Pale Fire Index

I was flipping through the index of Pale Fire to see if I had missed anything the first time through, because honestly I didn’t want to read the index the first time. I did on this late night finger through the pages of the index like someone that only has a dictionary in the room with them. There are words and references in the index that never really make it into the story, or are a continuation of the story kinda like how the Silmarillion complements the Lord of the Rings novels. Just starting in the A’s I have found names of people that weren’t necessarily in the book, but obviously had a big part in the mind of the man that wrote the foreword and commentary. Iris Acht was an actress that was strangled by a ninety year old member of the Shadows. That’s hilarious. There is also an entry for crown jewels that says to reference hiding place. When you go to hiding place it gives you an old English-Russian word, potaynik, which literally means hiding place. I couldn’t find the definition of potaynik in the standard dictionary, so I had to look to other Kinboteans on the internet for the answer. Then after I found the answer, I scrolled farther through the index I found an entry for potaynik that reads taynik, which is the modern English version of the word. These entries in the index form a web of mass delusion that really brings out the comedy of the novel right at the end.

Kinbote really sticks it to the Shade family in the index. As it is strongly alluded to in the text, Charles Kinbote is madly in love with John Shade. This notion becomes greatly reaffirmed within the index. In alphabetical order Hazel is the first to be measured by Kinbote. Hazel “deserves great respect, having preferred the beauty of death to the ugliness of life.” Even in though Kinbote may construe facts a little differently, he still could see that Hazel Shade was an ugly, ackward person for which he has no more compassion for. He does give her a relativily respectful line in the index in respect for John I’m sure. Since, other than the poem itself, Kinbote is the only real way we know about Hazel, will just have to take him on his word. Next John Shade gets his debut in the index and takes up over a page. Throughout this ramble it just fragments how influential Kinbote was to the life of John Shade. “His sunset rambles with K, K’s influence seen in a variant, K’s drawing S’s attention to a pastel smear crossing the sunset sky.” Kinbote shows with this index his second biggest dream other than Zembla. The last of the Shades gets the best reference of all. Sybil Shade’s entry consists of two words: wife, passim. (picnic, lightning) Kinbote’s discontent for Sybil shines through in these words. Passim meaning showing up here and there, Kibote feels that she really doesn’t play a significant role in this story.
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