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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB BotM August: PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
 
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Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

Enfys posted:

I have just started this and read the forward.

Sorry if I'm being really dense and all these things are obvious, but I get the impression that Kinbote wasn't that close a friend of Shade as he makes himself out to be (or believes himself to be). He comes across a bit stalker-y with his descriptions of watching Shade's foot through the upstairs window every night and other scenes that are him describing what he saw while watching Shade rather than interacting with him.

I also get the impression Shade isn't as amazing and well-regarded as a genius as Kinbote makes him out to be.

Yeah. I also think it comes across pretty clearly that while Kinbote presents himself as a great friend of the Shade family, Shade's wife despises and distrusts him and he returns the sentiment.

That's one of the parts of the book I found problematic, actually -- with his obsession with sexy boys and woman-hating, Kinbote is a bit of a '50s stereotype of a homosexual. Still, it's not like Nabokov was likely to know better.

(Not reading the book right now but I've read it a couple times already.)

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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB BotM August: PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov