NPPF Preliminary

[joeallonby]

on 6/14/03 7:32 PM, jbor at jbor at bigpond.com wrote:

> 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
> 
Okay, you guys have me psyched. I am now looking forward to the intriguing
Pale Fire. Let it rip.

Joe