Nabokov: Pale Fire

gordon meuse · 16 Apr 2003, 18:29 · from urth-v0304.mbox · original

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From: "gordon meuse" <gordanus at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Nabokov: Pale Fire
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 18:29:16 +0000
Message-ID: <urth-v0304-3196 at digest.urth.net>
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For those who have either read "Pale Fire" or have attempted it and put it=20
down, I highly recommend "Nabokov's Pale Fire", by D. Boyd. I admit that I=20
read it before I read Pale Fire, but it is such a good read itself and=20
quotes extensively from Pale Fire itself. It attempts to solve one of the=20
most complicated literary puzzles ever. His solution is complex and almost=20
unbelievable, but very well-documented. You will never read Nabokov the sam=
e=20
ever again.






>From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <katbarx at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: urth at urth.net
>To: urth at urth.net
>Subject: Re: (urth) Nabokov: Pale Fire
>Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 09:10:10 -0700
>
>Rostrum writes (excerpt, excerpt):
>
>>I was also surprised that [Pale Fire] was not a hard book to read,
>>certainly not as hard as some of Wolfe's.
>
>Alternative view: I tried three times to read PALE FIRE and never
>once succeeded in getting more than 20 pages into it. It is, to me,
>one of the most opaque pieces of writing in the world. Which was a
>damn shame, as I could see that there's a lot of stuff in there that
>I would enjoy -- would "tickle the Wolfe pleasure centers" -- but
>Nabokov's writing lies in a range that I can't process for some
>reason.
>
>(I'll try again in a few years, I'm sure. Sometimes things like
>this suddenly clear up. The first few times I tried to read Charles
>Harness's THE ROSE -- which, by the way, I recommend very, very
>highly -- I had the same experience; when I turned 30 it suddenly
>became a transcendant reading experience. Some things I just have
>to grow into, I guess.)
>
>
>>The only drawback is it might make you more self-conscous about spinning=20
>>theories about Wolfe's stories.
>
>I suppose that some people might consider this a drawback. 8*)
>
>Hey, has anyone mentioned THE NAME OF THE ROSE as a rather Lupine
>book in many ways?
>
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>--


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