| I always saw Pale Fire as somewhat of self-parody, which made me enjoy it more. Seven years before Pale Fire came out, Nabokov was working on his translation of Eugene Onegin. Often, people argue that a translated novel should have no end/footnotes, because a "good translation" should read "naturally" to a reader. Nabokov disagreed, and wrote an article that included the phrase: > "I want translations with copious footnotes, footnotes reaching up like skyscrapers to the top of this or that page so as to leave only the gleam of one textual line between commentary and eternity." [1] Quite a fun image, and one he took somewhat seriously, as his endnote commentary for Onegin is more than twice as long as the translation itself! [2] So, for me personally, I can't imagine a world where he didn't reflect on his own zeal here, and realize "I think there's a novel idea in here somewhere!" [1] "Problems in Translation: Onegin in English." Partisan Review 22, no. 4 (1955): 512. [2]
https://secondstorybooks.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/136717... |
At that point in his life, I think he knew well that a work like this would be devoured by his fans and vivisected by academics. He alone knew how deep the maze went and the layers of arcane tricks he was pulling. For example, see:
https://thenabokovian.org/classics/barabtarlo-fa84 via https://thenabokovian.org
Also, https://thenabokovian.org/forum/6 and https://thenabokovian.org/nabokv-l for 25+ years of a Nabokovian mailing list.
It's all imbued with a cruelty that some of the very brilliant enjoy displaying.