NPPF Commentary Line 172, P. 154-156

[Vincent A. Maeder]

We now begin the discussion of the commentary from line 172 at page 154
through line 275 p. 174.  I and my trusty compatriot will take turns at
each commentary.  There are 14 commentaries and since we are to complete
this in seven days, I will take two or three comments per night and post
them early in the morning.  My only hope is that I can somehow appear to
belong to the august group of Jasper Fidget, cfa, David Morris, The
Great Quail, Keith McMullen (s~Z/slothenvypride), Don Corathers, and
Michael Joseph.  Thank you, one and all, for your eloquent and
intelligent contributions.  

Line 172: books and people
As we begin, we've just commenced our reading of the commentary
associated with Canto Two.  Canto Two deals in a direct way the supposed
author's, Mr. Shade's, confrontation with death.  The canto ends in Mr.
Shade's discovery of his daughter's death.

Line 172 ends the first stanza of six lines in length.  The poet,
ostensibly Mr. Shade, takes us back to his childhood, or earlier life,
when he believed there was a truth regarding life after death, whereas
he stood alone without such knowledge despite a "great conspiracy" of
books and people hiding the truth from him.

Mr. Kinbote's two page commentary plays reluctant with quotes of people
in a little black book he carries, mimicking the poem itself, Mr.
Kinbote creating his own, perhaps, small conspiracy of books and people
who would hide the truth from the reader (as the reader is held hostage
to Mr. Kinbote's commentary and his veracity and forthrightness in
sharing all of his information without bias or prejudice).  Mr. Kinbote
shares Mr. Shade's thoughts on several subjects.

1) Book reviewers:  "empty my skoramis on some poor hack's pate" roughly
translated as "empty my chamber pot on some writer for hire's head."
http://www.wordwizard.com/clubhouse/founddiscuss.asp?Num=4144

2) Head of the Russian Dept:  Referring to Pnin here, and the character
VN created in the novel by the same name.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679723412/102-1197107-284
3356?v=glance  "Pnin is a professor of Russian at an American college
who takes the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he cannot
master. Pnin is a tireless lover who writes to his treacherous Liza: "A
genius needs to keep so much in store, and thus cannot offer you the
whole of himself as I do." Pnin is the focal point of subtle academic
conspiracies he cannot begin to comprehend, yet he stages a faculty
party to end all faculty parties forever."  He also discusses "those
joint authors of genius [Ilia] Ilf and [Evgenii] Petrov" who
collaborated on the comedy The Twelve Chairs.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810114844/qid=1065500968/sr=2-2/
ref=sr_2_2/102-1197107-2843356

3) Vulgar friend:  "corny cook-out chef apron" perhaps "danger, men
cooking" http://www.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-17614/

4) Teaching college-level Shakespeare:  A bit of hyperbole here on the
use of purple prose.  An insight perhaps into VN's own teaching style as
well.

5) Marx and Freud:  Nice contrast and encapsulation by Mr. Shade.

6) Students' papers:  This is a simple and sincere passage that may be
highly symbolic of VN's teaching style.  I'll leave it at that.