NPPF Preliminary

[jbor]

A quite good summary of the interpretive controversies and the "evidence"
from both inside and outside the novel which has been used to support the
various critical positions or theories on the question of which character
Nabokov intended to be the "real" or ultimate author of _Pale Fire_'s
various textual layerings:

http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=1085

It seems to me that the deliberate indeterminacy which Nabokov sets up in
the text over this question, a tactic which seems to have frustrated many
critics, is something which Pynchon did understand about the novel, and it
is a strategy which he takes up with relish in his own work. Though by no
means new - it begins with Cervantes - it is one of the characteristic
techniques of postmodern fiction.

I guess the other interesting thing to look out for will be the literary
influences and allusions in Nabokov's text (such as the Yeats poem Heikki
quoted). From several reports it would appear that Nabokov's Cornell
lectures on literature were as influential on the young Pynchon as Vlad's
various novels (_Lolita_ particularly, mentioned in the _SL_ 'Intro' and
alluded to in _Lot 49_) themselves.

Mary McCarthy's 'A Bolt from the Blue' (1962) essay, which is used as the
Introduction in the current Penguin edition of _Pale Fire_, is also very
good. 

best