Pale Fire
Pale Fire explained
== WORK IN PROGRESS (last version: 07 August 2020) ==
Before starting this commentary on "Pale Fire", I want to say that this will be a shorter work and that it will be more hypothetical than what I had wrote about "Lolita" (READ HERE) where there were a lot of rather obvious and convincing confirmations (notably, by acknowledging the similitudes and mirroring elements found in "The Life And letters of Lewis Carroll"). It will be a cursory work, in comparison. I also would like to apologize for my English, a language that is a foreign language to me.
I'm reasonably confident that the exposed core of the subjacent hidden content is largely correct, but it's harder to prove in this case. I have to rely on the sagacity and perceptiveness on the reader to realize the harmony of the whole thing.
"Pale Fire" is a novel by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Let's remind it, a Russian author fluent in Russian, English and French languages) published in 1962.
 |
| Vladimir V. Nabokov, also a lepideptorist |
The surface content is the following: A delusional unstable man named botkin, known as Professor Charles Kinbote, working at the University of Wordsmith, in the fictive town of New Wye (in the fictive state of Apppalachia, USA), has fled - and is now hiding - to the remote town of Cedarn (in the fictive state of Utana) - with the poem in four cantos of his recently deceased neighbor, literature professor and writer John Shade.
His intention is to annotate the text that he believes is the fruit of his discussions with the recently assassinated poet, and to have it published with the correct interpretation before other individuals publish it without any of the indications and explanations that he believes expertly explain the text of his so-called "friend", Mr. Shade.
Kinbote/botkin is a mentally unstable man (having trouble to discern the reality from delusions) who has delusions of grandeur and believes (wants to believe?) that he is actually the King Charles II of Zembla, a fictitious nordic European land borrowing its name to the Russian Novaya Zemlya (New Zembla - nouvelle Zemble in French) - or more precisely to a text by Alexander Pope (that Shade had written a book about - hence the one mention of Zembla in one of the Cantos of the poem), that he alleges, to the reader of his commentaries on Shade's poem, he managed to escape after the communists took control of this imaginary kingdom of his.
In his delusions, which, we understand during the novel, are well-known from everyone around him (John Shade included), he persuades himself that his endless stories (or ravings...) about his non-existing home country, is the inspiration for this new poem of shade (and yet we see immediately that this has nothing to do with it. Shade is writing about his life, the death of his unfortunate daughter and the thoughts about life and the universe this tragedy inspired him) and that his story about the Zemblan King will make the poem the chef-d'oeuvre he hopes to be (and maybe he thinks half-convinced that his commentary will make the "facts" in his delusion more real, like written in stone. A way to have the last word over all the "vile" people that he suspects are mocking him for so long).
At first sight, we can see that this novel is about the subjectivity and relativity of our interpretation of literary works (which applies more generally as well, of course). Charles Kinbote is persuaded he - and only he - understand the real nature, the real meaning, of this text from his revered Shade.
Shade dead, Kinbote, the sole possessor of the text, will comment at will (and in this case, will associate the original text with totally unrelated irrelevant comments) without the author being in position to do anything about it.
His unrelated comments are in fact like the stealing of the work of shade, whose text will be bent to mean something it was not supposed to mean at all and will be published as such, then read by many. This is the meaning of the title of the novel. Kinbote is like the moon which steals the golden light from the sun (as it is said in Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens" (in act 4, scene 3; "(...) the moon's an arrant thief, and her pale fire she snatches from the sun (...)"), hence the title). The commentator (literary critic, literary scholar, influent reader) has the last word, as it is said in Kinbote's introduction to the book.
This is indeed the general foreground of the novel, but actually, it was designed to be much more specific than that.
For starters, note that both "Lolita" (1955) and "Pnin" (1957) are specifically and conspicuously mentionned (each twice) in this novel. This could be seen as a mere sympathetic wink from the author, but I believe it is actually a way to hint to the context of the subjacent content of "Pale Fire": Nabokov's American novels ("The Real Life of Sebastian Knight", while published when Nabokov was in the USA, was fully written when in Paris, France). [ If you're not familiar with Nabokov's process, you should read the main page treating of Lolita's riddle ]
--
"It was a year of Tempests: Hurricane
Lolita swept from Florida to Maine." - Line |680| of Shade's poem.
"A male hand traced from Florida to Maine - Line |408| of Shade's poem.
The curving arrows of Aeolian wars"
(...)
"A nymph came pirouetting, under white
Rotating petal (...)"
--
"the bloated Russian Department, Prof. Pnin, a regular martinet in regard to his underlings" (in Kinbote's comment on line 172 "books and people").
"Are you by any chance Professor Pnin’s new assistant?" (in Kinbote's comment on line 949 "and all the time")
--
It is clear to me that Nabokov used the same process than in "Lolita" (and there's a good logical reason for that). I surmise that "Pale Fire" is the personal answer to the critics, scholars and all sort of influent readers, having in mind what had been said about "Lolita" since its publication.
The general background is thus about "Lolita" and the comments it produced, but the novel is actually centered on the preposterous commentator, far far away from the true content of the novel, only seeing what he wants to see, projecting his own mental world on the novel (generally dipped in the mainstream ideology and whatever trendy societal concepts is gregariously followed at the current moment, in the general society or in the university and intellectual sets).
The playful Nabokov wrote for himself.
"I don’t think that an artist should bother about his audience. His best audience is the person he sees in his shaving mirror every morning. I think that the audience an artist imagines, when he imagines that kind of a thing, is a room filled with people wearing his own mask." - Vladimir Nabokov
He used again all the "tricks" and "puzzles" that where omnipresent in "Lolita".
In an interview in 1962 for the BBC when asked on why he wrote “Lolita”: "I’ve no general ideas to exploit, I just like composing riddles with elegant solutions.” - Vladimir Nabokov
While reading my comment on "Pale Fire", keep in mind that Nabokov, a man that we know loved to play with words, also composed chess problems (he was a fervent chess player) and wrote a book of verbal riddles in the 1920's. He is also known to have discreetly hidden informations in his short story "The Vane Sisters", to give a new light to the text via an acrostics in the final words of the text. May this serve as a mind-opener concerning what's following.
Just like "Lolita" was designed mainly with countless references to "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-glass" (and more generally, a Carrollian context), "Pale Fire" is filled with many references to the elements that actually composed the core of "Lolita" (see the ADDENDUM at the end, where some of these references to the secret nature of "Lolita", are listed). All of this is made via references hidden in plain sight and sometimes with the help of little "puzzles" - just like in "Lolita", the book that is dicreetly alluded in "Pale Fire" [ An example? King Thurgus, Charles II's grandfather. What's to find with it? Like in "Lolita", some "puzzles" are designed by Nabokov the lepidopterist (yes, he was an actual butterfly expert), to be solved via a butterfly as key. Here, the key is to be found in an alias of Jakob Gradus, namely Jacques d'Argus (in French: "of Argus"). An Argus is a type of butterfly. We can see the following thing: king ar-gus thur-gus, we remove the common -gus ending (that allowed us to link the two elements) and we got "King Arthur". What has King Arthur to do with "Pale Fire"? It's simply one of the numerous hidden references to the riddle embedded in "Lolita" by Nabokov - serving to determine the nature of the hidden content in "Pale Fire", which only a person having already solved Lolita's riddle could recognize, I might add - but Vladimir Nabokov conceived his "riddles with elegant solutions" for his own pleasure, I suppose (see the quotes above) ]. The word golf and mirror-words are all allusions by Nabokov (a wordsmith) to hint that things are to be discovered that way - just like in "Lolita".
I surmise that, irritated by the off-the-mark comments (and unable to unveil the true content of his "breakthrough" novel "Lolita"), he designed a personal answer for his own satisfaction, enjoying the thought and the view of the critics, scholars and any "influent" readers interpreting and working on the text that basically ridiculized them. For it is almost an act of humiliation of his most clueless, blind, opinionated (influent) readers, I believe, that Nabokov proposed in "Pale Fire", Charles Kinbote being an archetypal (and caricatural) character of the self-centered (influent) reader full of certitudes bending the text to fit his tastes, leanings and his own ideological fads and biases (representing any arrogant scholar lost in his own irrelevant mental constructions, any ferocious self-important literary critic (with delusions of grandeur) reading his own (ideologically-driven) set ideas in the text [this reader - projecting his views on the work of someone else - is the King in "his mental world" and assumes everyone else should acknowledge his superiority. Charles Kinbote, the caricatural archetype, is thus a delusional "King" (only in his mind, is he so)]).
Am I an umpteenth avatar of this banal phenomenon? It is you, the reader, that will have the last word.
I will try to prove my point in the coming lines.
As I see it, John Shade is to be understood as Vladimir Nabokov, more exactly a shadow ("shade") of Vladimir Nabokov (and Sybil Shade, of Véra Nabokov, I assume).
John Shade's daughter, Hazel, is his novel "Lolita" (Haze L. -> L. Haze -> Lolita Haze (a.k.a. Dolores Haze)), mostly victim of her external appearance.
In "Pale Fire", Nabokov focused his attention on this self-centered caricatural reader (having in mind mostly the literary critics and scholars (i.e. university literature professors writing books about authors and their books), I believe) and "lovingly" made him the most preposterous delusional commentator he could invent.
- see a little more below for a few elements possibly hinting that John Shade is really a shadow, a mask, for Nabokov.
My hypothesis is that he associated him, in his mind (probably not because he would fit the archetypal character (even tough he could have seen him representative of a certain mindset, I guess), just to associated him with someone he likely despised in the literary set), with a writer and modern dance critic that I am forced to suppose, he particularly loathed (I have no actual factual element to prove it, it is just the logical conclusion, from my point of view, of the association with this caricatural ridiculous character Botkin - but this is of course hypothetical).
I'm talking of Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964).
 |
| Carl Van Vechten, a writer and modern dance critic |
I surmise that Nabokov chose Carl Van Vechten as he saw him (probably) as his opposite as a person, in style, personality and mindset (this is of course totally hypothetical). This opposition is materialized as such:
(Carl Van Vechten) CVV | VVN (Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov) - a reflexion phenomenon (not totally the same, as a reflexion is not the exact reflexion of reality (left and right are inverted)).
One is the opposite of the other one, like a reflexion in a mirror when looking from the side ("mirror", a word seen several times in the novel - a keyword used both in "Lolita" and "Pale Fire"), black-white would appear white-black in the reflexion.
First off, Carl Van Vechten (CVV, now on, on this page)'s firstname is an equivalent of Charles (etymologically, it is the same firstname (Carl = Charles)), a firstname that our narrator, CHARLES Kinbote, a.k.a. CHARLES II the Beloved, is endowed with. [There is also mention of a "Carl Sandburg" and "Karl the beloved" (is the hint in the last one clear enough?), in the novel]
The father of CVV, was named Charles (Charles Van Vechten), he is Charles I, and thus CVV is Charles II.
His mother was named Ada Van Vechten. I believe the numerous references to "hell" in the text (e.g. "hell", "Hades" (and even its anagram "Shade"), "Helman", Shelley ["Shelley": s_HELL_ey is a reference to "hell" too (s_HELL_ey: hell + s ey ("yes" backward) - shelley is an anagram of hellyes); There is actually a pair hellyes | yeslove in the riddle of Pale Fire - see at the end of the page ]) are intended to point to her first name "ada" (ада) in Russian is a form of "ad" meaning "hell" (ад ; "ada" is the singular genetive form). Note that there is mention of an "Adèle" in the text, a French firstname that sounds exactly like how would be pronounced ad-hell, in French (the H is silent in that language) [ Notice that by using the major keywords 9 and 14 of the riddle in "Lolita" on the alphabetical familly of judge Goldsworth - Alphina (9), Betty (10), Candida (12), Dee (14) - on the letters they represent (with the age they're associated with), you got "ad" (A-9, D-14 ; thus "hell" in Russian) [ in case this wasn't clear enough, You can get Alpha (A) with Alphina (only remains i and n, the 9th and 14th letters of the alphabet (a hint) and Dee sounds like D ]; also to notice, "cicada" can be separated in equal parts having the same mirror-like quality (they can be read both ways) "cic" and "ada". The last one catches the eye ].
Charles Kinbote/Charles II the beloved is homosexual, and married to Queen Disa, that he regularly "betrays" with men. CVV was married (twice) and he is known to have had numerous homosexual affairs throughout his life of married man (his wives being aware of it).
He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The several references about "cedar" in the text are hints to this ("cedar", "Cedarn"; also the waxwing mentionned in the poem as soon as the first line, is more likely a Cedar Waxwing than a Bohemian Waxwing, given the likely general location of New Wye, even though I guess the description of the bird by Kinbote could posssibly fit both) [Also "redips" is a close reflexion of "rapids" (in lines 347-348: She twisted words : "that "spider" in reverse is "redips,"")]
CVV was particularly associated with New York City (he lived there most of his adult life and worked at the New York Times (which is also mentionned in the text ("at an article in The New York Times" in comment "Line 691: the attack"))).
Charles Kinbote, in the USA, is not only associated with Cedarn (hinting to Cedar rapids, among other things) but also to New Wye (i.e. New Y. -> New York).
His Alma Mater was the university of Chicago ("Shade’s former secretary, Jane Provost, whom I recently looked up in Chicago").
He was the first real modern dance critic in the USA. I believe that the fact that "cedarn" is an anagram of "dancer" is a hint to this.
The year of birth of CVV might be hinted with Iris Acht (see further below)
CVV graduated from Washington High School in 1898 (a date mentionned in the novel. It's the birth date of John Shade - and a reference to Lewis Carroll (it is the year he died)).
CVV was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance (an Afro-american cultural movement, centered in Harlem, New York City, mostly concerning literature and music).
I suspect that the following excerpts are a hint to this:
|470| "A jovial N*gro raised his trumpet. Trk." (the numbers between the | are the lines in Shade's Cantos)
|924| "jazz"
|410| "quartet"
He wrote "N*gger Heaven" (1926). Racial comments and discussions are found in "Pale Fire" (see Kinbote's comment about line 470). Note that "acer" (defined as a Venitian sycamore tree, mentionned in the novel) is anagram of "race" and that "race" is to be found in "Cedarn" by rearranging some of the letters.
Botkin has a black gardener (to whom he tried to have in his bed?).
"Race" is a keyword that we can indeed associate with CVV, especially given the importance of the matter, in the USA, during the period he was living in.We can add all the references to Africa and Africans (e.g. "Africa", "Africans", "n*gro").
The homosexual Charles II is married with Disa (like CVV who married two women (Anna Snyder and Fania Marinoff) with four letters firstnames ending in a "a" sound (Fania in its original cyrillic (фаня), is four letters not five (She was born in the Russian Empire in Odessa, now in Ukraine)) [(in lines 347-348: She twisted words : "that "spider" in reverse is "redips,""): like redips could be a close enough reflexion of rapids, is spider a close enough reflexion of snyder? (at least in sound)]
As said, Fanya Marinoff was born in Odessa (in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine)
This is hinted in the name of the Zemblan capital.
We can remark that using the mirror-word trick Nabokov invites us to use in his novel, Ohnava contains Vanho- which is a hint to the love of Jonathan Swift, esther Vanhomrigh (that he affectionately called Vanessa (VAN- from her Dutch lastname Vanomrigh (like Van Vechten is a Dutch lastname), and ESSA which is a pet form of her firstname Esther)), actually mentionned in the novel and hinted in the occurence of the butterfly name Vanessa.
Here too, a butterfly is a key to a "puzzle". Vanessa is the key.
"nav" a mirror reflexion of "van" (first half of the word "vanessa") must to be replaced by the second half of the word "vanessa", "essa", we got thus Ohessa (the final A of navA merges with the final A of essA), and we replace the H which is the fourth letter in the group "vanh" by the value of the fourth letter of the alphabet, D (a kind of trick used regularly by Nabokov in his riddle) and we got Odessa.
We see that the general physiognomy of the name calls for a linking:
OhnavA - O-hnav-A
OdessA - O-dess-A
===
I'll evoke a few hypotheses possibly explaining the core of story (I consider the aforementionned background rather solid)
Hypothesis:
Charles II Kinbote is a Solus Rex chased from chessboard's square to chessboard's square by... (answer below). Hence Kinbote's "He had the amusing feeling of his being the only black piece in what a composer of chess problems might term a king-in-the-corner waiter of the solus rex type" - a hint by Nabokov.
In the novel, it is said that Kinbote wanted Shade's poem to be called "solus rex" (a reference to him, the (delusional) King of Zembla), instead John Shade named it "Pale Fire", which means nothing to Kinbote (persuaded as he is that this poem is about his stories about the land of Zembla and his king - himself).
This translates as such: the clueless reader (Kinbote) think the text is about him (i.e. his views, his ideas, his cherished opinions and concepts), while Nabokov (J. Shade) wants it to be about the delusional reader and his misunderstanding of his novel.
This is a chess game (of the "solus rex" type, a configuration where one king is alone facing several opponent chessmen trying to get a checkmate) played between Nabokov and his clueless opiniated reader.
Charles Kinbote is the John Shade of Jack Grey (the Shade of Grey (*)).
Just like Charles Kinbote (deluded clueless reader) kills the work of John Shade (Vladimir Nabokov) by denaturing it, Grey/Gradus wants Kinbote dead (Nabokov wants to stop him, somehow, from denaturing his work).
Charles Kinbote understands everything as centered around him. His deluded mind projects his delusions on everything around him and interprets it as the undeniable reality.
Everything has to fall into place according to his expectations, his ideas and he finds it absolutely normal. He is full of certitudes and is adamant in his black and white opinions. No room for doubts.
No shades of grey.
[ While Jack Grey/Jakob Gradus is a construction of Kinbote's mind, in the novel (the actual killer is a mere criminal seeking revenge on the owner of the house, the judge Goldsworth, who kills Shade by mistake), here it's irrelevant. The author (Nabokov) sends Grey/Gradus after Kinbote (since he's the one writing), in a hidden second layer of reading - behind the apparent story. And it all becomes intelligible and visible by attributing a different semantic meaning to words of this apparent story on the foreground (the same manner than in "Lolita"). The second layer of reading is used by Nabokov to tell a more specific, relevant and meaningful "story") ]
(*) That's the lesson Grey a.k.a. Degree, a.k.a. Gradus (all signifying the same thing ("degree" in English is the same as Russian and Latin "gradus")) is for Kinbote: it's all a matter of degree of conscience and understanding of a set of available informations and elements (and a huge part missing) and this should keep everyone going for humility.
No black and white, shades of grey.
In the end, all is about the shade of grey, the degree of understanding of a set of elements at our disposal and the propensity of our mind to project his desires, fear and hopes - and the truth is that we are all much too overwhelmed by the number of variables, numerous unknown factors concerning the object we're trying to understand while we're handicapped by our limited knowledge, our set ideas, our prejudices, our intellectual limitations and self-denied much-too-real narrow-mindedness to actually grasp the nature and the totality of what we're trying to understand. Thinking otherwise is lying to ourselves (In the specific case of "Pale Fire", I was helped by the fact that I knew the hidden content in "Lolita", and in "Lolita" I had numerous confirmations that I had took the right path).
The organisation trying to kill Kinbote, The shadows (i.e. The Shades, and thus the Nabokov family (Véra Nabokov was part of the process of making a novel in her own way). Shade really is the "Shade" (i.e "shadow") of Nabokov anyway (in the sense of "his possession"), since he made it up) would want to neutralize kinbote (the off-the-mark reader) - thus Nabokov (Gradus/Grey) would like to force the concept of "shade of grey" and a thinking in degrees on him (less arrogance, less certitudes, more open-mindedness, more humility).
Hence Sudarg of Bokay ((almost a) "mirror-word" of Yakob of Gradus - the link is obvious), a genius mirror-maker: V. Nabokov, represented by Jacob Gradus (*) - and Sudarg of Bokay, designer of this big (distorted) mirror-effect in which a real situation is mirrored in his novel, in a symbolical manner - just like in "Lolita", according to Nabokov's own words (see the quotes at the beginning) - using (among other things) mirror-like tricks to design his "puzzle") [ note that the Zemblan language is given by Kinbote as "the tongue of the mirror" ].
(*) (mirrored by Sudarg of Bokay in a mutli-reflexions effect with Jack de Grey (of Grey) and Jacques d'argus - yakob, Jacob, Jack and Jacques are all the same names in different languages and Gradus/Degree/De Grey/d'argus are also linked by meaning, sound resemblance and anagrammatic swappings)
Kinbote is fleeing square after square on the chessboard (The king starts on his square (Royalist Zembla; is "(the Tessera) _square of Ohnava_", Ohnava, capital of royalist Zembla, a cryptic hint to that?) then fleeing alone his enemies (a solus rex) on another square (New Wye Appalachia, USA, in the house of Judge Goldsworth ("The fragile vista, the frame house between Goldsworth and Wordsmith on its square of green" could actually also mean that all of the described elements are on a same (green) square, even though it's not the obvious meaning at first sight).
Gradus/Grey is following him with difficulty, unable to checkmate him.
In the end, Gradus/Grey (mistakenly) kills Shade.
Gradus aims at Kinbote and kills Shade: thus Nabokov (John Shade) can't prove the literary critics/literary scholars/influent readers projecting their personal views and ideological fads on Nabokov's work (Kinbote) wrong without harming himself (hence J. Gradus eventually killing J. Shade. Nabokov trying to stop the off-the-mark commentators (Kinbote) would harm himself more than anything (he can't reveal the true nature of the core of "Lolita")).
Nabokov had hinted the true nature of "Lolita" in interviews in 1962 and 1964 (as "Pale Fire" was published) but couldn't unveil the actual design of it without harming himself and was condemned to watch powerless the denaturation of his work by the literary and journalistic sets (notice that John Shade dies in 1959, not long after "Lolita"'s soaring (and all its consequences) - the first US publication was in 1958 - and not long after the publication of "Pnin").
The King flees again on another square of the chessboard, in Cedarn, Utana, trying to avoid his neutralization and Gradus/Grey is unable to follow him.
Whatever his efforts, Nabokov is unable to stop the clueless influent reader to spread his nonsense.
No checkmate - Nabokov loses the game (his work is stolen from him, as implied by the author in the title of the novel).
That was a first attempt. Not everything is necessarily fully working (yet), but I'm convinced the description of the core of the subjacent content of "Pale Fire" as described in this page, is largely correct.
- D. D.
=======
Elements that can hint that John Shade is Nabokov, Hazel, "Lolita" and Kinbote a common type of reader he's aiming at:
--
Lines 367-370: then — pen, again — explain
"In speech John Shade, as a good American, rhymed "again" with "pen" and not
with "explain." The adjacent position of these rhymes is curious."
A hint by Nabokov? If John Shade is actually the "shadow", the secret representation, the mask, of a non-American writer, it makes more sense (that he here rhymes things that he shouldn't rhyme as an American).
--
A few comments made by Kinbote could be seen as supporting the association of John Shade with Nabokov and Charles Kinbote with his most typical reader or scholar.
Kinbote's (about John Shade, and thus Nabokov - in my theory) "My illustrious friend showed a childish predilection for all sorts of word games and especially for so-called word golf" would perfectly match both Nabokov's mindset (and writing process) and the opinion of his most typical reader, I suppose.
Also, Kinbote saying (about trying to find a pattern in groups of letters suppposedly given by the barn ghost) "I abhor such games; they make my temples throb with abominable pain" could be seen as a perfect echo of the scholars/readers aimed at in the novel as well, I guess.
But sometimes Kinbote utters things that could also be associated with typical Nabokov opinions (like his derogatory comments about Freudian psychanalists). Does it undermine the theory presented in this page? Not in my view.
--
John Shade is observed in his house (at night through "lighted windows", for instance), just like Nabokov and his spouse are scrutinized and sollicitated by (intrusive?) scholars and journalists.
Kinbote is constantly sollicitating Shade for a walk in which they will discuss Kinbote's ideas. Shade is well aware that his neighbor is delusional and clueless (about his work as well), but he accepts his presence (out of pity, apparently, in the novel).
Consider the following excerpt:
"Lines 417-421: I went upstairs, etc.
The draft yields an interesting variant:
I fled upstairs at the first quawk of jazz
And read a galley proof: "Such verses as
‘See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king’
(...)
Shade’s replacing an admirable passage by the much flabbier final text. Or was he afraid of offending an authentic king? In pondering the near past I have never been able to ascertain
retrospectively if he really had "guessed my secret," as he once observed (see note to line 991)."
Here you've got the confirmation that in a way, Kinbote could have indeed inspired some of Shade's work, if the poet didn't have eventually scrupples about mentionning him and his delusions of grandeur (Kinbote is of course not really a king, and everyone knows about his "ravings" and is thus considered a pathetic psychiatric case. He's not even a real top-flight university professor "Dr. C. Kinbote, KINBOTE (not "Charles X. Kingbot, Esq.," as you, or Sylvia, wrote").
In his final words, Kinbote actually describes accurately the true situation in the novel but by chance, without even believing it. The only way he could be right, by accident.
--
Lines 347-348: She twisted words
"One of the examples her father gives is odd. I am quite sure it was I who one
day, when we were discussing "mirror words," observed (and I recall the poet’s
expression of stupefaction) that "spider" in reverse is "redips," and "T.S. Eliot,"
"toilest." But then it is also true that Hazel Shade resembled me in certain respects."
"Lolita" (and thus Hazel) is indeed, among other things, twisting words in her riddle.
--
Hazel's entry in the final lexicon.
"Shade, Hazel, S’s daughter, 1934-1957; deserves great respect, having preferred the beauty of death to the ugliness of life; the domestic ghost, 230; the Haunted Barn, 347."
Translation:
"Lolita" will remain as it is known (only a fraction of its richness in design and content).
Hence Hazel's suicide. She accepts her true self to die (her true nature remaining unknown to everyone's eye), and to remain forever the plain girl everyone knows (in Nabokov's opinion, far less beautiful and interesting than the "Lolita" he conceived), to Nabokov's frustration and great disappointment. Better the beauty in the dark than being exposed to the light and being misunderstood and not appreciated at its true value (according to Nabokov's standards).
--
In "the Kongsskugg-sio (The Royal Mirror)", the words, again inspired by Danish - see below - (Danish konge = king; Danish skygge = shadow, shade), seem to put "shade" ("skugg" is likely inspired by "skygge" (note that in cyrillic Y = U and that French U sounds like Danish Y (Nabokov often uses these kinds of characteristics in his little "puzzles"))) in replacement of the word "mirror" (that's hypothetical, I don't know about the intended meaning of "sio"), which could imply that Shade is associated with a mirror (an object that is reflecting (here, Nabokov). A hint of the same vein than the one linking Sudarg of Bokay, a genius mirror-maker, to Nabokov via Jakob Gradus. [ Is "sio" an anagram of "soi", French for "self"? - i.e. Nabokov saying "Shade is myself"? ]
--
All the elements and references of "Lolita" are found in Kinbote's words and comments about Shade (Nabokov)'s poem (a literary work, about Hazel ("Lolita") and his bitterness after her death (the misunderstanding of his work, originality and process)), but they are misinterpreted, misunderstood and they are not given their real values, and so are just part of his comments but in a disorganized meaningless heap.
=============
The "message" to Hazel from the ghost in the barn (A ghost, a shadow, a shade, i.e. Nabokov (this is probably to be understood as a message from Nabokov)), is still undechipered, but I noticed a few things likely relevant:
"pada ata lane pad not ogo old wart alan ther tale feur far rant lant tal told "
First thing to note, it is a line of group of 3 and 4 letters (4 3 4 3 3
3 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 ), which is likely a reference to the Act 4,
scene 3 of "Timon of Athens" by Shakespeare, from which is taken the
title "Pale Fire". 3 and 4 being used here, is 2 an important element to decipher it? (as 342 was important in Lolita's riddle).
I suspect Kinbote (and of course actually Nabokov, the writer)'s words a
bit before the line (""odd trick of ATA-vism"") is a hint to start the
process with the second group of letters, "ata".
By joining a few groups we can obtain "atalanta" which is among the
important keywords in the riddle embedded in "Lolita": ata-lant and "a"
taken from pada (which leaves a second "pad"; maybe the two "pad" are
nullifying each other like in the case of ar-gus / thur-gus ->;
ar-thur). Maybe "Atalanta" can be found more than once in the line
(a-tal-ant-a; first "a" from and (a)lan "ant" from (r)ant and the second
"a" from t(a)le, maybe? I'm really not sure) and maybe they are meant
to remove the letters we don't need to read the actuial messag by
Nabokov, the author of the riddle. Maybe "Atalanta" is the key, the
"password" (a keyword used twice, if I'm note mistaken in "Pale Fire",
obviously for a good reason) to a riddle as it can be linked to the
Vanessa Atalanta, a butterfly (already used in the "riddle" of "Lolita"), and that butterflies are used by Nabokov as keys to riddles/puzzles.
Since I didn't really found the solution so far, I can't really give more here.
Some words can appear, some bits of sentence that could relate to "Lolita" (Hazel), e.g. "her tale told", but I can't really go further at this point.
--
Is there actually a verse 1000 in Shade's intention? Kinbote is convinced of that but I'd say it's unlikely. Note that in his "The Nature of Electricity" published in 1958 (between the death of Hazel and his unfinished poem "Pale Fire") in "The Beau And The Butterfly", a New York magazine), we can read "Streetlamps are numbered, and maybe Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine", which seems to mean that this number was already in his mind for some reason (from my point of view, this belief in a line 1000, is another hint by Nabokov that Kinbote is delusional and understands nothing).
--
Some people (for instance Brian Boyd) think that it's implicit that Kinbote commits suicide after his final words - Nabokov himself would have said it in an interview, but I find it very unlikely given Kinbote's actual words and the logic of the story. It might seem like Nabokov confirming the suicide of Kinbote is a deathblow to any other possibility, but given the context of the novel (in the theory proposed on this blog), Nabokov luring readers and scholars, on purpose (from my point of view, he already did it in other instances about "Lolita"), makes perfect sense.
--
UTANA : portmanteau word of UTA_h-monta_NA, just like IDOMING is a
portmanteau word of ID_aho--wy_OMING (while the Shades said they would
leave for either Utah, Montana or Wyoming - real US states). Is that
supposed to be another hint that Kinbote's mind is confused and mixing
everything up? Or is it another hint to the riddle embedded in "Lolita" (Humbert's portmanteau words / Lewis Carroll's portmanteau words)?... or both.
--
"Two writers and two critics, would debate" |410|
An hint to the general content of the novel.
"The Cause of Poetry on Channel 8" |411|
Eight seems to be part of the meaningful keywords in this novel. At least that's something to consider.
Note that there is an Iris Acht ("eight" in Dutch and in German) associated with the date 1888. The name Iris Acht itself is made of eight letters. Note that by substracting 8 (acht in Dutch) to 1888 you got 1880, the birth date of Carl Van Vechten. [ I can't help noticing that by removing a cht (acht) from Ada Van Vechten we got Ada Van Veen (the readers familiar with Nabokov's "Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle" (1969) know what I'm talking about) and since Nabokov is used to reference his former novels in the new ones... who knows ?! ]
--
It seems this time Nabokov picked the most ridiculously unrelated quote he could find (James Boswell's), at the beginning of the novel, to fit the general content and the clueless protagonist with his totally irrelevant annotations, Charles Kinbote (... and maybe also for the fun of knowning some people will spend a lot of time trying to figure out the deep signification behind this choice? Who knows)
--
=== ADDENDUM: List of elements being references to the subjacent hidden content in
"Lolita" (far from complete) [ to understand what it relates to, read
this page: Lolita's riddle ] ===
King Thurgus - argus -> ar-gus / thur-gus : (king) ar-thur (see above in the page, for the explanation)
King Charles xavier vseslav II - reference to korol' ("king" in Russian)
and Carroll, sounding similar - quite important in the riddle embedded
in "Lolita"
"Charles II", "Karl the Beloved", "carlights", etc... - Charles/Carroll. A major reference and keyword in "Lolita" (see the page about the riddle embedded in "Lolita")
"Nymphets" - an obvious important reference to "Lolita"'s content
"haze", "April's haze" (|254|) - reference to Lolita and "Lolita".
"Lolita" (several times)
"Lilith"
Mentions and hints to birds and butterflies in "Pale Fire" are references to Mrs Maitland's comment about Lewis Carroll, hinted in "Lolita".
"Lois" (in the comment about Line 680 "Lolita") - a close reflexion of "Louis" (important keyword in the riddle in "Lolita")
"mirror words", "the Kongsskugg-sio (The Royal Mirror)", etc... -
reference to a central element of the riddle: the mirror ("Through the
Looking-glass" as central reference as well)
"His whole being constituted a mask" - reference to a central element of
the novel "Lolita" and particularly Humbert Humbert (see the page i
wrote about the riddle embedded in "Lolita")
Phone number 11 111 - a reference to the trick of Quilty's fake phone
call (2-8282) in relation with the riddle embedded in "Lolita"
"Atalanta" - an important element in the riddle embedded in "Lolita"
--
bodkin ((danish - see the lexicon at the end) a stiletto or dagger) a
close reflexion of botkin. A word found in "Lolita" and likely
implicated in a riddle with the words and names
Quilty-rosebud-bodkin-ruskin, in "Lolita".
Note that Bodkin shares a general resemblance with ruskin as a word. The first half is different, the second half is the same.
(Can we attempt a bot + rus + e de kinbote (equival. de botkin) =
brouster / close reflexion of brustère ? (aka brewster), a reference to
Humbert's and Quilty's conversation. Brewster "hides" a reference)
--
The alphabetical familly of judge Goldsworth - Alphina (9), Betty (10),
Candida (12), Dee (14) (a,b,c,d; a-9 to d-14) - Judge Goldsworth
daughters range from 9 to 14 years old. It's a reference to 9 and 14, an
important element of the riddle embedded in "Lolita". Dee is also about the references/keywords dee - vee - bee.
--
Is miragarl ("mirage girl") - a collision of Mirana and Girl? (Mirana girl = Annabel Leigh)
"d'Orly" and "doily" - close relexions of Dolly (and "d'oyly" (carte)), a reference to the riddle
John Shade was born in 1898 - an important date in the riddle embedded in "Lolita", the year of death of Lewis Carroll (Note that 1898 is a close reflexion of 1899, the year of birth of Vladimir Nabokov, the man hiding behind John Shade)
King Alphin (are Alphin and Alphina a reference to Elphin? via a
scandinavian älfin? - not sure at all) - father of Charles II, reign
1900-1918 - reference to John Ruskin (1918 is an anagram of 1819. Ruskin
dates are 1819-1900)
Queen Blenda (mother of Charles II) - born in 1878
Thurgus dies in 1900
"John Shade and Sybil Swallow (see note to line 247) were married in 1919"
19 october, 1959 - 19/10 (/59) in French date system -> 1910
Iris Acht (death in 1888) - reference to "actress" and "1888"
"Walter Campbell" - reference to Roy Campbell, I assume (in relation with
his 1952 translation of Charles Beaudelaire's "La Beauté" - an
important element of the riddle in "Lolita")
"Matthew Arnold [1822-1888]" "Matthew Arnold" and "1888" - reference to both, also a
reference to the dates of birth and death of the individuals (which was
an important element in the riddle embedded in Lolita)
Byron, Baudelaire, Keats, Kipling, Browning, Milton, Rabelais, Chateaubriand - all among the references in "Lolita"
Shakespeare (the bard) - among the references in "Lolita", and "Bard" is
alos among the important keywords in riddle in "Lolita", not only
through Shakespeare.
Grimm - a reference in the novel as well.
groom - reference to the arrival to the enchanted hunters
Florence Houghton - Florence (a major keyword in Lolita's riddle)
"Venitian Sycamore", "venice" - reference to Venice, a major reference and keyword in the riddle.
"hawaiian bar" |388|, "Hawaiian shirt" - pointing to several references in "Lolita"
"Boston"
"switzerland"
"kot" - Russian for "cat", and reference to "cot"
"Appalachia" - I assume it's reference to "Atala" 's Appalachucla (see
the riddle in Lolita) - (one hint was also "Appalachia" in "Lolita")
Stella Lazurchik - a reference to "Stella", and lazur -> l'azur
("azur" is an important reference in the riddle embedded in "Lolita" by
Nabokov)
--
"scandinavia", "icelandic", "Denmark", Copenhagen, Kalixhaven ( K -oben- haven (københavn (Copenhagen), in its original Danish) and inside, alix (*), a close reflexion of "Alice"; also, The first part of the trip of Gradus is Ohnava-Copenhagen), the fact that Kinbote's Fictitious Zemblan language is made of Slavic, but also often Germanic (German, Dutch and Scandinavian) words (e.g. Blawick, "Blue Cove", resembles Norwegian Blåvik (meaning "Blue Cove" if I'm not mistaken), nattochdag is swedish for "night and day", "Kongsskugg-sio", "Yeg ved ik" (resembling Danish "Jeg ved ikke" - "I didn't know"), etc..), there is also mention of "Norway", and of the Swedish wife of someone in the novel, and of speaking in Danish - Scandinavia (and denmark in particular, maybe) are part of the hidden reference in Lolita's riddle. From his caricature in the student play (see Kinbote's foreword), we can surmise Kinbote is actually part of the Germanic department at the university (and the fact that his character is constantly nibbling carrots is likely a reference to his homosexuality by the students (and also a reference to the keyword "rabbit" as he is later compared to it because of his teeth)). The riddle in "Lolita" implied Germanic references (Scandinavian but also German and Dutch).
(*) Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise
Julia (or Alix as her family knew her). She was princess of Denmark,
then Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and
Empress of India as the wife of King-Emperor Edward VII (1841 - May
1910). Is a Part of Lolita's riddle.
--
Nattochdag: natt och dag is a name for the flower Melampyrum Nemorosum in Sweden. Melampyr (-um) is a close reflexion of Melampus, one of the dog of the Farlow couple.
--
"Are you by any chance Professor Pnin’s new assistant?" - reference to
Quilty's "Are you by any chance Brewster?" also containing a portmanteau
conatining another hint in the context of the riddle embedded in
"Lolita".
--
Kobaltana - town name obviously
based on Kobalt (german word derived from Kobold, a Goblin (*)), metal
with a red-white hue ? smelting at 1490 ° Celsius (note the 14-9) and
part of the group 9 of periodic table of elements, likely a reference to
the mention of Telluride in Nabokov's "On a book entitled Lolita" where
lies a wink to the riddle in "Lolita". Kobaltana also contains Nabok
(the "stem" of Nabokov's name - -ov in Russian names being a mere plural
genitive suffix, just like in English, -s in lastname is generalsly the
singlular genitive case (Phillips, Jacobs, etc...) or in Dutch
(Jansens, Timmermans, etc...)) - a hint to the several self-references
nabokov did in the book (e.g. Vivian Darkbloomn an anagram of Vladimir
Nabokov) - yes, Nabokov was part of the riddle embedded in "Lolita" - and Kobaltana also contains "Atala" (a novel By F.-R. de Chateaubriand) another reference used in the riddle.
(*) An
imaginary being supposed to haunt dark or remote places, and to take an
occasional capricious interest in human affairs; an elf; a sprite; an
earthly spirit; particularly, a surly elf; a malicious fairy; a spirit
of the woods; a demon of the earth; a gnome; a kobold. - we can see the link with the references in "Lolita".
--
waxwing
in latin is bombycilla - if we use the butterfly named bombyx to solve
this: bombyx i.e. bomby k s ("x" in russian would be transcribed as
"k"+"s" (or c+s, in this case we just need to add a "s")) to replace the
first part Bombyc- we got bombyksilla - allis a close mirror reflexion
of alis (remember tha the mirror-words are among the key to solve the
"puzzles?" and that in "Lolita", one of the major concepts of the riddle
was to use words and names that were close but not exactly the same
-close mirror reflexion of each others) - which is how would be written,
in russian with latin alphabet, alice. It's a direct reference to one
riddle implicating russian ALIS (via Russian alyi) and a set of
adjectives such as "scarlet" and "crimson" (also a reference mentionned
in "Pale Fire").
--
Countess Fleur de fyler (fyler is an angram of Fleyr, In cyrillic
alphabet (used by the Russians), Y=U, thus fleyr = fleur, as well (French "fleur" means "flower")) - a
reference to the little riddle implying flowers (asters) in "Lolita".
"butterfly" (in the comment about line 49, "shagbark") - butterflies
(argus) as keys of puzzles and hints to hidden references for the ridde
is used several times by nabokov both in "Pale Fire" and "Lolita".
"Argus" might be also part of a riddle (in "Lolita") implying the Azuré commun (in French), a.k.a. the Argus bleu (blue argus in French (a butterfly named common blue in English)), also named Polyommatus Icarus (Polyommatus is a refence to the giant Argus of the Greek mythology)
ferz bretwit - ferz' = the Queen in chess in Russian (ферзь ; word
originally coming from Persian (another keyword)), bret is board in
german, and "wit" is "white" in Ducth. = Is it a reference to the "White
Queen" also part of the riddle in "Lolita"
"Jove" - reference to "jupiter"
"Black Rose Paladin" - references to Rose and even to "Black Rose"
(1952; starring Cécile aubry. See the main page about Lolita's riddle)
and even to "Charlemagne" and "knight" (Paladin was the name of
Charlemagne's knights).
"coccyx"- reference to the words ending in -yx in "Lolita" intended as hidden references pointing to Xie Kitchin.
"Stygian" - reference to the Styx (see above about Xie Kitchin)
"Dante" - an important reference and keyword in "Lolita"
"with sexes reversed, Mrs. G. resembling Malenkov, and Mr. G. a
Medusa-locked hag" - hint to an important element of the riddle in
"Lolita" implicating gender swapping
"Main Hall", "Levin Hall" - reference to the keyword "Hall" (and Levin (lev+i+n): russian lev="lion" and i=9 n=14)
Gerald Emerald - "emerald" ( /esmeralda ), among the keywords in Lolita's riddle (and also "herald" (part of the riddle as well), a close reflexion of "erald"). Gerald Emerald and his green clothes: G-erald EM-erald : GEM / -erald, a green gem is an emerald - why is Nabokov doubly pointing to "emerald" in this?
"Queen of England" p.304 F - according to me, part of the numerous hidden references in "Lolita"
"crystal to crystal", "crystal land"
"The Tempest" and "year of Tempests" - a reference in "Lolita"
"lily pond", "pond" (comment on line 62 "often") - "lily" and "pond"
"Persian lilacs" - references to "Persian" and "Lilacs"
"On Chapman’s Homer, thumbtacked to the door." - Maybe also a reference
to William Chapman Hewitson, also a side reference to butterflies, among
other things, in "Lolita"
--
"vanessa" - comment on lines 993-995 "dark vanessa" - reference to
"vanessa" (a reference and keyword in "Lolita") - more precisely the red
admirable also known as the red admiral (both "red" and "admiral" are
to be counted in the keywords of the riddle in "Lolita")
in his comment on Line 270 "my dark Vanessa"
"a couple of lines from one of Swift’s poems (which in these
backwoods I cannot locate) have stuck in my memory:
When, lo!Vanessa in her bloom
Advanced like Atalanta’s star"
A very important element of the riddle embedded in "Lolita", and not by
Swift, by Algernon Charles Swinburne (also of importance in the riddle).
Kinbote can't even point to the right author, in his hazy mind.
He also mention the creation of the name Vanessa by Swift: VAN from her
_Dutch_ lastname and ESSA a pet for mof Esther ("allusion to Vanhomrigh,
Esther!").
--
"Beverland Hotel" p. F - reference to Peter Pan's Neverland (part of the hidden reference in "Lolita") and the "Beaver Eaters"?
--
"Jane de Faun" - reference to the keyword "Faun" in "Lolita"
Also "his bold virilia contrasted harshly with his girlish grace. He was
a regular faunlet." - Is it not yet obvious that many important words
in "Lolita" are also found in "Pale Fire", hinting to a link between
both novels?
"Me laissa son faon, mais pris son coeur" - "faon" (french for "fawn") is a close reflexion of "faun"
"ebon fauns" - Faun again. And does "ebon" also pointing to an Afro-american element in the context? Possible.
--
Sylvia - a close enough reflexion of - or a hint to - "sylph"?
"lane, franklin Knight" (in the lexicon) - reference to "Knight"
"Krummholz, Gordon" - reference to Gordon?
"hodge" - reference Mabel Dodge Luhan, via a hodge/dodge mirroring the hodgson/dodgson of the riddle in "Lolita"
"emblem" reference to the emblem 39 of "Atalanta Fugiens", part of the riddle in "Lolita"
Kinbote's comment on line 149 "One foot upon a mountain" - Are the diverse mentions of mountains (also through "berg") references to the references in alpinists in "Lolita"?
Sinyavin - siniy avin (russian siny / siniy (синий) is "blue" and avin is a close reflexion of "avis", bird in Latin: blue bird, another reference to the riddle); also a reference to the trick using colors in Russian in the riddle (i.e belyi (white) and alyi (crimson, i.e. ~ red) - notice that these colors are the colors (blue, white, ~red) of the main countries implicated in the riddle (USA, France, UK and Russia))
Is "Steinmann, Julius, b. 1928, tennis champion and Zemblan patriot,
171." man of stone - keyword "statue", (maybe also a reference to stein
gertrude (who was a great friend of Carl Van Vechten (he was also his
literary executor)) - "man" because she was lesbian (she desires women)?
It is well-known that Nabokov had rather harsh opinions about
homosexuals) - also keywords "tennis", "champion".
"Pius X, Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, 1835-1914" - Is 1835, here, an anagram of 1853?
Is "the lost glove is happy" - zemblan proverb (at first, not very
meaningful and relevant - it might be in fact a reference to "Alice In
Wonderland" - like many other elements hinting to "Lolita" and in
"Lolita")
Is "Indran" a close reflexion of "indian"
duck - in the comment line 319 "wood duck" - also in the hidden reference in "Lolita"
"Uran the last", "emperor" - ref to "uranus" and "uranists", "rainbow"
and keyword "emperor" (not that all rulers of Zembla rea kings but he is
an emperor)
"Charles X. Kingbot" - reference to French king Charles X, or more
generally to French kings (the ones named Charles and Louis, at least -
Several French kings are hinted in the riddle in "Lolita", most
obviously in "Humbert le Bel" (hinting to Charles IV le Bel))
"Karl the Beloved" (in Kinbote's comment on line 149 "One foot aupon a mountain") - a hint to Charles le Bel, and to the riddle implicating him (see the page about the riddle embeded in "Lolita"). [ bel + oved (anagram of "dove", a bird) ]
"king", "dream king"
"kron" - "crown" in English (possibly a reference the crown in the riddle)
"manor"
Duchess of Payn (Disa) - reference to the keyword "Duchess" (of Great Payn and Mone) and maybe to "pawn" (Y=U in cyrillic; payn => paun => pawn (similar sound))
"march 14", "march in Zembla", "march" and "Mars glowed" - note that "mars" is
"March" in French - reference to March and 14, both important in the
riddle.
"Yeslove, a fine town, district and bishopric, north of Onhava, 149, 275." and "the Bishop of
Yeslove, a sanguineous and saintly old man" - "bishop", not only a
chesman, also a reference to the bishop of Elphin (see the page about
the riddle in "Lolita").
"Elphin" - via a reference to Oliver Goldsmith
"Cumberland" - via references to the Wordworth siblings
"Vécu, lys dehors, roses dedans" - French. References to "lily" ("lys" in French) and "roses"
"Waxwing" - the birds in the poem refers likely to a Cedar Waxwing, but
the reference to waxwing also implies the Bohemian Waxwing - reference
to "Bohemian", a keyword in the riddle in "Lolita".
--
In the lexicon at the end : "his log cabin in Cedarn and the little
angler, a honey-skinned lad, naked except for a pair of torn dungarees,
one trouser leg rolled up, frequently fed with nougat and nuts, but then
school started or the weather changed, 609; his appearance at the H——s,
629; his severe"
important reference about a subjacent theme (Illustrated by Gaston
Godin) in Lolita's riddle (probably implicating Nabokov himself and his
uncle Ruka)
also "erlkönig" is both referenced in "Pale Fire" and "Lolita"
--
Is "Tremkin" to a close reflexion of an angram of "merkin" (see the riddle in "Lolita")
Is Bokay a reference to the trick in "Lolita" with "de KaY"?
Is "Conmal" coined by the sly Nabokov from French "con" (idiot; jerk) and "mal" (bad)? (highly conjectural)
"As children playing in a castle find
In some old closet full of toys, behind
The animals and masks, a sliding door" - children, castle, masks
"The seraph with his six flamingo wings" |225| - "seraph" and "flamingo"
"proust" |224|
"porcupine" |227|
"Turk", "Turkish" and "Turc" (French for the two former words)
"Lorrainer" - "Lorrain" in French
"lupines" - "lupine" is a close reflexion of "Lupin" (Arsène Lupin is hinted in "Lolita")
"Riviera", "azure" (also likely to be counted as a reference to La Côte d'Azur, a.k.a. The French riviera)
"garland"
"dwarf"
"Vienna"
"Rome"
"Gide"
Is "Griff" an echo of Gryphon (/Griffin)?
"ruby"
"woolly" - "woolly-woo-boo-are" (and its hidden reference)
"baboon"
"New England"
"tweedy" - possibly a conniving wink intended to point to Tweedledee and tweedledum.
"caterpillar"
"fairy-tale"
"dream", "dream king"
"scarlet"
"Karlik" (Kinbote's comment about line 12) - reference to "dwarf" in "Lolita" and an element of the riddle in it.
Anna (Snyder), Fanya (Marinoff) - Ann - a (echo in "Bluebeard" 's sister Ann (mentionned in "Lolita")) and Fany -a (an echo in Le Fanu and cyrillic Y = U thus fany = fanu, an annagram of faun))
"Sherlock Holmes"
"Hawk-nosed" - reference to the trick linking Vivian Darkbloom with the Gryphon.
"a compass rose of ivory with four parts of ebony" - reference to "rose" and to the "ivory" / "ebony" pair of opposites, also found in "Lolita" (and to all the other opposite pairs found in the text of "Lolita")
"Hippopotamus" - reference to Lewis Carroll's pastiche of "The Age of Innocence" found in "The life and Letters of Lewis Carroll" hinted in "Lolita"
"Oxford"
"Latin"
"gone to Italy"
"Côte d'Azur"
"German visitor" and "Kinbote: "You are confusing me with some refugee from Nova Zembla" - reference to Quilty's thinking Humbert might be a jew that fled Germany before world war two (in the scene when he speaks of his Gentile's house near the end)
--
"the kind that Zemblans call rusker sirsusker ("Russian seersucker suit")" - is it about "seer", a close reflexion of german "sehr" -> (very) sucker ? - is Nabokov taunting his Kinbotian reader?)
Rusker seeems to point to the keyword "Russian" via Scandinavian languages ("American", French", "English", "scandinavian" are also to be counted in the references to keywords in "Lolita")
rusker: rusk- er - also a reference to Ruskin? the missing letters are i and n, the 9th and 14th letters of the alphabet. A typically Nabokovian wink!)
Is "sirsusker" a close annagrammatic reflexion of "sir sucker?" It also contains "rusk"
All these words are also subtly hinting to Ruskin (a central element of the Riddle in "Lolita"), like "Hruskov" (also pointing to "Russian", "ruskov" (or "ruskoff") being a familiar way to say "Russian" in French), all containing "rusk", a hint by Nabokov of the importance of this "rusk" (Did Nabokov taunt his readers (more likely scholars) or his it on the contrary away to try to truly hint his intentions).
--
"Tyrolese" - could point to "Austrian" (even though a part of Tyrol is in Northern Italy since early 20th c.)
You can find many hints, obvious or not, to birds:
The waxwing as soon as the first line of Shade's poem.
Irondell: hirondelle ("swallow" in French) is the origin of the original lastname of Sybil Shade's family according to Kinbote (as he says: "which comes not from a little valley yielding iron ore but from the French for "swallow"")
Sea gulls (in the anecdotes about the English tourists mispronouncing French "cigales" (i.e. "cicadas"), in south-eastern France)
Argus is not only a butterfly, it's also a bird (pheasant-like)
mockingbird
Bobolink
Martinet (it is also the name of a bird in French (e.g. Martinet noir = common Swift; "Martinet" is thus another reference to Jonathan Swift as well), even though it was used in the meaning of an object that was used to discipline children)
Sylvia O'donnell (née O'connell) - Sylvia is the Latin name of some typical warblers, of the Old World Warblers family (e.g. "Sylvia Borin" is in English "Garden Warbler")
Cardinal
Pigeon - |442| "dark pigeon"
duck - in the comment line 319 "wood duck"
flamingo
dove ( beloved: bel + oved, an anagram of "dove" (Charles the beloved - charles the ("le" in French) bel (-oved) => reference to Charles (IV) le Bel, an important element in "Lolita") - see later)
American Robin - there is also a reference to the Turdus Migratorius
peacock(-herl)
"Shelley", Shelley -> hellyes, to be paired with "yeslove" (mention of a bishopric of Yeslove in north Ohnava) -> yeslove - hellyes, we remove the common part "yes" (as done in other instances), -> love - hell [ is this supposed to mean "love is hell"? In Russian, the present of verb "to be" is not said/written, it is implicit (e.g. Russian "он прав" means "He is right" (but literally "He right")) ] -> we switches the words -> hell love -> we replace by one of its russian form, ada, and we got Ada Love, a hint to Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, a mathematician who died in 1852 (Am I missing a part of the puzzle giving the "lace"?) who worked with Charles Babbage and who is part of the references in the riddle embedded in "Lolita" (see https://lolitasriddle.blogspot.com/p/more-chernovik.html ) (or we simply put: hellyes yeslove (then both the same words are removed as seen earlier) -> hell love -> ada love (hell = ada (a form of Russian ad, meaning "hell")) pointing to Ada Lovelace? (just like vanho was pointing to Vanhomrigh)).
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As you can see with the elements gathered above, just like "Lolita" was filled with keywords pointing to a Carrollian context, "Pale Fire" is filled with keywords pointing to "Lolita", in both cases hidden in plain sight.
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Last words: As mentionned earlier, sometimes Kinbote utters things that could also be associated with typical Nabokov opinions (like his derogatory comments about Freudian psychanalists) and in the same vein, I wouldn't be suprised if Nabokov was believing in what we could call a Parmenidean universe (*). For instance I interpret the actual meaning of his novel "Invitation to a Beheading" (1935-1936; Priglashanie na kazn' (приглашание на казнь). Nabokov stated in an interview that of all his novels, he held the greatest affection for "Lolita", but that he held the greatest esteem for "Invitation to a Beheading") as his view on life and the world: note the quote at the beginning (**) of the novel (and thus supposedly meaningful in relation with the novel) then we are immersed in a ridiculous meaningless world, devoid of sense and justice, that collapses when the protagonist is killed, only to emerge in a new reality soon in the (recomforting) presence of beings resembling him (It can sound like a typical near death experience story) [ The movement of the executionner, the pale vomiting spectators, the two Cincinnatus (one in the situation, fading to the second Cincinnatus, already detached from all this - kind of reminding the out of body situation in near death experiences and the attitude of the mind at this moment), the new intense sharpness of the perception and its pleasantness, everything looking like a ridiculous crude theater play (even with fake "cardboard" trees and some fake crowd (life and all its components are just a crude illusion, in the theory of the universe we're talking of)) ]. Other things in his novels and his autobiography could possibly hint to that.
I'd say all of this would fit more with Kinbote's words during the recollection of their discussion about God (that K. would named The Mind), life and the universe, than Shade's agnostic attitude. But I could be completely wrong.
(*) (i.e. meaning roughly that behind the appearence of diversity of the universe, everything is one and unchanging and space and time are a mere illusion. There exists only One immaterial eternal Mind, a Conscience (and we, as "atoms" of this conscience are eternal beings who re-enter the "reality" as we die (even though in last analysis, there's only one thing)). In this view, nothing is ever created and nothing dies or disappears. While incarnated, our soul, this fraction of the global conscience (The Mind, a.k.a. God), is prisonner of matter (apparently in order to experiment and learn (until a final understanding about the actual reality?)), in a world of apparent duality, but actually more of a shapeless world of relativity where all is in fact in shades of grey, and not in black and white (and in the end, duality is an illusion, there is only oneness). This point of view is more frequent (with diverse understanding and approach of it, but with a largely similar/common view) in the world than we would think. It is found in Hinduism, Buddhism (which is mentionned in the novel. For instance it's found in the teachings of the Buddhist zen Patriarch Huineng and Sengcan) but also in western philosophers like Baruch spinoza (who believed that everything (matter and thoughts) is made of one same unique substance (that everything is ultimately one, that he calls Nature or God)) and a pre-socratic philosopher like Parmenides (and nowadays, the experience of the individuals living a Near Death Experience could sometimes be seen as going in that direction as well)
(**) "Comme un fou se croit Dieu, nous nous croyons mortels" -Delalande (French sentence meaning: "like a lunatic believes he's God, we believe we are mortals". Pretty meaningful if we interpret it with the aforementionned context)
Other words by Nabokov could be interpreted that way, for instance his "I see again my schoolroom in Vyra, the blue roses of the wallpaper, the open window... Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die". This is not necessarily an ode to memory, but could reflect his view of the universe. His "For me, a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm" and "I confess, I do not believe in time (...) A sense of oneness with sun and stone" can also actually be interpreted in that manner.
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| Hylas and the Nymphs, by John William Waterhouse (The Naiads are water nymphs) |