NPPF Canto 1: 1-4 some random notes

[mjoseph at rci.rutgers.edu]

Ah, interesting connections between the two poems and the two Johns. And
of course there is also an additional linkage in the correspondence of
the two Charles's, which all goes to suggest the ontological stakes for
which VN is playing. Also sort of interesting, many Miltonists have
stumbled on the subject of why Milton would have made Satan so
attractive to readers. One of the more persistent arguments goes that
Milton hadn't intended anything of the sort, but he was carried away by
the power of poetry. 

Not the devil made me do it, but ...



Michael




> Excellent points, Michael.  And I couldn't help noticing some distinct
> echoes of John Milton throughout Canto 1 of _Pale Fire_, especially the
> sections of _Paradise Lost_ in which the Miltonic bard invokes the
Muse, or
> laments his loss of Sight in light of the need for poetic vision (cf. Book
> III, lines 1-32, for example). Of course secular Shade, who comes
across as
> somewhat arrogant in Canto 1 when describing the extent of his poetic
vision
> and ability, contrasts with the bard of _PL_ who, despite his desire to
> create "things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme," assumes much more
> humility as he struggles with the need for poetic inspiration.
> 
> I don't have my copy of PF handy, but something tells me the back cover
> (maybe?) describes the Shade poem as an "epic poem."  This, of course, is
> hardly the case in the classical sense, but Milton (and the epic
tradition)
> was no doubt in the back of Nabokov's mind as he fashioned this longer
poem,
> written in a series of cantos (or books), and composed in a traditional
> metric form, and dealing (in a way) with lofty themes.
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Joseph" <mjoseph at rci.rutgers.edu>
> Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 11:49 AM
> Subject: Re: NPPF Canto 1: 1-4 some random notes
> 
> 
> >
> > I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
> > By the false azure in the windowpane;
> > I was the smudge of ashen fluff--and I
> > Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.
> > And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate
> > Myself. . . .
> >
> > "Slain" also echoes Biblical language, which is exactly right for Shade
> > who contemplates transcendence, or a "feigned" (i.e., supposed;
imaginary)
> > transcendence, a fairly conventional reading of "azure." The slaying
could
> > conceivably have a secondary meaning in that Shade's implicit wish to
> > survive in his poetry is ironically granted in Kinbote's slaying of its
> > meaning and beauty. Kinbote of course peers in at Shade's
windowpane, and
> > just as "azure" signifies (See Milton) the vault of Heaven, it also
> > signifies the blue color in coats of arms thus the "false azure" could
> > well represent the clownish Kinbote's delusion of being the self-exiled
> > King Charles: a false King.
> >
> > If someone has discussed the form of the opening, I apologize for
possible
> > duplication, but I awnt to point out that it seems very like a form of
> > Welsh poetry, such as we see for example in the Song of Amergin:
> >
> > "I am the womb of every holt,
> > "I have been in many shapes....
> > I am the blaze on every hill,
> > I have been a drop in the air.
> > I am the queen of every hive,
> > I have been a shining star.
> > I am the shield to every head,
> > I have been a word in a book. ...
> > I am the tomb to every hope."
> > I have traveled, I have made a circuit,
> >             -- THE SONG OF AMERGIN.
> >
> > ... and The Hanes taliesin
> >
> > THE BATTLE OF THE TREES.
> >
> >       "I have obtained the muse from the Cauldron of Cerridwen;
> >        I have been bard of the harp to Lleon of Lochlin;
> >        I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynvelyn...."
> >             -- THE HANES TALIESIN.
> >
> > ... which Nabokov could conceivably have seen in several places,
> > including Graves's The White Goddess (1948).
> >
> > These poems are generally considered to be involved with religious
beliefs
> > and are incantatory - a telling choice for someone like Shade who, as
> > Brian Boyd points out, has "dedicated his whole life to fighting the
> > "inadmissible abyss" of death
> > (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/boydpf1.htm), and for
someone
> > like Nabokov, of course, who famously said "I do not believe in
time." The
> > form is also possibly interesting for another, unrelated, reason: the
> > voice of the poem is multiple; that is, the "I" does not refer to one
> > single persona, but to multiple personae, or a transpersonal corporate
> > identity.
> >
> >
> > Michael
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
>