what's better for a first read, poem then commentary or

>>9955102
Read it straight through including index.

>>9955106
fpbp

>>9955106
This.

the poem sucks

>>9955194
it's supposed to, but even if it wasn't it'd still suck because nabokov was a terrible poet

>>9955102
I still don't understand the point of this book.

>poem only
>can knock it out in no time
>easy +1 for your goodreads

read the poem first but keep in mind its not supposed to be good as to not get discouraged.

>>9956494
are you me? I did this

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Is this a good version?

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Dual wielding with two copies as suggested in the book you mong.

>>9956480
his dad was assassinated

>>9955102
I only read the poem when I felt it was necessary. It was hilariously bad, I don't think he intended for anyone to actually read it through. What are you, autistic?

>>9955102
Why does everybody say the poem is bad? I liked it. Any arguments for why it's bad?

>>9957413
There's a line somewhere like "but all of a sudden, things got dim/ I got better, I even learned to swim" (obvious terrible paraphrase, but the point was the line is something of a non-sequiter and a shitty rhyme) along with other, equally crappy lines. There's a joke somehow about Shade actually being a kind of mediocre poet that Kinbote just happens to be obsessed with, as well as a number of places where Kinbote may have actually changed the open himself. I still think the poem is decent either way, for every crappy line there's a couple of great ones.

>>9955194
>>9956461
>>9957197

pleb opinions detected

Flip back and forth, then read the index through at the end.

>>9957413
I liked it too. The feel of mid 1950's academic suburban life is palpable, and Shade's reverse Lolita daughter thoroughly proto/lit/. 'No lips would share the lipstick of her smoke..' [You] motherfuckers are going to have to learn how to read. I'm not even a fan, but recognize the greatness of this novel in ALL its aspects.

>>9957460

Do you honestly believe Vlad had no idea some of the lines thudded? Of course he knew, it was fucking intentional.

>>9955102
Im trying to read it on an E-Reader right now, jumping back and forth

It's hell

The novel is interesting as a concept, I give it that

>>9957413
Some say it is a parody of T. S. Eliot's poetry, which Nabokov thought overrated. If that is the case, appreciating the poem would be missing the point.

>>9957792
maybe its a testament to eliots prowess that even a deliberate parody of his work holds power

>>9957479
Lol. My grandmother was raised in a castle and prosecuted for antisemitism, I am as patrician as can be.

The poem's aesthetic is a brutal roasting of aspirational middlebrow tastes. Like plebs who read the New Yorker or the NYRB to become "cultured".

>>9958236
>roleplaying on /lit/ of all places

you know there's a dedicated board for this right?

>>9958236
being the bastard child of a castle janitor is not something to be proud of, anon

>>9957413
Two reasons, Nabokov was a not a writer of poetry and he also wrote it purposely to be bad to show the "author" was a bad poet

>>9957413
Even the intro is full of trite sentimentality. Maybe its more obvious if you actually read poetry.

>>9958236
My grandma was in the shoah, I am even more patrician and I quite enjoyed the poem. Even more than the rest of the book.

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am p. sure a straight read-through is initially intended followed by cross-referencin l8r or awn a 2nd go

also p. sure whether the poems good or not relative to irl criteria is irrelevant 2 the book's gist (although it scans as first 3 sections acceptable, 4th as "purloined" by kinbote doo doo butt) - theres a v. clear case for kinbote bein Bonkers AF and simply existin as a bozo livin near an amusement park who made up the whole damn story

think the commentary'd obfuscation in relation 2 glimpses of that reality anchors pale fire's importance more than whether the poems actually "good" oar knot

>>9958733
>fell for the Jews can buy their way into society meme