''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
- 245 - sions have the essential quality in common. They both make transparent how incidents and possibilities and seeming coincidences combine (or are combined? ) into an intricate pattern of moves by which the fate of one man, who is totally unaware of it all, is decided. This taken into account, Kinbote's version does not look all that absurd any more, and it ceases looking absurd once one realizes that his story is the artistic version of the bare and ordinary facts. His imagination removes the events from the level of the crude and commonplace onto the level of art and leaves the sober facts to the "scurrilous and the heartless", to all those "for whom romance, remoteness, sealskin-lined scarlet skies, the darkening dunes of a fabulous kingdom, simply do not exist. " (85) Into his story go other persons and elements from his immediate surroundings. Persons from the Campus go through an artistic process of transformation and get involved in the dramatic action. Gerald Emerald, who repeatedly irritates Kinbote, appears as "one of the greater Shadows" (255), the Shadow, in fact, from whom the murderer Gradus learns where to find the King. He is easily recognized not only by his "green velvet jacket" (255) but by his very name, 'Izumrudov' being Russian for "em- 54 erald". There is also Gordon, Assistant Professor, a musician, who lends his name to a young boy, described in the Index as "a musical prodigy and an amusing pet" (310). Mary McCarthy, by a series of ingenious conclu-
- 246 - sions, shows that even the "fabulous kingdom" Zembla is based on Kinbote's surroundings, that "Zembla" is indeed synonymous with "Appalachia". 55 Kinbote's explanation of the name (though wrong) is a valuable clue and confirms McCarthy's statement: "... the name Zembla is a corruption not of Russian zeml a, but of Semblerland, a land of reflections, or 'resemblers"' (265). Into the Zemblan fable Kinbote, finally, projects himself as King Charles the Beloved, victim of the Zemblan revolution, exiled and persecuted by the Extremists. The King looks exactly like him, and he shares his fate: Kinbote, too, is an exile. from his note to line 894 that he is rea11y -It appears one V. Botkin "of Russian descent" (267) who teaches in the Russian Department and who, because of his peculiarities, is subject to all sorts of attacks and signs of unkindness from those around him. In the King's fear of death and murder one recognizes Kinbote's (Botkin's) own constant harrowing fears of "death's fearful shadow" (96) which make his nights restless, and his visions of "relentlessly advancing assassins" (97). Onto Zembla, and onto the figure of King Charles, Kinbote (Botkin) projects his "persecution mania" (98), which those around him have recognized,. and which is "complicated by the commonplace conspiracy mania of a faculty common room. " 56 Transferring the drab and unpleasant real events into the imaginative fable of Zembla, Kinbote emerges as an artist who follows the same principles of art
- 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 and 242: - 234 - commentary, and they also o
- Page 243 and 244: - 236 - forbidden knowledge of whic
- 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: - 244 - emerges that the man whom h
- 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
- Page 293 and 294: - 286 - We thought that he had in h
- Page 295 and 296: - 288 - The thought throws more lig
- Page 297 and 298: - 290 - That Nabokov does consider
- Page 299 and 300: - 292 - which strangely prefigures
- Page 301 and 302: - 294 - become no doubt a new bible
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245<br />
-<br />
sions have the essential quality in common. They<br />
both make transparent how incidents and possibilities<br />
and seeming coincidences combine (or are combined? )<br />
into an intricate pattern of moves by which the<br />
fate of one man, who is totally unaware of it all,<br />
is decided. This taken into account, Kinbote's version<br />
does not look all that absurd any more, and it<br />
ceases looking absurd once one realizes that his<br />
story is the artistic version of the bare and ordinary<br />
facts. His imagination removes the events from<br />
the level of the crude and commonplace onto the<br />
level of art and leaves the sober facts to the "scurrilous<br />
and the heartless", to all those "<strong>for</strong> whom<br />
romance, remoteness, sealskin-lined scarlet skies,<br />
the darkening dunes of a fabulous kingdom, simply<br />
do not exist. " (85) Into his story go other persons<br />
and elements from his immediate surroundings. Persons<br />
from the Campus go through an artistic process of<br />
trans<strong>for</strong>mation and get involved in the dramatic action.<br />
Gerald Emerald, who repeatedly irritates Kinbote,<br />
appears as "one of the greater Shadows" (255),<br />
the Shadow, in fact, from whom the murderer Gradus<br />
learns where to find the King. He is easily recognized<br />
not only by his "green velvet jacket" (255) but<br />
by his very name, 'Izumrudov' being Russian <strong>for</strong> "em-<br />
54<br />
erald". There is also Gordon, Assistant Professor,<br />
a musician, who lends his name to a young boy, described<br />
in the Index as "a musical prodigy and an<br />
amusing pet" (310).<br />
Mary McCarthy, by a series of ingenious conclu-