Kimbote In Pale Fire

Whether one is attempting to glean the hidden meanings within the 999 lines of Pale Fire or determine the sanity and identity of the narrator, a great number of mysteries still surround Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire. Many theories have been put forward by various academics, including those who were close to Nabokov, that helps to reveal the identity of Kinbote; many of the ideas revolve around Kimbote being a made up fictional character created for Shade’s novel, while another puts forward the idea that Kinbote is the full author who fabricates Shade for his own narration. However, what this essay will do is discuss a lesser-known colleague of Shade—V. Botkin. Botkin does not appear very often in Pale Fire, but I believe, and what this …show more content…
The index points to the commentary after it talks about a disgusting maggot: “maggot of extinct fly that once bred in mammoths and is thought to have hastened their phylogenetic end, 247” (Nabokov 306). Once again, when examining line 247 commentary, one finds that Botkin is not explicitly in the scene. Instead, the text describes the feelings that Sybil, the poet Shade’s wife, has for Kinbote: “[f]rom the very first I tried to behave with the upmost courtesy toward my friend’s wife, and from the very first she disliked and distrusted me. I was to learn later that when alluding to me in public she used to call me ‘an elephantine tick; a king-sized botfly; a macaco worm; the monstrous parasite of a genius” (Nabokov 171-72). This description is not of Botkin, but the index claims it is. Now that Botkin may occupy the same space as the annoying, parasitic friend, the line between Kinbote and Botkin is becoming even blurrier. The third section that mentions Botkin comes from the index’s reference to line 71 that is proceeded by, “bottekinmaker” (Nabokov 306). The commentary makes mention of Botkin as a name that derived from a profession; in this case, bottekin are “fancy footwear” (Nabokov 100). Nothing more of note is in this section and the text does not give a hint to why this is important except that the name is used again when it is not needed. In fact, from a narrative …show more content…
However, what is interesting is a mention of Botkin in the text that is not included in the index. When describing Prof. Pnin, a parenthetical commentary is made describing the fortunes of Botkin in commentary to line 172: “happily, Prof. Botkin, who taught in another department, was not subordinated to that grotesque ‘perfectionist’” (Nabokov 155). Here is another insertion of the character, and one may find it particularly interesting that the narrator is relieved that Botkin not in Pnin’s department. Why would Kinbote feel relieved? The answer is that the narrator is actually Botkin. This is further evidenced by Botkin’s mysterious first name that starts with a “V.” The first name is fascinating because in the King of Zembla’s index entry, it lists his full name as Charles Xavier Vseslav. Interestingly, the text only mentions the name Vseslav in the index, and because we have already discussed how the Kinbote/Botkin character is blurred together, it is reasonable to think that Vseslav could be Botkin’s first name. A quick digression (as is appropriate for an essay that speaks on Pale Fire): Xavier Vseslav is an anagram for “vex,” “rivals,” and “vase.” This may be another clue into Botkin’s identity. Botkin, or Kimbote, is vexing to the Shades, and as another professor, Botkin may be a rival to Shade. Vase could be a reference to a Rubin Vase, which is a