Thread replies: 14
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1
Just finished Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov and my head is still spinning.
Not sure if Kinbote is crazy or not, whether I'm supposed to try and figure that out or not, or if it's just (or also) a massive joke about literary criticism.
Would appreciate some commentary on a real author's fictional author's commentary on a fictional author's poem.
>>
>>9605456
I read the poem but not the commentary. It wasn't very good.
>>
>>960546
Did you at least read the forward? The poem really isn't all the book has to offer (given that it's meta-fiction) and in fact the commentator spends more time talking about his homosexual fantasies than talking about the actual poem.
>>
>>9605466
Did you at least read the forward? The poem really isn't all the book has to offer (given that it's meta-fiction) and in fact the commentator spends more time talking about his homosexual fantasies than talking about the actual poem.
>>
>>9605466
the commentary and footnotes are the book, dumbass
>>
You have to reread it and reread it again. Your interpretation will change each time as you become increasing distrusting of Kinbote.
It's a hilarious book and gets funnier and funnier. My favourite bit is when he's at the party and the faculty member says something like, "you've got the hals really bad, man" and he interprets it as hallucinations rather than halitosis. Kinbote is absolutely unhinged.
>>
Kinbote isn't real. If you want a hint look up professor Botkin in the glossary.
If you liked Pale Fire you absolutely must read Ada. It towers above the rest of Nabokov's work and represents him at the peak of his aestheticisim. It's pure bliss
>>
>>9605520
No I don't read intros or forwards
>>
>>9605748
But 85 percent of the book masquerades as a "forward." So congrats, you just mistook a single root for a whole tree
>>
>>9605758
you are getting baited dude, cmon
>>9605456
ill discuss. when i first read i thought he was the king and someone was trying to kill him and shot the poet, but honestly i think i read the last 1/3 high so dont remember that well and mightve been retarded. the commentary and shit are hilarious though and i remember generally loving the book.
>>
>>
>>9605746
Ok I'll read it first chance I get. Any other works by VN you'd recommend? I currently have Ada, The Gift and Glory (and Lolita and Pnin but already I already finished those)
You mind expanding on that Botkin theory a bit more. I saw it in the Wikipedia page but didn't see much textual evidence for it.
>>
Is it Kin-Bo-Tay or Kin-Bot or Kin-Boat?
>>
>>9605466
Lel
Thread posts: 14
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1