I think that I want to talk about the role of the critic in our texts. I had a better word for it half an hour ago, but oh well. It is obviously everywhere in Pale Fire, but it has also been in other things we have read. It is in The Idea of Order at Key West. Ramon Fernandez is mentioned in the poem, and he was a French literary critic who later worked for the French Nazi government. Then there is the whole thing in the poem about how we attempt to describe what we see in nature, and we come close, but we aren't to describe it exactly the same way. But in the end this doesn't matter a ton because our interpretation is what we think is beautiful and what we go with. I think the majority of the people had a different opinion at the beginning of the semester, but as a scientist that is what I see. I would have to root around for a little bit to flesh out my ideas, but criticism is in The Biographer's Tale. And if this isn't enough I could also talk about Hedda Gabler. But I think Pale Fire would be first and foremost in the essay. Not only is Kinbote a critic, but criticism is present in the poem and elsewhere.

It is kind of vague at this point, but I don't think it was an accident that a large number of the texts we have read have included literary criticism as a part of the story.

I think I might hazard a guess as to where the crown jewels are. I think the crown jewels are in our hands whenever we read the book. I think the crown jewels is the poem, with Kinbote later making up the story of the jewels as a parallel for the poem.

But I think that this might contradict something else I have been thinking about. Everything in the book has Kinbote saying that the poem fell one line short. But what if it was too long, one Canto too long. I don't think Canto Four fits with the others, the tone is just completely different. I reread it a couple times and it feel like Nabokov is permeating the story and writing about the development of his ideas. I think it is cleverly written, but it feels like the end passage of the book where Kinbote gives a description of himself that is exactly like Nabokov. Kinbote describes Shade as writing long into the night, but in Canto Four it is said that "My best time is the morning" (873). Kinbote has a note to this line, but it is about Gradus, not the inconsistency. Then there is the two lines "Man's life as commentary to abtruse/Unfinished poem. Note for further use." (939-940). You could easily argue that the poem was purposefully left at 999 lines by Shade/Kinbote/Gradus (they are the same person, with Shade being the ideal and Gradus the floor, with Kinbote desiring to be like Shade yet pulled down by his similarity to Gradus.) . But you could also argue that this is Nabokov brain storming for ideas that became Pale Fire, and that the poem ended at the end of Canto Three, and was unfinished because Shade didn't fully expand on his faint hope. Another part of this disjointed note I am writing is the tryptich image on line 381, hinting that the poem should have been a three canto poem. The last major point would be lines 957-962, as Nabokov started titling his books poetry collections Poems after the first couple collections he wrote. I tried looking and couldn't find it, but I would be willing to bet money that Dim Gulf, Night Rote, and Hebe's Cup(Herculeus' wife as a god) have something to do with his writing. There is a lot more I could use to support this idea I think, but I got it written down.

Another random note, but either Vonnegut took his idea for Slaughterhouse-Five from Pale Fire, or both Nabokov and Vonnegut read the same thing that gave them the same idea. Both the main characters try to create stories that make their lives seem far more interesting and fantastic than what they are. And on page 236 Kinbote writes "So it goes".