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To Play with Pale Fire – Post 01
By Corvus | April 10, 2009
Pale Fire is a complex novel no matter how you approach it. It’s structure is almost startlingly odd and the content defies easy interpretation. It is clear, more so than in any of his other work, that Nabokov is actively challenging the reader to craft a meaningful fabula. Whether he is challenging the reader to do this in defiance of, or in collusion with, himself remains open to debate.
Before we get into that debate, however, let’s take a quick look at the structure of the novel. I’m going to avoid giving away too much about the novel’s plot and themes for reason that will soon become clear. I’d also suggest you avoid reading much else about it if you intend to read it.
The book opens with a forward written by one Charles Kinbote, a fictional character from within the novel. He explains that he is in possession of an unfinished manuscript by an American poet (and another fictional character from within the novel), John Shade. He describes how he came to be in possession of the manuscript and how he came to be friends with the poet. It becomes rapidly apparent that Kinbote is not a reliable narrator when in the last sentence of the third paragraph, in a heretofore very academic forward, he writes:
There is a very loud amusement park right in front of my present lodgings.
…and then continues with his scholarly assessment of the manuscript.
The forward devolves from there, becoming a highly subjective account of Kinbote’s relationship with John Shade and the residents of New Wye where they both lived before Shade’s death, which Kinbote hints might have been a case of mistaken identity on the behalf of an assassin.
Then we are treated to the John Shade’s 999 line poem in four cantos. It is a deeply personal poem–reflecting upon the stages of his life and his attempts to reconcile mortality with the existence of an afterlife. It is also, in my opinion, no where near as good a poem as I was anticipating after Kinbote’s raves about the “great American poet” John Shade.
The remainder of the book is ostensibly an in-depth analysis of the poem. It is worth noting that despite Kinbote’s insistence that his interpretation is the only valid one, the section is more accurately titled Commentary. Perhaps the decision of a fictional editor?
Regardless, it is through the commentary that the plot of the book becomes clear, as Kinbote describes the poet’s last days and his own role in the poet’s life. Of course, since the narrator is clearly unreliable, how much of what he claims is true can be believed is entirely up to the reader.
And it’s because of this that the themes of Pale Fire continue to delight and puzzle readers. There is much debate over the exact nature and reality of Charles Kinbote. It’s quite possible to take him at face value and accept his interpretation of events as reality. It’s also possible to take him as a madman and doubt his perceptions. It’s even possible to question his reality at all, attributing his existence to the whimsy of any number of other characters within the book.
My interest in the novel has less to do with any specific interpretation, but that Pale Fire is clearly structured to invite radical interpretations of the text, just like happens within the context of the text itself. So not only has Nabokov written a fictional treatise on the relationship between authorial intent and audience interpretation, he has done so in a way that almost forces the user into questioning the nature of that same relationship between themselves and Nabokov.
It is very revealing to take a particular detail about Nabokov into account when discussing the themes of Pale Fire. On his deathbed, he asked his wife to burn his final, incomplete, manuscript. He did not want something published under his name that he hadn’t finalized. The manuscript is written on index cards, just like Shade’s poem in Pale Fire. To my mind, this suggests Nabokov had a complicated emotional response to the audience’s ability to run wild with their interpretation of a text and I wonder, if on some level, he didn’t write Pale Fire in order to explore his feelings on the matter, or to launch a decades-long experiment in which every reader has played a part.
If you’ve been reading Man Bytes Blog for any length of time, it is likely of no wonder to you that I’m somewhat obsessive about this book. I believe that all storytelling efforts, from literature to video games and every medium in between, are a communication between author and audience. Further, I believe that authorial intent and audience interpretation are equally important aspects of the process, to the point of eclipsing every other aspect. So it is hardly surprising that my first original storytelling game is going to be based on Pale Fire and address the themes of control that exist therein.
How, exactly, I’m going to attempt this will be the subject matter of a great many posts over the coming months as I work to bring To Play with Pale Fire into existence.
Tagged:pale fire, project updates. | 5 Comments »
April 11th, 2009 at 2:08 am
Pretty excited to hear that. In fact, I am about to write a PhD-thesis on intermedial relations between literature and (video)games – and “Pale Fire” will be one of the novels I’ll be looking at. In fact, Warren Motte wrote in 1995 in “Playtexts” about “ludic literature” and took “Pale Fire” as one of his examples – especially because of the specific communication between author and audience. Don’t know if it will be of any use to you, but in any case, I’m looking forward to your game as well as your thoughts on it – and maybe a little exchange here and there.
April 12th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Thanks for that reference cbz, I’ll certainly be looking it up. I’d also be open to further exchanges about games and literature, so feel free to use the contact form to initiate some behind the scenes conversation if you’re interested.
April 12th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Pale Fire is a favourite of mine too, and I am really looking forward to your adaptation!
It’s curious: The reader is invited, early on, in the book, that he could (maybe should) read it in a non-trivial way, going back and forth the poem and commentary section. However, I remember doing it very scarcely.
Maybe your game does a better job transporting me more often between poetry and prose
April 13th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
It sounds like a very interesting project. I am familiar with Nabokov but have yet to read Pale Fire, a situation I plan to rectify in order to engage with upcoming posts
Best of luck!
June 6th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I finished Pale Fire by Nabokov now and I am curious about game idea as well. I had impression that the game in Pale Fire goes beyond “chess board”. Identifications of players are blurry. So blurry that they do not have stable names and cloth. The only stable things are their missions and characters. The characters do not evolve but change identities or split. This is metaphysics. What will the game pleasure be? To guess who is who and part of whom to fulfill mission? Etc.