I thought that Morgan’s alphabet book was quite an ingenious and fitting idea for a project on Pale Fire. It’s obvious that Nabokov sees significance in words and letters, judging by all of the alphabetized names and wordplay in Pale Fire. It also seems like many of the letters are in fact the first names of characters in the novel, almost as if Nabokov wanted to cover as many of the letters as possible. I wouldn’t put such intentions past a literary genius. If I remember right, the class was having trouble coming up with “I” words for you alphabet book. I’ve got one suggestion, although it is not a name specific to Pale Fire: you could use “infinite,” as the levels of reading the novel seem to be unlimited, and, as Dustin discussed, the human experience is one of multiple infinities. The word infinite is used in consecutive lines in the poem (122 and 123) as well. Also, you could use “immortality,” as immortality (especially in its relation to Hazel) is another important theme in the novel.
The connections that Isabel discovered between the Alder tree and Pale Fire were quite interesting as well. Isabel mentioned that green and red dye can be made out of the Alder tree, which is significant because green and red have substantial symbolic meaning in the novel. As Mary McCarthy points out in her essay, the traditional connotative associations of red and green are reversed in Pale Fire. In the novel, red is the color of salvation and green is the color of evil and pursuit, as Kinbote is saved by all of his supporters wearing red hats that are identical to his while two of Kinbote’s enemy’s, the extremist leader Uzumondov and the professor Emerald, are always described wearing green. It’s probably not a coincidence then that Nabokov includes Alder trees in the novel when they supply dyes of the complementary colors of red and green. This juxtaposition of opposites seems to occur often in Pale Fire, and the red vs. green idea can be connected to the Kinbote vs. Shade contrast – a topic large enough for its own entire paper.
Maria’s discovery as to the origin of Kinbote’s persona is fascinating. It was interesting to learn that several of Kinbote’s characteristics are identical to those of the four Scandinavian kings during the time that Nabokov wrote Pale Fire. Nabokov must have certainly been familiar with the Scandinavian kings at the time, and these connections with Kinbote’s description cannot be a coincidence. It’s a little surprising to learn that Nabokov would draw inspiration from actual people, though, as he claimed in one of his written interviews that none of his characters were “based” off of anyone in particular in real life. This specific instance, however, seems to be a little different. It is not so much that Nabokov created Kinbote specifically as a result of being inspired by the kings, but rather the character Kinbote was already conceived and Nabokov added in some of the traits of the current kings to reward the astute reader. This is yet another example of Nabokov hiding tiny gems in the text for the pleasure of his followers.
I thought Dustin’s discussion on the “formalism” method of criticism was especially appropriate for Pale Fire. Kinbote definitely follows this formalist model, as he gives the form of Zembla to Shade’s poem even though Shade had no intentions of involving the distant northern land in his poem. Kinbote’s criticism is valid nonetheless, as the poem itself is more important than Shade’s thoughts on it, even though Shade is the creator. It is what each individual reader in the audience sees in the poem that is important, and Kinbote happens to see references to his homeland all throughout the poem. Even though it is possible to take this type of commentary a little too far, I think Dustin’s formalist method is legitimate, as it is the audience that a work is ultimately trying to involve. The audience may or may not have the same interpretation as the author or poet, but what ultimately matters is that readers formulate their own connections to the text and draw from it a unique interpretation.
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