NPPF - Foreword - Notes (1)

[cfalbert]

Because that is the nature of the work.........clues tend to lead in several
directions at the same time....

William Wordsworth - LINES, Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey on
Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798....

Norton Anthology note: Ruins of a medieval abbey situated in the valley of
the river Wye, in Monmouthshire, noted for its scenery.......


love,
cfa
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper at hatguild.org>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 10:57 AM
Subject: RE: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (1)


> On
> > Behalf Of Malignd
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 8:15 AM
> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> > Subject: Re: NPPF - Foreword - Notes (1)
> >
> > <<I'm not arguing that the college and town aren't
> > modeled on Cornell and Ithaca, but why the elaborate
> > dodge to direct our attention elsewhere?>>
> >
> > My guess on this is that all the pertinent places and
> > place names (Cedarn, Utana) are fictional so that the
> > possibility that Zembla might be other than something
> > imagined by Kinbote, can't be disqualified on that
> > basis; i.e., as the only made-up place (name) in the
> > novel.
> >
> >
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>