NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook

[gumbo at fuse.net]

Sorry, that's not the way I read it.

Botkin created the *identity* of Kinbote, not a fictional character named Kinbote. He did live next door to Shade, who wrote a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire." Living in New Wye and teaching at Wordsmith, Botkin used the name Kinbote and believed his real name was Charles II, but his passport said he was a Russian immigrant named V. Botkin.

Don

> 
> From: David Morris <fqmorris at yahoo.com>
> Date: 2003/09/04 Thu AM 09:43:11 EDT
> To: Don Corathers <gumbo at fuse.net>,  pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: NPPF Comm 2: Dr. Notebook
> 
> 
> Botkin (a professor of Russian cescent is supposed to have created Kinbote (who
> created Charles) who thus never lived next door to Shade, and thus never had
> the oppurtunity to steal the poem.  It only takes a half-step to realize Botkin
> (and thus N) as the single author, so I don't think the liberties I've taken in
> describing his thesis are too grand.  If Shade still authored the poem, this
> thesis makes no account for how Botkin ended up with it.
> 
> DM
> 
> --- Don Corathers <gumbo at fuse.net> wrote:
> > Hold on, there, pardner. The thesis of the paper is that Kinbote is Botkin's
> > creation and that Botkin (bodkin, note correct spelling) is "the instrument
> > Nabokov uses to pierce the material of the novel without causing any snags
> > or runs that would give away his presence too easily, allowing his entry
> > into the text to remain stealthy."
> > 
> > I've only had time to read half and skim half, but I don't think there's
> > anything in there about about Kinbote as author of the poem. Kaplan
> > addresses single author theories very briefly at the bottom of page 1
> > (online--if you print it it'll be page 5), and includes Shade as a free
> > agent under contract to Nabokov.
> 
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>