Tuesday, November 3

"Welcome to Kinboteland"

psycho pompous: Hermes- the guide of souls pg 126

Nabokov= Hermes

intro to Lolita: PF and VN pg 27

SAMPLE PAPER TOPICS:

• parody
• coincidence
• expand blogs (pg 63)
• patterning (chess, lepodoptra)
• illusion/allusion
• work with in work- frames
• staging of the novel
• authorial voice (p 63) ~who is the author
• doppelgangers

grade: shade, degree (gradus, degree)

'The Ugly Duckling' is Pale Fire, but a reversed displacement

"not a cryptographic paper chase, but the guide of our souls" ~Dr S

Major theme: communication with the dead

the 4 quartets by TS Eliot

• time
• memory
• communication with the dead

Who is dead at the end?

• Hazel
• Aunt Maud
• J. Shade

Kinbote knows nothing on the outside, but he is "perfectly manipulated by the dead"

Pale Fire: a parody of literary criticism- relationship between interpreter and text

John Shade= Emily Dickenson: both had people steal and edit their poems

Everyone knows a Kinbote, and I hate to admit that I'm a Sybil, not a John...

PITY: compassion for the insane= The Phantom of the Opera

Assistant Prof who he is talking about on pg 24? -Gerald Emerald

Kinbote= Hazel, they are VERY similar!

Netochka pg 25

Wizard of Oz: Dorothy projects all of her friends from Kansas into Oz, with their cowardly, brainless and heartless ways (this clip isn't exactly what I wanted, but I couldn't find the entire first scene, I am horrible at using youtube...)

Gradus: McFate

Arabian Nights= 'Destroyer of Delights' DEATH

pg 255~ Because Jack Grey kills himself with a safety razor, so K offers Gradus one whenever he speaks of him

Pale Fire trumps Lolita!!!!!

Malenkov

Tuesday, October 27

'Help Me Will!'

William Butler Yeats:

• 'help me will'
• a poet to his beloved

azure- blue

Amber to Zen: Sam's Blog:

• Forever Amber
• gave the name Amber currency

How was Kinbote able to take people from New Wye and turn them into Zemblians?

Gerald Emerald: A Shadow?

Argus:

• pg 83
• a giant with 100- eyes
• transformed into a peacock
• son of Arestor

Thursday, October 22

Today Gretchen Minton was here to discuss Timon of Athens and Pale Fire

Here is a link to the play

Tuesday, October 20

'The Ugly Hazel'

Because I had the swine during the next three blog entries, these notes were kindly donated to me by Amanda Springer. Thanks friend!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sibyl:

• cumaean sibyl
• sibyl (general)
• sibyl film
• Oracle- super hero
• Sibyl book

Clithonic: relating to the underworld

people who die are knows as Shades in the Greek underworld

"pada ata lane pad not ogo old wart alan ther tale feur far rant lant tal told" pg 188

Arrant: 'and her pale fire she snatches from the sun'

#11111

Kubla Khan by STC poem

Vanessa Atalanta: Metamorphosis- Red Admiral/ Red Admirable

Kinbote's family:

• Dad: Alphin the Vague
• Mom: Blinda
• son: Charles
• wife: Disa

Hazel: The Ugly Duckling

T.S. Eliot's 4 Quartets is where one can experience religious transcendence

FYI

"The starving chemist in his golden views Supremely blest."

~Alexander Pope on alchemy, from Essay on Man (ep. II, l. 269)

I'm not going to lie and tell you this is one of my favorite quotes by Pope, but this mention in the commentary is interesting. All Kinbote tells you is that it is a 'Popian line' that the reader can look up in any college library. He really doesn't tell you any more than that. Thanks again Kinbote, you are ever so helpful.

Cicadas

so you will be one of 3 out of 300:

My paper topic:

While rereading Pale Fire, I was struck with an interesting and funny paper topic. I would like to take the first canto of Shade's poem, and write my own commentary! I will do exactly as Kinbote does, taking his beautiful poem and destroying it by connecting it to my own life! I will tell stories that I am reminded of by each line, and use Kinbote's commentary whenever necessary. I'm not sure if this topic is Sexson-approved, I will have to ask, but I think it'd be something fun and interesting to write about in my very last Sexson class in college.