NPPF: Keith's Shocking Theory

[The Great Quail]

Jasper writes,

> I agree that in this respect and in others, viewing
> Zembla as the invention of a place where Kinbote can find belonging offers
> us a humanizing aspect of the character.  But on the other hand, Kinbote
> makes himself the King of this place, and peoples it with servants and loyal
> accomplices, the antagonists petty thugs and dull-witted brutes; it goes
> beyond simple belonging, and into the realm of controlling.

Oh God yes. Like everything with Kinbote, any sympathy you might have for
him contains the seeds of loathing. Nabokov gives us pathos with an edge, an
"almost likeable" character. Kinbote is "damaged goods" -- he's his own
worst enemy, and that places our emotions in a much more complex space: all
our pity is tempered by caution, our understanding inflected with reserve.
It's like feeling sorry for Hitler than he couldn't get into art school, or
feeling bad when Brock Vond gets his funding cut. (Hey, look! a VL
reference! ;) I think it's definitely a testimony to the complexity of
Nabokov's universe, which also, of course, contains somewhat similar
characters like Humbert Humbert, and to a lesser extent, Luzhin.

--Quail

PS: Now that I think about it, fuck Brock. He's not insane or desperate.
Though he has a *great* name.