Maija’s Reviews > Pale Fire > Status Update

More and more intrigued—message in Hazel’s notes and the faculty letter suggesting he is unqualified (he is, especially noting a typo in the line note “Lit) and “known to have a deranged mind.” Is this true? Is he genuinely insane??? I need to know more about what’s happening and what his deal is so bad

Commentary more interesting, seems to be a tie between Kinbote’s Zembla ramblings and Shade’s death. Notable contradictions in poem and Kinbote’s interpretation and blatant disinterest in contents (such as Hazel) as opposed to own contextually irrelevant ramblings. Nonetheless still very intriguing and Kinbote’s obsession is further intriguing—did Shade know? Sybil definitely did

Canto II is still my fav, but more cracks appearing in the narrator’s commentary aside from just the hints in the Foreword. Been flipping back and forth between the poem and the commentary and I’m intrigued by how they connect… a LOT of irrelevant tangents about Kinbote (symbiote?) himself and Zembla but I feel like there’s more than meets the eye given his clear instability.

Narrator in foreword is displaying a vaguely similar obsession that HH had for Dolores in Lolita. Definitely an unreliable narrator; some intentional typos too? And a vague mystery already established in his lacking explanations. An ego there, believes the poem NEEDS the commentary to be fully realized or sum bs