunting may not be
very interesting in themselves, but their actual manifestation in another
person, that interests us. We are fascinated by the obsessed, and we are
fascinated by those who we find "greater" or "different," for good or bad.
Most people find Einstein more fascinating than the photoelectric effect,
most people find Nixon more fascinating than his actual policies. In
biography, stories are told about another person, by another person, and
read by a third person. Other people are distorted mirrors.

I speak in generalities, and I understand that artists and writers exert a
different kind of fascination through their very act of expression, turning
private into public. And yet still we want to biograph, to chronicle, to
comment. To create an axis between our story and their story.

Shade's poem is more interesting because of Kinbote's misreadings; Kinbote's
insanity is more interesting because of its relationship to Shade. They are
both more interesting because they are creations of Nabokov. And Nabokov has
become more interesting, at least right now, because we are all discussing
him. 

Just brainstorming too, lots and lots of coffee this morning, so forgive if
this all seems off the cuff,

--Quail