Pale Fire: A Magazine in 12 Projects Group Three | Page 78

speare, might have been try- tion of whether stories can
ing to make the assertion stand on their own as re-
that all great literature takes treads of older stories, and
inspiration from what comes the quality and meaning of
before it. In my story, Nabo- stories that repeat other sto-
kov talks about world religion ries, is something that I feel
and Shakespeare, and tries to Nabokov was very concerned
say are with when writing Pale Fire,
‘retreads’. Nabokov illustrates and I wanted to explore that
this further for JJ by using the in this piece.
that
all
stories
imagery of the waxwing and
the window. He says that tak-
ing inspiration from other
stories
is
not
so
much
‘copying’ as ‘reflecting’, and a
reflection of something is its
own entity. Finally, the quote
from Timon of Athens at the
end is meant to be a meta-
phor for what Nabokov prob-
ably felt that he was doing by
copying Shakespeare, I.E the
moon (Nabokov) snatching
- SAM SUMMERS
his Pale Fire (story) from the
sun (Shakespeare). The ques-
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