Vladimir Nabokov is an author who takes large inspiration form events that have transpired in his life. An example of this is the death of John Shade in his novel Pale Fire. In the novel Shade is an author who is killed by a man who misidentified him, thinking he was the novel’s main character, Charles Kinbote. This is strikingly similar to a real life event that hit very close to home for Nabokov. His father, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was shot and killed in Berlin, Germany by a Russian Monarchist who was trying to kill a leader of a Democratic Party. This type of even, as tragic as it is, can spark creativity that shapes how a story is told. Kimbote for example is a character that stands out in a crowd. His narcissism, skewed way of thinking, lack of empathy, the need to attach himself to others accomplishments, all make him so interesting. Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1899 and lived through the first world war, and was even in Germany in the late 1930’s when the Reign of Adolf Hitler was gaining momentum. Hitler was a narcissistic, evil, manipulative man. By delving deeper into both men’s characteristics there is evidence that Nabokov took inspiration from Adolf hitler while creating Kinbote.
So what makes Kinbote so similar to Hitler? Well for starters Kinbote is a very narcissistic man. He has a high regard for himself. He also has high views of his home land, Zembla. Zembla to Kinbote is like Germany to Hitler. Adolf believed that Germany was the greatest country in the world, that Germans were the purest ethnicity possible.
This is a very large assumption when you take into account the countless atrocities that Hitler commited. The focus is not to tie Kinbote to the acts that hitler committed but instead connect him to the characteristics that made Adolf who he was. Nabokov is a genius and finds great ways to sprinkle in small details that take some careful mining to discover. As mentioned before Nabokov takes inspiration from his real life events. Another tragic event that happened
in his life was the death of his brother. Sergey, Vladimir’s brother, was killed in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 for speaking bad about Hitler in public. This means that in some way Hitler took someone Vladimir loved away from him. This develops a sort of reason why Nabokov could have taken some inspiration from Hitler. An even took place in his life that was directly linked to Adolf and his reign of terror over Europe.
It is a pretty wild thought but I think it could carry some truth.
After reading the novel Pale Fire, I just do not understand for why Charles Kinbote seems to hate Sybil so much. Throughout the whole novel he treats her with little respect, and it got me to wondering to why is this the case, is it just the fact that she is a woman, and thus he believes her inferior to him, and to men in particular, or is there something deeper. I have reread certain passages throughout the book in hopes of getting an answer, and I just have not been able to identify any other reason for him hating her other than the fact that she is a woman. This just goes to show just how bad women throughout all over the world were most likely treated, and not just in the United States of America, or Zembla, or Russia. I just find it very atrocious how some people can believe themselves to be superior to another person just based on idiotic things such as gender, race and where you come from. Things like this should not matter, however, as one keeps on reading the novel you start to see the level of disdain he has for her even when she seems to do little to nothing wrong, and I just cannot hide my anger throughout reading all of this. It is interesting because in every novel that we have read so far we have seen in some way shape or form women being suppressed and being submissive when in the presence of men. For example In the novel We Have Always Lived In the Castle, Constance’s demeanor seems to completely change upon seeing Charles Blackwood again, such as letting him do almost anything he wants in the house. Next in the novel Tess of the D’urbervilles, even though Tess is the one who is raped by Alec D’urberville, it is her who gets blamed for the action, this is clearly demonstrated upon seeing Angel Claire’s reaction when Tess finally tells him what happened. Furthermore, in the novel Rebecca, the main character, the second Mrs.De Winter is willing to do almost anything for Maxim, even though he killed Rebecca, and buried her body. These novels just go to show some of the suffering that women have had to go through in society, and while they have indeed come a long way the fact of the matter is that women are still not treated equally in society, when compared to men. All of this gets me to wondering what other reasons do you guys have for why Charles Kinbote hate Sybil so much, is it just due to the fact that she is a women, or is there something else that you guys have found.
Alternate Cover for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Artwork by George Condo
In the story “Pale Fire” written by
Vladimir Nabokov, the novel is narrated and given extensive commentary from
Charles Kinbote. In the story, Kinbote is John Shade’s neighbor and works as a
literature professor. John Shade dies after producing his final Canto poems. Kinbote
finds himself lonely and psychologically unstable after the death of his
neighbor Shade. Kinbote feels inspired enough to edit Shade’s work and publish
the Canto’s and his own commentary together as one. Despite mounting criticisms
from Shade’s peers due to Kinbote’s lack of qualifications as a writer.
Kinbote
recounts several conversations he had with Shade throughout the story. In the
commentary Kinbote references back to specific instances from the Canto poems. Kinbote
explains the inspiration behind Shade’s writing process and why he wrote
certain lines. It gives readers a detailed insight on the creative process behind
the story. In Pale Fire Kinbote uses elements of poioumena to describe the creative
process for Shades creation of the Canto poems.
Poioumenon (noun): A specific type of metafiction in which the story is about the process of creation (sometimes the creation of the story itself
I
will be justifying the relation between Pale Fire and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy through a detailed poioumena
analysis discussing Kanye West’s creative process on this album. Kanye’s creative
work relates back to Pale Fire through similar creative inspiration caused by
psychological strain.
Both
Kinbote and West experience traumatic events that inspire the Canto’s
commentary and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kinbote experiences the
traumatic event of his neighbor John Shade dying, causing an inspiration to
create the Canto’s commentary.
Kanye
left the United states after experiencing the traumatic criticisms from the
world after cutting Taylor Swift off at the VMA Awards. This caused Kanye to
feel inspired with the concept for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West & Taylor Swift, 2009 VMA’s
Kanye’s self-destructive moment was a combination of an overworked
mental state, and never giving himself enough time to slow down after the
passing of his mother. Kanye had just kept touring and making music without
ever taking a break. At that point, Kanye decided to retreat and leave the
United States, on recommendation from his friend Mos Def. Kanye visited Japan
and Rome in hopes of refocusing.
During this time away from the world, Kanye started conceptualizing abstract melodies that would lead him back to music.
“He also admitted that he had beats in his head—ones that sounded like 808s melodies over Mobb Deep drums, no less—that he had to get out.”
Complex.com
When Kanye came back to the United States, he moved to the
island of Oahu in Hawaii. For 6 months Kanye rented out the entire Avex studio
in Honolulu Hawaii. In this time, Kanye would work between all 3 studios
available to him. Alternating between rooms if he became stuck or ran into a
creative block. He would switch rooms and begin working on a different song. “when he hits a creative
wall, as he does this evening, he heads to another studio room to make progress
on another song.” (Complex.com)
At these studios, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was
born. Kanye would fly out everyone that participated in the album. He even had
several creative inspirations like Chris Rock, Q-Tip and more celebrities in
attendance for these Hawaii sessions
Alternate Cover for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Artwork by George Condo
Kanye’s “Rap Camp” consisted of Kid
Cudi, Pusha T, Nicki Minaj, and RZA. All the other artists made their way into
the Hawaii studio sessions though. Kanye’s daily routine started with breakfast
together as a team. Discussing what they’ve done, what they can do better, and what
they’re going to do today. Then Kanye would exercise at the local YMCA by playing
basketball to let his energy out. “He’s just balling—this is his moment of Zen, when
the questions go away.” (Complex.com) Than
they would always try to do some type of charitable act to generate good karma.
Around 4pm, they would head out and typically spend 10 – 12 hours in the
studio. Then sleep and repeat. Most nights Kanye wouldn’t even sleep at the
house with everyone, instead he would power nap in the studios for 90-minute
intervals.
Kanye
created a vibe for these studio sessions and had his production team all
wearing black suits to portray a more professional and upper echelon style that
matched what the album was trying to portray. “All the engineer’s and everyone was in black suits,
white shirts, and black ties. Like he set up a mood that when you walked in
(the studio) you felt this” (Chris Rock, Sway Interview)
Kanye
had very specific studio rules. These rules controlled what types of content
were allowed in the studio and banning things that could potentially disrupt the
creative process. “What does elicit a visceral reaction—hard, heavy laughter—is the wall of
Kanye Commandments posted on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper on one side of the
studio.” (Complex.com) These rules allowed for complete focus on the music being
produced. Kanye’s concentrated focus during these sessions attributed to the
amount of detail that comes from each track on the project.
Kanye West’s Studio Commandments for the Hawaii Sessions
Kanye West’s 12 Studio Commandments
No Tweeting
No
hipster hats
All
laptops on mute
Just
Shut the Fuck Up Sometimes
No
Tweeting Please (Thank You)
No
Blogging
No
Negative Blog Viewing
Don’t
Tell anyone about anything we are doing!
Total
Focus on this project in all studios
No
Lacking focus when music is being played or music is being made
No
acoustic guitar in the studio
No
Pictures
With this album, Kanye
focused on every element that attributed to the project. Going for a Maximalist
approach. Kanye’s songs, production, visuals, and marketing on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
attributed to the creative process behind this album. Songs like Power,
Monster, and several others on the project include hundreds of hours of labor
behind each song. “When I think of competition it’s like I try to create against the
past. I think about Michelangelo, Picasso, the pyramids. That’s the reason why
I put 5,000 hours into a song like ‘Power.’ (hiphopdx.com)
“Kanye rapped like he never had before. He dropped more bars and more words prior to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy than any other album.”
Centralsauce.com
60 days prior to the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye was in work mode and pumped out hit after hit. Releasing 16 of his own songs and featuring on 17 songs from other artists. “MBDTF was Kanye’s most prolific as a guest AND lead artist; 33 tracks had Kanye’s name attached as a performer.” (Centralsauce.com) Comparing the amount of music that Kanye released prior to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with his last album. Kanye nearly doubled the amount raps that he made prior to 808’s & Heartbreaks.
Sourced from Centralsauce.com
This is an important
factor to emphasize in Kanye’s creative process, he was collaborating with more
influences, creating and crafting more music than ever before. It allowed Kanye
to showcase a culmination of all the music that had been created in
Hawaii.
Kanye also gave Pusha T full
creative range on anything he wanted to write on the project.
Pusha T: “He was like, ‘Hey, this is my album, I like how you rap, you can write to anything on this album. If it’s great, it’s great. If it’s not, it’s not. But, you know, you can have it all here. Take it.’…we played basketball every morning, we eat breakfast together every day, it got to the point once I realized that he was really letting me do what I want, write to his whole album, to everything I thought was great, I skipped basketball every day, I stopped eating breakfast with everybody.”
Djbooth.net
Push appeared in two of the album’s
standout tracks “Runaway” and “So Appalled”. Kanye had
always wanted to make a song that would toast all the douchebags in the world.
He envisioned it as his gym class anthem that would be celebrating the
asshole’s in everyone’s life. Kanye projected it as a song with strong 808
drums and incredible raps. This resulted in the song and full length film Runaway
Kanye and Pusha T worked on the
production for this record extensively. Kanye made Push rewrite his verse four
times, because he wasn’t putting enough “Douche” into it.
Pusha T: “I’m writing a verse, and I come back to the table, and it’s something that I’m feeling, and he’s like, ‘Naw, but I need more douche bag.’ And I’m like, ‘All right, man, c’mon.’ So, I go back, and he’s like, ‘Naw, more douche bag!’ He’s screaming at me ‘more douche bag’ at this point”
MTV.com
The intense workload and amount of
creative detail that came from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, along with
the other 33 Hawaii songs; combined with Kanye’s dedication for making the
artists around him tap into a deeper emotional level. Is what led Kanye West to
crafting countless cultural anthems at the time of My Beautiful Dark Twisted
Fantasy.
Kinbote dedicated this commentary to his beloved friend Shade. Like Kinbote’s creative process for creating the Canto’s commentary, Kanye shaped his idea for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy after the VMA incident. Kanye dedicated My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as a backhanded apology to the world through a project that the people had to love, and it worked flawlessly. “His goal was to deliver a “backhanded apology” with a classic album that was “80/20”; 80% what he wanted, 20% what he thought the fans wanted. (centralsauce.com). My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy won the Grammy award for “Best Rap Album” in 2011. (Grammy.com)
Kanye crafted his magnum opus with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and Charles Kinbote crafted his commentaries for Pale Fire. These creators have similar stories for the inspiration behind both these projects. Through this poioumena analysis, we have observed significant creative elements that attributed to process behind Kanye Wests album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Apparently, We Have Always Lived in the Castle was not Jackson’s only gothic/horror piece of writing. She wrote a short story (in under 2 hours) called The Lottery. It was once on multiple lists of banned books, and I guess it still is banned in certain libraries and schools.
The setting of the short story is also in a village. The folks who live their take part in an annual ritual where everyone collects piece of paper until someone is selected to be stoned to death.
It’s weird as hell, and the short film is a mind fuck as well.
I don’t mean to offend anyone with the title. I have nothing against gay people, I am one.
Anyway, we’ve spoken about this in class several times, but as a refresher, essentially Kinbote is a gay man who hates women, particularly one by the name Sybil.
The first time we get somewhat of a foreshadow to his hatred towards women is when he is depicted as a woman hater in a school play (25). It’s also in the Foreword where we we get hints that he might be into men. There are many circumstances where he’s clearly enjoys being surrounded by his younger students, and so much so that he gets in trouble for it.
On page 74, Kinbote refers to Sybil as a “domestic anti-Karlist” and suggest that she’s controlling. He does somewhat of the same on page 81 where he calls Sybil a “domestic censor.” It’s clear that he sees Sybil as the enemy. He blames her for John’s poem not outright depicting the stories that Kinbote had discussed with John during their “friendship.” This is more clearly stated and depicted by Kinbote on page 90. Also on page 91 where he says “victors are generous” which clearly implies that he’s competing against her in some way, shape or form.
He’s called women many things, like “creatures” and my “favorite” “medusa-locked hag.” (83) I’ve never heard that before. Very creative.
Anyway, I feel like this aspect of Kinbote is important because it’s a huge part of how his character is portrayed to be. It seems to me like he was forced to be a certain way earlier in his life, and he never got to be himself. He’s constantly looking to validate who he is, but in reality, he’s most likely not being his true self. He’s closed his real self off, and allowed another “Kinbote” to be. I feel like that’s why he speaks the way he does, kind of like in a smokescreen way. Constantly changing the subject and giving his opinions, and validating himself. Yet at times we get these outbursts of his feelings towards others and it’s very clear that 1. he likes men, and 2. he has something against women, which is why I believe religion most likely ruined his childhood -these are all my speculations-.
Nonetheless I found it really intriguing that John’s part of the novel has structure -as a poem- but it also has rhythm, and the content within it is of an openminded man who is trying to find answers, while Kinbote is the opposite. He throws and stomps his will on almost everything and everyone, he believes he knows everything, when in reality he does not. Perhaps that is why he gravitated towards John…?
Upon doing some research I discovered that in 1979 they made a movie of Tess based off the book. Although I have not watched it I plan on doing just that.
The main character in Rebecca is a very strong willed young woman. She also appears to be overly naive due to her young age. However she truly does love Maxim and he knows it but brushes her love aside. Rebecca hurt Maxim way more than she knew when they got married. I was not expecting for Maxim to reveal to her that he had shot and killed Rebecca because he was done with her shit. The book and movie make you wonder how long she truly had to live after being diagnosed with advanced cancer of her reproductive organs. If you ask me him killing her was less painful for both of them even though they never truly loved each other. Maxim also prevented himself from possibly truly loving Rebecca had she not been killed and died from the cancer instead. Rebecca knew after seeing the doctor that she would never bare any mans child due to her prognosis but felt it necessary to boast and lie to Maxim about carrying a child and him never knowing who the father was. In my opinion Rebecca got what was coming to her.
After reading the novel pale fire I see that the character created is absolutely insane. Nabokov is a brilliant writer with a slightly dark sense of humor. The character he creates of Kinbote is a complete loon who enjoys stalking his neighbor and having sex with his students. He is delusional in all means of the word. He needs help.
Did a little digging and stubbled across this movie that I definitely plan on going to see. Live action “We Have Always Live In The Castle” it’s coming out in under a month. May 17th is its release date. Trailer gave me chills looks like it was put together really well. It’s always great watching the movie and reading the novel, even better for us because we already read through and discussed the book it’ll be even more refreshing to see.
This is a bit late considering we’ve moved onto Pale Fire but I felt the need to dig deeper in the layout and Architecture of Manderley. If anyone’s been to Newport Rhode Island and toured the Mansions like the Breakers, Kingscote, Rosecliff etc. You will notice many similarities between the houses. The location of the estate reminded me of the Breakers because of it’s massive size and Costal presence. I really enjoyed a quote from chapter 27 that tied me into the comparison of the two mansions. “There was no moon. The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.” I have been to the Breakers during the evening and after reading Rebecca and that quote I felt a connection with the two and felt like I lived In that quote in a way. I also personally find the Gothic style architecture very interesting and I love finding examples of it in real life and in novels.
Intro to the Novel 2019 
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