NPPF: Commentary Line 149, p. 140-2, recap

[Michael Joseph]

On p. 140-142 Kinbote tells the story of Charles's sojourn with Griff, his
wife, and their daughter androgynously named Garh. The story draws upon
Ovid, and, more broadly, the tale type "saints wander on earth" (Stith
Thompson), which Kinbote/Botkin perhaps and certainly Nabokov emphasizes
by making references to a "tedious old tale" (p. 140) and "fairy-tale"
(140), "ancient songs" (p. 141), "transformation" (p. 141), etc.  K/B
concludes this episode by having Charles reject Garh's rustic offer of
sex. He prefers instead to pat "the innocent dog" (p. 142)--although what
the dog is "innocent" of is unclear. While Charles chuckles over Garh's
"discomfiture," there are symbols reminiscent of Hazel Shade, such as the
"black butterfly ... dancing down a pebbly rake" (p. 142), and "a patch of
matted elfinwood" (i.e., Erlkonig) (p. 142), which suggest Kinbote's
emotional coldness--as well perhaps as his 'unnaturalness', if Hazel is a
kind of Psyche/Persephone figure with all that implies. Perhaps we can
also tease out the suggestion that in ridiculing the androgynous Garh,
Kinbote is displaying ignorance of his own identity, for, if Garh invokes
Hazel, and if Kinbote believes, as he says, "Hazel Shade resembled me in
certain respects" (p. 193), then Kinbote's burlesque of Garh--her smells,
her mechanical lust, even her neediness and "discomfiture" at
rejection--constitutes a self-caricature.

(Note on "pebbly rake": The OED online defines rake(2) as 1. A way, path;
esp. a rough path over a hill, a narrow path up a cleft or ravine.

  13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2144 Ryde me doun {th}is ilk rake, bi {ygh}on rokke
syde. a1400-50 Alexander 5070 Lene to {th}e left hand, For {th}e rake on
{th}e ri{ygh}t hand {th}at may na man passe. ?c1600 Hodgson MS. in
Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., Two brode waies or rakes commonly used occupied
and worne with cattal brought out of Scotland. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss.,
Rake,..A strip of ground..lying in the side of a hill, and sunk below the
level of the neighbouring parts. 1872 JENKINSON Guide Eng. Lakes 303 A
method of ascent..is by the Lord's Rake, a narrow cleft a short distance
from the ridge.



Michael