NPPF - Foreword - Notes (1)

[David Morris]

--- Jasper Fidget <jasper at hatguild.org> wrote:
> So then Cedarn, Utana, Idoming = fantasy Northwest; Wordsmith, New Wye =
fantasy college and town; and Zembla = fantasy Russia.  I think if one accepts
this, it changes the terms of the novel dramatically, in that Kinbote may not
be insane or extravagantly lying at all.  In fact it makes these places much
like the Vineland in Pynchon's novel: an imaginary place that stands directly
for real places.

I don't think "fantasy" is the right word, but "fictional" is.  But they don't
need to "stand for" real places, just be (possibly) accepted as real in the
world of the novel.

> Someone's mentioned the fact that K's royal identity is known to some
characters on the Wordsmith plane (according to K), and that Charles II is
discussed by the faculty there (including K's resemblance to him).  So if
Zembla is a real place in the story-world, then either Kinbote is its exiled
king, or Kinbote is making *all* of this up (which ends up having little
difference), or Kinbote has taken the fact of his resemblance to Charles II and
pretended to *be* Charles II.  I thinking answering that question might be a
key to answering many others. 

This is what I've been calling the "surface" story, which is believable on the
surface.  But since the entire account is told to us by Kinbote, then even
conversations with others dicussing a "real" Zembla can be his fabrications. 
It is unresolvable, but infinitely up for play.

David Morris


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