NPPF - pp. 215-235 through lines 609-614 commentary

[Ghetta Life]

NPPF - pp. 215-235 through lines 609-614 commentary

In this section of the commentary Kinbote shares with us another version of 
these lines, six in the draft, seven in the final.  Here are both versions:

Draft:
Nor can one help the exile caught by death
In a chance inn exposed to the hot breath
Of this America, this humid night:
Through slatted blinds the stripes of colored light
Grope for his bed – magicians from the past
With philtered gems – and life is ebbing fast.

Final:
Nor can one help the exile, the old man
Dying in a motel, with the loud fan
Revolving in the torrid prairie night
And, from the outside, bits of colored light
Reaching his bed like dark hands from the past
He suffocates and conjures in two tongues
The nebulae dilating in his lungs.

Personally I prefer the final version.  The draft contains some awkward 
segments such as “In a chance inn exposed to the hot breath / Of this 
America.”  Why “This America”?  But the two versions really need to be 
combined to search out their fuller meaning.  Lets’ list their shared and 
unshared aspects first, and discuss them afterward:

Shared Aspects:
1.  Exile = Old man
2.  hot breath / Of this America, this humid night = the torrid prairie 
night
3.  Through slatted blinds the stripes of colored light = from the outside, 
bits of colored light
4.  Grope for his bed = Reaching his bed like dark hands
5.  from the past = from the past
6.  magicians[..]With philtered gems = conjures

Unshared Aspects:
1.  Of this America (draft)
2.  two tongues (final)
3.  nebulae dilating in his lungs (final)

Why is the person dying in the motel/chance inn called an “exile?”  Is it 
because he’s alone?  The implication is that something in his past (more 
about “from the past” later in the segment) has relegated him to this exile, 
which dooms him to die alone.

Although they are not directly parallel, the “exposed to hot breath of this 
America” (draft)  resonates with the “two tongues / The nebulae dilating in 
his lungs.”  Both hint at molestation, as do the reaching and groping for 
his bed of the “magicians from the past” and the “dark hands from the past.”

The “philtered gems” are a nice play on words.  At first glance “philtered” 
seems like an alternate spelling of “filtered” referring to the bits of 
colored light that make it through the “slatted blinds.”  But look at the 
dictionary definition of “philter.”:

Main Entry: phil·ter
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French philtre, from Latin philtrum, from Greek philtron; 
akin to Greek philos dear
Date: circa 1587
1 : a potion, drug, or charm held to have the power to arouse sexual passion
2 : a potion credited with magical power

OR:

|ETYM| French <philtre>, Latin <philtrum>, Greek, from <philia> love. , (•§ 
Homonym: filter•) , A drink credited with magical power; can make the one 
who takes it love the one who gave it; <SYN.> philtre, love-potion, 
love-philter, love-philtre.

These bits of light from outside presumably come from the obligatory neon 
motel signs one sees in the desert:
http://www.sem20.com/neonmotel/poster.html
http://donb.furfly.net/photo_cd/l/b65.html

There is a curious difference in the central message between the two 
versions:  In the draft the magicians do the conjuring (philtered gems), 
where in the final the dying man does the conjuring of the two tongues, into 
nebulae dilating in his lungs.  The draft suggests a molestation by the 
magicians, whereas the final implies something beautiful occurring at the 
moment of the exile’s death.

There seems little doubt that Shade wrote both versions.  They have the same 
tone and are superior to the forgery that Kinbote attempted to pass off as 
Shade’s earlier in the commentary.  One wonders who this old man is.  Is it 
Kinbote?  Or is it Shade?  The coincidences presented by these two drafts 
about an old man exiled to a motel combined with the firing squad section 
that precedes it present the best evidence so far that Kinbote might 
actually be Shade.  That is, Shade is writing his own commentary to the poem 
in the persona of a character he’s invented named Kinbote.  Of course there 
are many other theories…

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