Judgement Day Pale Fire Journal Judgement Day Pale Fire Journal | Page 3

Letter from the Editors
For the past three months, a group of students at Oakland University
have been working to interpret a book that has been deemed uninterpreta-
ble. This novel, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, challenges not only its
readers with its convoluted structure and plotline but challenges the entire
dynamic of the literary and scholarly world.
The task of ‘interpreting’ the novel had proven itself to be both frus-
trating and rewarding, and helped the students learn a lot about their read-
ing and writing skills. All of the details that made one interpretation possible
could be all eliminated with details from another interpretation, and two
very plausible interpretations sometimes came in direct contradiction to
each other. To combat this problem, students would try and compile as
much information as possible about each side of the argument, and pre-
sented it in a non-biased manner.
The set of essays present in this journal are just one set of interpre-
tations the students were faced with. It was tackling the subject of whether
or not the protagonist, a man named Charles Kinbote, was a crazed lunatic
or really just a dear friend with an immense secret. For each interpretation,
all sides of the story were to be examined, and no defining conclusion was
to be made. Instead, the writers simply were to present all of the evidence
available. However, just as it was with every interpretation for this book, it
would have been impossible to conclusively say which interpretation was
correct! That is because the novel itself was designed to be uninterpreta-
ble, and that is the only true interpretation possible.
We hope you enjoy reading through our views on this wonderfully
written book. Hopefully, by reading through the creative pieces of work
compiled here, you will understand how intelligent this novel is, and may
yourself be inspired to pick up Pale Fire and read it for yourself.
Editor in Chief: Alexis Hart
Assistant Editor: Shelby Ettinger
Designer: Michael Prestininzi
Graphics: Rachel Hund
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