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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Clever, funny, tons of allusions, but are those painfully long descriptions of the King of Zembla and his journey really worth it and enjoyable after 200 pages? I don't know, not really.
3,5/5
3,5/5
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
What an incredible ending to my little Nabokov adventure this year. If you've never read anything by him, read as much as possible before this one. I caught references to both Pnin and Lolita (and maybe thematic references to Invitation to a Beheading), and surely missed the ones to his other works that I haven't read.
It took a little while for me to see the plot start to cohere, but when it did--when the book pivoted from being fascinating but somewhat aimless formalist metafiction to being a thriller with richly developed characters and conflicting motives--I realized what a masterful piece of storytelling it is.
Finally, I found it interesting to consider the influence of this book on Infinite Jest in the use of footnotes in each case...
It took a little while for me to see the plot start to cohere, but when it did--when the book pivoted from being fascinating but somewhat aimless formalist metafiction to being a thriller with richly developed characters and conflicting motives--I realized what a masterful piece of storytelling it is.
Finally, I found it interesting to consider the influence of this book on Infinite Jest in the use of footnotes in each case...
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was on something of a Nabokov kick years ago, but according to Goodreads, said kick has been dormant for about six years. Why I chose to read Pale Fire now, I'm not sure, but I think the period of dormancy made me appreciate and admire and enjoy Nabokov all over again.
Words rescued from obscurity (knickknackatory!) and phrases so surprising as to be almost dizzy-making (walked a sick bat like a cripple with a broken umbrella). Characters so larger-than-life weird whose delusions (?) of grandeur, petty grudges, and creepy obsessions can't be contained by the typical novel's structure and spill out instead into a commentary and an index. Nabokov is just really fun to read, and I'm now 100% in agreement with those who consider Pale Fire his best and most Nabokovian.
As a side note: I started out reading this as an ebook, which was hella foolish of me. Future readers, learn from my idiocy! Hold Pale Fire in your hands and read it as it deserves to be read, with much fluttering of pages and back-and-forthing between the poem and the notes.
Words rescued from obscurity (knickknackatory!) and phrases so surprising as to be almost dizzy-making (walked a sick bat like a cripple with a broken umbrella). Characters so larger-than-life weird whose delusions (?) of grandeur, petty grudges, and creepy obsessions can't be contained by the typical novel's structure and spill out instead into a commentary and an index. Nabokov is just really fun to read, and I'm now 100% in agreement with those who consider Pale Fire his best and most Nabokovian.
As a side note: I started out reading this as an ebook, which was hella foolish of me. Future readers, learn from my idiocy! Hold Pale Fire in your hands and read it as it deserves to be read, with much fluttering of pages and back-and-forthing between the poem and the notes.
8.5/10 bruh is too smart I need to read this again in 10 years
Pale Fire is one of a rare few books I've read where I am actively mad at the narrator - a thing that it is well aware of, and is in fact one of it's greatest strengths and a part of its intent. I've read a handful of this style of layered ergodic literature - a commentary on a nonexistent novel, like House of Leaves or S., and while the gap between the interpreter's interpretation and the novel itself is nearly always the point of this style of frame story, Kinbote's ruthless need to reinterpret Shade's story such that it is the thing that he needs it to be is the core of this story far more than a murder mystery or a political drama, and it is a deeply haunting and disturbing core. I am a deep believer in the literary use of death of the author, I am deeply skeptical of readings of works and poems with a clear focus on the author's personal biography (ie, the idea that a poem must, in some way, be 'true' to the experience of its author) and I firmly believe that the reading of poetry is often deeply personal and one can find connection and personal readings even in a poem that is deeply personal for the author - a thing that is often the point of poetry, in many cases! - all things that should, clearly put me on Kinbote's side. I should, by all rights, see his insistence that Shade's work is about Zembla as reflective of a personal reading that is valid in the way that many different readings and interpretations of a text are - but it is his denial, completely, that Shade could be writing about his own life, his insistence that his version of the text and reading is the correct one (hence the extremely long footnotes and annotations that make up the bulk of the novel!) and the use of his position as narrator to support this, and the sheer unreliability inherent in his depictions of his own relationships with Shade as a friend that make me distrustful, resentful, and actively upset at his continued commentary. The bullheaded refusal to see the poem as it is, in fact, often does not acknowledge its more powerful pieces - canto 3 as a response to the death of Shade's daughter, and the joking, light way that it discusses death, for example.
There's a degree to which we live in a world of audience entitlement - and while I (as a writer myself!) do not hold the intent of the author as the end all be all of a work, there is a real way in which Kinbote's response to the poem Pale Fire reflects this type of audience entitlement and is, in many ways, deeply familiar. The idea that you should be allowed to influence a work, that your interpretation is the only one that's valid, the sphere of fan-theory and speculation and prediction are all related to this type of engagement with a work. While I know only the basic history of Nabokov's life, and I do not know if Pale Fire is, in any way, a response to his own fame or the response that his readers had to his work, it's a theme that I think has a deep amount of relevance for this reason, which is both likely why I had the response to it that I did and the reason that I will continue to think of it regularly going forward. Again, while I do not know much about Nabokov's life, finishing this book - about a poet's work being published posthumously by a person without the poet's best intent at heart - and seeing in the back of my book an advertisement for Nabokov's final novel, published posthumously, was a little haunting.
On a structural level, Nabokov is, obviously, well known as a master stylist for a reason. To write a 4-canto poem in iambic pentameter, with absolutely gorgeous usage of language and a feat all on its own, that nonetheless serves as the backbone of the story that is built off of it and must, therefore, also include appropriate thematic, literary, and literal references that will carry forward for Kinbote to comment on is an absolutely massive feat, and one that is executed beautifully. The titular Pale Fire is a delight to read in and of itself, and despite my dislike for Kinbote, his prose voice is enjoyable to read. The pseudo-fantasy, psuedo-historical descriptions of Zembla are wonderful, and Nabokov clearly understands deeply how Zembla's incongruencies influence Kinbote and his viewpoint deeply. Pale Fire is, frankly, upsetting to read due to many of the intentional themes therin, but is beautifully constructed, and deeply haunting. I look forward to reading more of Nabokov's works!
There's a degree to which we live in a world of audience entitlement - and while I (as a writer myself!) do not hold the intent of the author as the end all be all of a work, there is a real way in which Kinbote's response to the poem Pale Fire reflects this type of audience entitlement and is, in many ways, deeply familiar. The idea that you should be allowed to influence a work, that your interpretation is the only one that's valid, the sphere of fan-theory and speculation and prediction are all related to this type of engagement with a work. While I know only the basic history of Nabokov's life, and I do not know if Pale Fire is, in any way, a response to his own fame or the response that his readers had to his work, it's a theme that I think has a deep amount of relevance for this reason, which is both likely why I had the response to it that I did and the reason that I will continue to think of it regularly going forward. Again, while I do not know much about Nabokov's life, finishing this book - about a poet's work being published posthumously by a person without the poet's best intent at heart - and seeing in the back of my book an advertisement for Nabokov's final novel, published posthumously, was a little haunting.
On a structural level, Nabokov is, obviously, well known as a master stylist for a reason. To write a 4-canto poem in iambic pentameter, with absolutely gorgeous usage of language and a feat all on its own, that nonetheless serves as the backbone of the story that is built off of it and must, therefore, also include appropriate thematic, literary, and literal references that will carry forward for Kinbote to comment on is an absolutely massive feat, and one that is executed beautifully. The titular Pale Fire is a delight to read in and of itself, and despite my dislike for Kinbote, his prose voice is enjoyable to read. The pseudo-fantasy, psuedo-historical descriptions of Zembla are wonderful, and Nabokov clearly understands deeply how Zembla's incongruencies influence Kinbote and his viewpoint deeply. Pale Fire is, frankly, upsetting to read due to many of the intentional themes therin, but is beautifully constructed, and deeply haunting. I look forward to reading more of Nabokov's works!