NPPF: Keith's Shocking Theory (was Preliminary: The Epigraph)

[Vincent A. Maeder]

There's been this whole idea of Zembla being Kinbote's delusion relating
to his imprisonment for the sexual molestation and murder of Shade's
child.  The whole bit with his previous life in the castle seemed so
prison like, the homosexual acts (as was said to the level of a sexual
circus) has the ring of a prison.  Then there is the whole fantasy of
escape through a secret passage that he had found in his childhood yet
never used since (?!).  This secret passage also possibly being
metaphorical for the mental escape to a better time from his youth, or a
desire to retain youth by raping a child, or for simple anal sex (note
the descent down into the earth.  

V.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of Jasper Fidget
> Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 6:51 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: RE: NPPF: Keith's Shocking Theory (was Preliminary: The
Epigraph)
> 
> > From: David Morris [mailto:fqmorris at yahoo.com]
> >
> > --- Jasper Fidget <jasper at hatguild.org> wrote:
> > > (Shade and Kinbote are mirrored in so many other ways, these
> characters
> > are
> > practically begging to be read that way.)
> >
> > I'm not sure if Keith has made this claim, but Kunin has speculated
that
> > Kinbote/Shade are the same person, and the whole of Zembla and King
> > Charles
> > (and thus Kinbote) is a manifestation of Shade's mental illness
stemming
> > fron a
> > childhood sexual trauma.  But the Nabokov list is very skeptical...
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> 
> Andrew Field thought Zembla was a "homosexual fantasy" for Kinbote
> (whatever
> that is exactly), but that it had "no connection with the John Shade
we
> know
> from the poem." (_The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov_, p. 343).
> Certainly
> for Kinbote there's a whole lotta loving going on in Onhava (he's even
got
> the palace set up as some kind of sexual circus at one point), and
refers
> often to "our manly Zemblan customs".  Given all the homosexual detail
and
> escapades in the Commentary (not all of which is indicated to be
> pederasty),
> it's difficult to believe Zembla created by Shade.  There's no
indication
> of
> homosexuality in the poem (that I'm aware of anyway), although I
suppose
> Zembla as the land of negatives and reflections might be Shade's
adamant
> insistence on what he determinedly is *not*....
> 
> I find it interesting that Kinbote's Zemblan sexual adventures seem to
> meet
> with less resistance and fewer difficulties than those in New Wye.
For
> instance, Bob breaking K's heart by cheating on him, Emerald
apparently
> resisting K's advances and subsequently mocking him, his discovery of
the
> gardener's impotency, even the trees getting in the way of his spying
on
> Shade (itself a kind of predatory sexual act).  Perhaps this goes to
> Field's
> idea: that in Zembla the sex is abundant, free, and easy, and nobody
gets
> hurt...?
> 
> ajaKasper