NPPF some notes pp 224-235 (2)

[jbor]

on 4/11/03 1:29 AM, Jasper Fidget wrote:

> p. 235
> "Now it is quieter" etc
> 
> Kinbote is completely alone now as his work nears completion.
> 
> p. 235
> "two tongues"
> 
> Aside from Zemblan, English/American is the only non-Slavic language.
> "American and European" would be VN himself.

Or (Nabokov as) Kinbote, another bilingual, another European in America. The
whole stanza in Shade's poem (lines 609-616) pre-empts Kinbote's situation
in the motel room in Cedarn even without the variant draft Kinbote
reproduces in the note. Kinbote deliberately draws the reader's attention to
this stanza. It's as if his own suicide (if, in fact, he does actually
commit suicide rather than merely contemplate it) is prophesied in the poem.
Or, perhaps, it is the poem that drives him to suicide. Or it's all
self-conscious, a charade. Or ...

best