Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 11

the Goldsworth house and those “pert pictures irritated me such to an extent
that I finally gathered them one by one and dumped them all in a closet” (83).
Those pictures of the Goldsworth girls made us reflect on our own days in the
closet and just how uncomfortable and irritating it was. Alas, our transition was
not received warmly by our mother, and in turn left us estranged from our fa-
ther. Just this year we were kept from his birthday party, even though “it was my
birthday too – small difference of sixteen years, that’s all” (161). We would ask
the judges to keep an open mind during our game, and consider that “later in
life we learn that we are those ‘others’” (164).
Team Non Compos Mentis: Hahahahaha helloooo. Great to see everyone It’s
been awhile; [Announcer interjects: we have never seen this individual before]
hope you are all well I know I am. Let me tell ya why I deserve this gold. By the
way this is a beautiful arena, it reminds me of when “we sat in a cell of walnut
and glass” (17) with all the refractions of light and shadow through the glass win-
dows. I have never been so excited for anything like I’m excited for this tourna-
ment. Well, except maybe when Shade was writing his poem, yeah it “proved to
be utterly agonizing and uncontrollable and led me to indulge in an orgy of spy-
ing which no considerations of pride could stop” (87). I find that most things in
life are uncontrollable so that’s why I don’t try to control myself. Hey have you
ever had nightmares? I have. I would be “moving from window to window, my
silk nightcap drenched with sweat, my bared breast a thawing pond, and some-
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