''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
- 235 - While I keep everything on the very brink of parody, there must be on the other hand an abyss of seriousness, and I must make my way along the narrow ridge betwe4n my own truth and the caricature of it. 4 Pale Fire is another instance of a novel in which he performs this artistic balancing act, and the reader must perform it after him if he wants to arrive at a recognition of the essential content under, or im- plicit in, the deceptive comic surface of the novel. The analysis of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight has shown that its philosophical questions are contained in its very parodies, and, just as there, some deep seriousness becomes visible in what is only super- ficially comic in Pale Fire. The initial source of seriousness in Pale Fire is Shade's poem. It is autobiographical. However, it does not give a detailed account of his life, but follows the various stages of his life-long musings about life and death, the possibility of an existence after death, and the question whether everything in a man's life is just mad and improbable coincidence, or whether there is a pattern in his existence in which each incident has its logical place. Shade has been troubled by these questions ever since his early boyhood when he was subject to mys- terious attacks. During these attacks he suddenly and unaccountably sinks into blackness which is yet sublime, because his existence is no longer limited to "here" and "now" but is "distributed through space and time" (I, 146-156). Although the attacks stop after a while, the memory remains with him of some
- 236 - forbidden knowledge of which he has been allowed a taste. By this taste, as if by something indecent, he feels "corrupted", "terrified", and yet strangely attracted, eager to know more (I, 160ff. ). The curiosity and the wonder aroused in him by "playful death" (I, 140) remain with him throughout his life. There is a time when he suspects that everybody, except only himself, knows the whole truth (II, 167-172) and that this truth is kept from him on purpose. There is a time when it seems to him that only people insane can live with the terrible uncertainty about what awaits them after death (II, 173-176); and there is the moment when he decides "to explore and fight / The foul, the inadmissible abyss" and to make this his main purpose in life (II, 177-181). For a long time there are only questions and speculations, caused not only by his general perplexity but also by the deaths of his Aunt Maud and his daughter Hazel: "What momant in the gradual decay / Does resurrection choose? " and who is the determining force behind it? (II, 209-211). Should we scorn a hereafter simply because we cannot verify it? After all, our present life was something unknown to us prior to life. Might not existence after death be just as wild and nonsensical and weird and wonderful as this life? Paradise and Hell are both equally 4. likely (II, 217-230). But even though it should be paradise, he will turn it and eternity down unless the tenderness and passion of this life, the joy in little things, and the daily trivia are all there to
- Page 191 and 192: - 185 - what he wants to find, that
- Page 193 and 194: - 187 - would not see him. Somewhat
- Page 195 and 196: - 189 - he falls back on passages f
- Page 197 and 198: - 191 - ticism as one possible way
- Page 199 and 200: - 193 - The passages betray not onl
- Page 201 and 202: - 195 - This "mental jerk" grants k
- Page 203 and 204: - 197 - clear, and the harmony and
- Page 205 and 206: - 199 - initiated the insight. In l
- Page 207 and 208: - 201 - himself, and in it V appear
- Page 209 and 210: - 203 - novels of Sebastian Knight,
- Page 211 and 212: - 205 - All those that knew Sebasti
- Page 213 and 214: - 207 - in his opinion not have for
- Page 215 and 216: - 209 - others as his remoteness an
- Page 217 and 218: - 210 - THEDEFENCE R. H. W. Dillard
- Page 219 and 220: - 212 - his own future, and it beco
- Page 221 and 222: - 214 - Unlike Shade, however, Luzh
- Page 223 and 224: - 216 - has recognized as the basic
- Page 225 and 226: - 218 - The sensitive reader dislik
- Page 227 and 228: - 220 - The individual parts have p
- Page 229 and 230: - 222 - for the overall comic effec
- Page 231 and 232: - 224 - Americans of today. "24 He
- Page 233 and 234: - 226 - learn anything, to wrap it
- Page 235 and 236: - 228 - exhausted. Kinbote uses it
- Page 237 and 238: - 230 - (24-25). He talks about how
- Page 239 and 240: - 232 - "Parents" (1,71), "my bedro
- Page 241: - 234 - commentary, and they also o
- Page 245 and 246: - 238 - than he thought it was46: B
- Page 247 and 248: - 240 - following the road of its r
- Page 249 and 250: - 242 - actually sees Kinbote, lose
- Page 251 and 252: - 244 - emerges that the man whom h
- Page 253 and 254: - 246 - sions, shows that even the
- Page 255 and 256: - 248 - superficially is about. He
- Page 257 and 258: - 250 - "really" Kinbote who has wr
- Page 259 and 260: - 252 - standing' of the poem do no
- Page 261 and 262: - 254 - Shade mentions a famous fil
- Page 263 and 264: - 256 - is left-handed (180) and he
- Page 265 and 266: - 258 - The sea's a thief, whose li
- Page 267 and 268: - 260 - much a person even on the l
- Page 269 and 270: - 262 - In the relationship between
- Page 271 and 272: - 264 - even for his own death. It
- Page 273 and 274: - 266 - TRANSPARENT THINGS An old N
- Page 275 and 276: - 268 - the name as if it were simp
- Page 277 and 278: - 270- Armande that has brought him
- Page 279 and 280: - 272 - a conscious effort. Things
- Page 281 and 282: - 274 - intention either to convey
- Page 283 and 284: - 276 - past with utmost precision
- Page 285 and 286: - 278 - Hugh Person ignores a vague
- Page 287 and 288: - 280 - the wall which in his wakin
- Page 289 and 290: - 282 - thus opening the view into
- Page 291 and 292: - 284 - tain moments he positively
-<br />
235<br />
-<br />
While I keep everything on the very brink<br />
of parody, there must be on the other hand<br />
an abyss of seriousness, and I must make<br />
my way along the narrow ridge betwe4n my<br />
own truth and the caricature of it. 4<br />
Pale Fire is another instance of a novel in which he<br />
per<strong>for</strong>ms this artistic balancing act, and the reader<br />
must per<strong>for</strong>m it after him if he wants to arrive at a<br />
recognition of the essential content under, or im-<br />
plicit in, the deceptive comic surface of the novel.<br />
The analysis of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight has<br />
shown that its philosophical questions are contained<br />
in its very parodies, and, just as there, some deep<br />
seriousness becomes visible in what is only super-<br />
ficially comic in Pale Fire.<br />
The initial source of seriousness in Pale Fire is<br />
Shade's poem. It is autobiographical. However, it<br />
does not give a detailed account of his life, but<br />
follows the various stages of his life-long musings<br />
about life and death, the possibility of an existence<br />
after death, and the question whether everything in<br />
a man's life is just mad and improbable coincidence,<br />
or whether there is a pattern in his existence in<br />
which each incident has its logical place.<br />
Shade has been troubled by these questions ever<br />
since his early boyhood when he was subject to mys-<br />
terious attacks. During these attacks he suddenly<br />
and unaccountably sinks into blackness which is yet<br />
sublime, because his existence is no longer limited<br />
to "here" and "now" but is "distributed through space<br />
and time" (I, 146-156). Although the attacks stop<br />
after a while, the memory remains with him of some