''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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cal notion of a symmetrical fate. 1186
Now that Shade has been established as the mas-
ter-mind of Pale Fire, it becomes clear that it is
not Kinbote who has developed this "working model"
for Shade's theories, but Shade himself.
I feel I understand
Existence, or at least a minute part
Of my existence only through my art,
In terms of combinational delight (IV, 970-973).
The commentary, or rather, the whole critical appar-
atus, is the piece of art that grants him the under-
standing that he hopes and struggles for. He uses
elements from the world he knows, and in his work of
art and through the mediation of Kinbote, he trans-
forms them, combines them and recombines them, thus
creating a new world, in which the pattern which he
seeks to detect becomes visible and comprehensible
to
him
The intertwined relationship of Gradus,
Shade and Kinbote, and the correlated
moves of Gradus' search for his prey
with Shade's progress toward completion
of Pale Fire are an imaginative recreation
of that correlated "Pattern in
the game", that "web of sense" emerging
from "topsy-turvical coincidence" that
Shade postulates in Canto III. 87
Through the artistic and imaginative transformation of
characters and events and incidents from his life,
through giving some of his problems to Kinbote to
reflect upon (319ff. ), and through "discussing" some
of them with his fictitious character (223-ff
.)
Shade
comes to terms with what moves him. In the new world
and in the pattern which becomes visible in the work-
ings of fate in this world he finds an explanation