NPPF Canto 1: 1-4

[MalignD at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/24/03 6:13:29 PM, jbor at bigpond.com writes:


> <<Not at all, or not intentionally. Charles's notion that "smudge" 
> correlates with "wax" (and thus "works") was what I was calling corny. You've offered 
> a different interpretation and then implied that I'm calling that corny.>>
> 
I don't have it in front of me, but I think you called Nabokov's prosody 
corny.   If I misunderstood, fine.

<<... but you seem determined that your interpretation that it is a 
repetition of the poet envisioning himself as the bird's shadow is certain.    That 
difference of opinion is not something we can resolve.
>>

I'm merely reading the poem.   That seems to me the flow.   I'm not dropping 
anchor.   That we can't resolve it seems a little dramatic.

<<I've made comments on several occasions that I think there are some nice 
moments in the poem. Nabokov's creation of Shade as a "major poet" wouldn't ring 
true if he wrote like a grade schooler. That I'm pointing to some of the 
specific examples in the poem which gave me the impression that Nabokov's intent 
was to parody a style of poetry and satirise Shade the poet and man is to be 
expected, surely? Particularly as it's a thesis which had been generally 
denounced as "nonsense". I'm not sure why it should prick your balloon so, as it 
doesn't diminish Nabokov's stature in the slightest.>>

I think I wrote (I don't have it before me; I email from 2 places) that I 
think your argument "probable."   Whatever I wrote, I'm probably in agreement 
with you; I think that VN plays with the quality of the poem.   I just don't 
agree with the way you're arguing; I'm pointing out that you seem to be arguing 
from a certainty that isn't   afforded you.   

Also, if you mean that the idea of the poem as of good quality is what has 
been generally been denounced as nonsense, we're certainly reading different 
commentaries.







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