NPPF Comm 2: My bedroom, part 2

[Jasper Fidget]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of Don Corathers
> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 11:00 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: My bedroom, part 2
> 
> Where are all of the Hamlet references headed? They point to Botkin, and
> they prepare us for Kinbote's contemplation of suicide. Is there a larger
> significance than we've seen on the ground in Zembla? If Fleur = Ophelia,
> does her mother = Polonius? Where's Claudius? Or is it just Hamlet as
> comedy, the joke being that Zembla, unlike Elsinore, can't even mount a
> proper palace intrigue? The two hapless Danish tourists as R&G, now that's
> funny.
> 
> Don
> 

It sufficed that I in life could find
Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind
Of correlated pattern in the game

I'm not sure how useful it would be to try assigning one to one
correspondences for characters or plot; more like Fleur temporarily becomes
Ophelia (or rather Bizarro Ophelia) and then returns to being Fleur.  Same
for Charles as Bizarro Tristan (who obviously can't parallel Tristan per se
-- Charles doesn't even like girls!).  Zembla is a land of fairy tales and
make-believe, where characters from literature and history appear and then
promptly vanish, sometimes inhabiting other characters, sometimes just
passing through the background.  Which doesn't mean they don't have their
reflections elsewhere (one major way in which VN links different parts of
his narrative) or properties in common.  As you point out, Kin-Hamlet points
to Botkin, and later we'll see Prince Hal show up along with Falstaff, then
see Charles become Prince Hal (along with half of Zembla), then scratch our
heads wondering about "You have hal.....s real bad, chum," and then try to
list the ways in which John Shade may also be John Falstaff, and so on.
Later we'll see where and how Fleur ends up, and the similarity to Ophelia
becomes a striking contrast (which we may not have noticed if VN hadn't
taught us to look for it).

Bizarro Jasper