''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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is left-handed (180) and he is a homosexual.
Most remarkable and conclusive in this connection
is the fact that there are moments when all differences
become insignificant and when Kinbote is caused
"to undergo an evolution toward Shade and toward Nabokov"73,
moments when he utters opinions that are in
perfect keeping with Shade's convictions, and which,
when traced beyond Shade, take one to their common
creator. Among these is his condemnation of Gradus
and Gradus' belief in "general ideas" (152); among
these is also his failure to comprehend "how and why
anybody is capable-of destroying a fellow creature"
(279).
Most striking, however, are certain pronouncements
which are proofs of Kinbote's great sensitivity to
art and of his ability to be quite naively amazed
and delighted by the "miracle of a few written signs"
that can create new worlds and new destinies (289). Art
has for him nothing to do with "average reality": Reality
is neither the subject nor the object of true art"
(130). Art creates a special reality of its own, and
whatever a poet chooses to turn into art will come
to life, will become true and "real" (214), though
in a different way from the "average 'reality' per-
ceived by the communal eye" (130). All these are, of
course,, favourite preoccupations, likes and dislikes
of Nabokov himself. He hands them down to Shade, this
"greatest of invented poets"74 being one of his "more
responsible characters", to some of whom, Nabokov
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admits, he gives some of his own ideas. That they