NPPF--commentary--615--two tongues

[Ghetta Life]

>From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
>
>Also, can the stanza in which the phrase occurs be an anticipation on 
>Shade's part of Kinbote's final days? Old man dying in a shabby motel room, 
>trying to put together an apologia pro vita sua. Formulating his thoughts 
>in the two languages he is most conversant in, the two tongues having the 
>further sense or implication that he is engaged to some degree in 
>deception.

Absolutely, but this would be impossible for Shade to have anticipated, 
right?  As I noted last week, the stanza before this one refers to a king 
being led to stand before a firing squad, which also has parallels with the 
person of Kinbote's "real" identity as the fugitive King.  This however 
could be explained as the result of Kinbote's many conversations with Shade. 
  The only plausible explanation of the motel-room fate coicidence would be 
that Kinbote has imitated the poems image with his choosing it as the place 
to write from.  As I said last week, this lends credence to the theory that 
Shade has made up Kinbote, and was never shot, but this scenario goes pretty 
close to saying that Nabakov made them all up.

Ghetta

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