Finished #PaleFire
#VladimirNabokov
an old-fashioned melodrama with three principles: a lunatic who intends to kill an imaginary king, another lunatic who imagines himself to be that king, and a distinguished old poet who stumbles by chance into the line of fire, and perishes in the clash…
#PaleFire
#VladimirNabokov
Took photographs…
Whatever in my field of vision dwelt-
…hickory leaves, the svelte
Stilettos of a frozen stillicide
…printed on my eyelids’ nether side
Where it would tarry for an hour…two,
And while this lasted all I had to do
Was close my eyes to reproduce the leaves…
This man was a game title visionary! #Nabokov #PaleFire #Literature #HollowKnight #Silksong
Happy to report I dragged myself over the Zemblan finish line last week. Man, did March get away from me. I’m kicking myself I didn’t have the group assist found here. Still, here’s to finishing. Raising a half-gallon of Tokay for us all. #palefire #springtimeinzembla 🦋
Did you ever read a book that includes a forward and commentary and think, what is the writer of the analysis even talking about? That’s what Nabokov created with this meta fiction short novel. The results are pretty hilarious. 🤓
#BookSky 💙📚
#JustFinishedReading
#VladimirNabokov
#PaleFire
🦋 i did finish about a week ago (minus the index which I'll get to. accidentally ran out of March). Struggled to explain it to someone at a party the other day. another guest asked "did you like it?" "i did" "me too. kinbote is such a messy bitch." he is!! #palefire #springtimeinzembla
#PaleFire readying friends: how do you think Shade actually felt toward Charles? Did he actually enjoy his company, as the narrator would have us believe? Just tolerate him? Loathe him (as Sybil clearly did)? #SpringtimeInZembla 🦋
Hey #PaleFire gang, here's an interesting nugget: according to Wikipedia (I know), Nabokov's father was shot to death by a man who was trying to kill someone else. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimi...
Just finished #PaleFire. Wow. Wow.
Very glad I read it! And never would have if not for this group. Thanks much to @sosomanysarahs.bsky.social for organizing!
Caught up with #PaleFire last night. I was kind of disappointed that the narrator in fact is not writing near an amusement park; but, that seems to mirror his abandoning other delusions as well 🦋
Was excited to see the reaction to today's reading in the feed and am surprised that it's crickets. Are people avoiding spoilers, or are all the other first-timers running behind? #PaleFire
There happened to be in that letter one-only one, thank God-sentimental sentence: "I want you to know that no matter how much you hurt me, you cannot hurt my love," and this sentence (if we re-English it from the Zemblan) came out as: "I desire you and love when you flog me."
Nabokov must have enjoyed Carousel. #palefire
Very behind on #palefire because I was traveling. Plus every time I start reading I don’t get very far because I keep thinking “What a blowhard”. Good thing there is a catch up day coming.
“Everything had changed, everybody was happy. And he absolutely had to find her at once to tell her that he adored her, but the large audience before him separated him from the door, and the notes reaching him through a succession of hands said that she was not available; that she was inaugurating a fire; that she had married an American businessman; that she had become a character in a novel; that she was dead.” Excerpt From Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov
This writing is just gorgeous. #PaleFire
Caught up with #PaleFire for #bsbookclub ! It's a wonderful #SpringtimeInZembla :)
Loving this weird, funny book so far. I was missing New Wye for the last 50 pages or so but Zembla is an intriguing place... 🦋
Screenshot of text from Nabokov's "Pale Fire": "From the very first I tried to behave with the utmost courtesy toward my friend's wife, and from the very first she disliked and distrusted me. I was to learn later that when alluding to me in public she used to call me 'an elephantine tick; a king-sized bot-fly; a macao worm; the monstrous parasite of a genius'. I pardon her -- her and everybody."
In the last few days I have repeatedly fought the urge to post something like "Gah! Kinbote is SUCH A DICK!" and I'm glad I did because Sybil says it so much better. #PaleFire
Okay #PaleFire gang, I’m going to use this catch-up day to raise an issue that maybe was raised earlier (or even answered in the text!) but if so I missed it. How is it that Kinbote knows, or claims to know, so much about what’s going on in the king’s head?
#palefire 🦋
"all colors make me happy, even gray"
what a pleasing line.
kinbote jumps on it to point out the "coincidence" that shade would use that word considering he was about to be murdered by a gray guy but he describes the poet himself as "you bad gray poet, you" just a few pages earlier. 🤔
The anecdote about the royal who escaped because of all the impersonators sounds a lot like the real tale of Bonnie Prince Charlie. #palefire
Unpinning the old schedule post and repinning a new one, just to make sure the schedule is posting correctly.
Hashtags are #SpringtimeInZembla, #PaleFire, and 🦋.
[Me:] Fuck yeah, 'Pale Fire' book club is starting, LFG
[checks reading schedule, sees that it started on Saturday, not Monday]: oh shit
#SpringtimeInZembla #PaleFire #bsbookclub
Canto 2 is very sad. But I thought this was humorously true:
(some phony modern poem that was said in English Lit to be a document “Engazhay and compelling”—what this meant Nobody cared)
#palefire
What secrets did the “depth charge” of the death reveal, what were the “so many dead fish” that floated up and forced him to leave? This is the early 60’s? Maybe something to do with all the “boys” at his house? #palefire
Did you notice he recalled seeing Shade burning drafts in the “pale fire” of the incinerator? #palefire
“There is a very loud amusement park right in front of my present lodgings . “
Lol!
#palefire
Was Nabakov one of those teachers who advised not to use too many adjectives? Because the use of adjectives in the introduction is hilarious. #palefire . 🦋
Pale Fire by Seine during my residency in Paris #sofiahärdig #palefire #newsingle #indiemusic #altrock #artpop #alternativemusic #train #trip #paris #residency #gothicrock
I did even change from my pyjamas… #sofiahärdig #newsingle #palefire #altrock #artrock #artpop #gothicrock #alternativemusic #independentartist #postpunk #newwave #postrock
THANK YOU ALL ✨✨✨#sofiahärdig #palefire #newsingle #indiemusic #altrock #artpop #alternativemusic #postpunk #nowave #newwave #artrock #gothicrock #artrock #review
