/lit/ - Literature

>>18422487
>2021
>reading the commentary

The poem was shit, I don't know how it gets so much praise.

I don't have kids but this part stuck with me for many years since first reading it.

It was no use, no use. The prizes won
In French and history, no doubt, were fun;
At Christmas parties games were rough; no doubt,
And one shy little guest might be left out;
But let’s be fair: while children of her age
Were cast as elves and fairies on the stage
That she’d helped paint for the school pantomime,
My gentle girl appeared as Mother Time,
A bent charwoman with slop pail and broom,
And like a fool I sobbed in the men’s room.

>>18422487
Personally, I like Kinbote's part better because his delusions were funny. There's also the part where he translates the Zemblan Timon of Athen back into English, and later he's mad because he doesn't know which Shakespeare play the words 'Pale Fire' came from, when it's in the same text he translated.

>>18422507
It's well written, fits with the theme of the book anon and it's very simple and nice: about a man at the end of his life.
>>18422692
This was very sad, I really found it kind of interesting that even Kinbote thought that Shade was more motherly than sibyl
>>18422889
At first I found K very tedious but he grew on me as I read more of his rants not going to lie maybe I will re-read this book someday. Also, people forget that Gradus the lunatic is also a main character if you go through the index at the end of the book lol

Another thing: pale fire was used in 1969 for demonstrating concept of hypertext by the Ted Nelson who coined the term hypertext, hyperlinks etc, the referencing, cross-referencing gives this book a really warped feeling if you are reading the book multicursally that is.
This is the link of his Ted Nelson's hypertext demonstration: https://perma.pub/alpha/edward/openZRe7/fulfil
Ofcourse you can't read the whole book this way for copuriy purposes but one can notice the drastic difference in the design philosophy of HTTPS(our current internet) and project Xanadu (Ted Nelson's hypertext protocol, which used links that can be traced to its source)
Even though I said that Pale fire has a warped feeling but desu it's not too intense as using the internet in 2021 (now, that is subjecting yourself to disoriented,ahistorical thoughts with no end no start and no path or even chronology for eg: you will read a book top-to-bottom, front-to-back; how do you read the internet? Ponder on this)

Yadavji please stop harassing white people forums. You are not welcome here

>>18422507
The poem is bad on purpose

>>18424286
Noooo based Nabokov is such an amazing writer!!! Look at his exemplary literary criticisms against Modernist authors where he says "hack and fraud hack and fraud" over and over again!!

bump!

Yadavji, my bbc (big baluchi cock) has pierced the hymen of many slim hot brahmin indian women, why dont you write a poem of the invicibility of pakistani cock and the almost god-like status it has amongst your womenfolk?

>>18422507
>2021
>not understanding how to read Pale Fire

>>18425450
>"hack and fraud hack and fraud" over and over again!!
based dad nab. all is vanity

>>18422692
You realise the whole poem is a send-up of American poetry, right? Such as the faux-conversational clichés of 'no doubt', 'let's be fair', etc., used only to make the lines scan. The poem is as savage a satire on American 'culture' as the character of Charlotte Haze in Lolita.

>>18424286
I liked it

>>18428288
reading nabokov as satire is not only against his artistic spirit but also dismisses a world of richness. charlotte for example is almost the main character in lolita as she mirrors humbert in all the important thematic ways, creating the butterfly (or at least one of them) of the book.

>>18424286

Book 3 is kino.

bump!

>>18422487
Kinbote and Shade are the same person you fucking retard. Did you read the book at all? Honestly, people like you shouldn't be allowed to read the commentary; you should have only read the poem.

bump

>>18422487
Бecкoнeчный Tyпик is better

>>18431780
what's it about anon? will it ever be translated ?

>>18424286
It's only bad within the context of the book