Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov Discussion
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- When I'm editing these videos, I always find so many things about the book I didn't say. There's definitely way more to be said about Pale Fire than I included in this video!
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A lot of people miss the humor in Nabokov, for me it's one of the main attractions.
How can one miss it haha. He's a comic writer from start to finish.
kinbote's entire paragraph about him shaking hands with shade 😭
one of the more interesting motifs in the work, to me, is of parasites & artistic parasitism;
it gave the title of the poem's OG context a thematically resonant throughline that helped me appreciate the book by the time i was done (like 40 min ago lol)
from Timon of Athens-
“The moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.”
Great discussion! When Kinbote’s outlandish narrative crumbles away in the final pages, don’t forget that the Index is also part of the meta narrative. It hints at a more prosaic reality that Kinbote is a mousy faculty member named V. Botkin and that all the flamboyant Kinbote/King of Zembla stuff is his delusion.
What a good, insightful discussion of my favorite novel! One of the consolations of getting older is seeing young people "getting" works I discovered when I was young. Cheers me up. I think you'll enjoy Speak, Memory. Try some of his Russian books too -- I'd recommend Invitation to a Beheading to start with, then maybe The Gift.
Unfortunately in the edition I read there was a foreword (a real foreword note the one that is part of the book), that should have been a afterword, that was already telling that Kinbote was crazy. So one part of the fun of reading and starting to doubt Kinbote was never there for me. But I found him funny more that once. His total blindness to what could interest a reader of the comment of the poem is art by itself.
Great review! So interesting to hear what other people think about Pale Fire
Thank you for attentive, thoughtful yet also heartful review of Pale Fire, Caroline.:)
Love your summary, thank you
I remember reading this in college and finding it so confusing.
I later read The Eye, Nabakovs novela and become hooked on his style.
Pale Fire is the most entertaining Nabakov for me.
In Pale Fire we get a fictional foreword and commentary (Kinbote), and the autobiographical poem itself (which can very much be read all on its own)
We also get the implied story about the relationship between the poet, and the commentator/publisher
Kinbot's attempt at hijacking the novel with his own story and musings is too much, from the start.
It's also cool that Nabakov can write an 999 line poem that's merely a jumping off point for the bigger story about its writer and publisher
Then there's themes gosh, where do we begin...
There's so much jam packed into this book, and it aint even that long.
Overall super fun
Hi, what edition of Pale Fire do you display on this video?
Thanks for sharing your comments and thoughts.
what edition is this cover please? I would like to get it
I wonder if this poem is the sophisticated version of South Park's: "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls" 🤔I am sure it is more than that but I wonder of Matt Stone and Trey Parker had this book in mind when writing for that episode.
Not only kimbote doesn’t care about his death but at the beginning of the book he wishes Shade had a heart attack so he would he called into the house for coffee and chatting 😂
Btw I would suggest reading The real Life of Sebastian Knight which I feel has a similar layered and unreliable style to Pale Fire
Has Nabokov ever been interviewed or talked about this book's meaning? Surely he discussed it at some point?
I enjoyed this video. I wonder wether you have a goodreads account
You haven’t attracted any shady characters to make comments. After learning Canto 1 my health improved and I learned how to swim.
Read Bend Sinister, the greatest anti-totalitarian novel ever (sorry, 1984)!
Thanks for the rec!
PF is rambling, mocking, and flippant.