NPPF: Epigraph (not the pissing contest)

[Don Corathers]

MalignD wrote:

It's possible, of course (even likely), that VN intended this sort of unknowing. [and more]


Sure. The ambiguity is delicious, wonderfully intriguing and appealing (until it becomes a frustrating tease, which hasn't happened to me yet). It fills the room like a sweet but unidentifiable scent every time you open the book. And yes, it's certainly one of the things Pale Fire shares with V., Lot 49, and GR. 

With that said, my need for order compels me to make one additional observation about David Roach's comment on the epigraph. He left open the possibility that Shade might have selected it, if Nabokov didn't. (Or rather, if Nabokov assigned the duty to one of his characters, instead of speaking directly to the reader through the epigraph. It seems likely that he at least wanted us to wonder about it.) That darn cat is a problem, though. By the time he knew that Hodge the cat had been spared, Shade was on his way back to the white fountain (or was it mountain?), and in no condition to go thumbing through his Life of Samuel Johnson.

Don Corathers   



 
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